Prematurity in Scientific Discovery

by Hook, Ernest B.

• ISBN13: 9780520231061
• ISBN10: 0520231066
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

A collection of essays by pre-eminent scientists and historians and philosophers that reviews biologist Gunther Stent's idea of "prematurity" to explain why many scientific claims and theories later recognized as significant discoveries were initially ignored or dismissed by the scientific community.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
List of Contributors	xix
PART ONE Introduction
A Background to Prematurity and Resistance to ``Discovery''	3	(19)
Ernest B. Hook
Prematurity in Scientific Discovery	22	(15)
Gunther S. Stent
PART TWO Observer and Participant Accounts
Prematurity, Nuclear Fission, and the Transuranium Actinide Elements	37	(9)
Glenn T. Seaborg
Resistance to Change and New Ideas in Physics: A Personal Perspective	46	(13)
Charles H. Townes
The Timeliness of the Discoveries of the Three Modes of Gene Transfer in Bacteria	59	(11)
Norton D. Zinder
Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science	70	(17)
Oliver Sacks
PART THREE Historical Perspectives
SECTION A: Relatively Unproblematic Examples
Prematurity and Delay in the Prevention of Scurvy	87	(5)
Kenneth F. Carpenter
A Triptych to Serendip: Prematurity and Resistance to Discovery in the Earth Sciences	92	(17)
William Glen
Theories of an Expanding Universe: Implications of Their Reception for the Concept of Scientific Prematurity	109	(15)
Norriss S. Hetherington
Interdisciplinary Dissonance and Prematurity: Ida Noddack's Suggestion of Nuclear Fission	124	(27)
Ernest B. Hook
SECTION B: Disputable Cases
Michael Polanyi's Theory of Surface Adsorption: How Premature?	151	(13)
Mary Jo Nye
Prematurity and the Dynamics of Scientific Change	164	(11)
Frederic L. Holmes
Barbara McClintock's Controlling Elements: Premature Discovery or Stillborn Theory?	175	(25)
Nathaniel C. Comfort
The Work of Joseph Adams and Archibald Garrod: Possible Examples of Prematurity in Human Genetics	200	(13)
Arno G. Motulsky
PART FOUR Natural Selection and Evolution from the Perspective of Prematurity
The Prematurity of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection	213	(26)
Michael Ruse
Prematurity, Evolutionary Biology, and the Historical Sciences	239	(14)
Michael T. Ghiselin
PART FIVE Perspectives from the Vantage Point of the Social Sciences
The Prematurity of ``Prematurity'' in Political Science	253	(7)
George Von der Muhll
The Impact and Fate of Gunther Stent's Prematurity Thesis	260	(20)
Lawrence H. Stern
Premature Discovery Is Failure of Intersection among Social Worlds	280	(15)
Elihu M. Gerson
PART SIX Philosophical Perspectives
Fleck, Kuhn, and Stent: Loose Reflections on the Notion of Prematurity	295	(11)
Ilana Lowy
The Concept of Prematurity and the Philosophy of Science	306	(23)
Martin Jones
PART SEVEN Closing Considerations
Prtmaturity and Promise: Why Was Stent's Notion of Prematurity Itself So Premature?	329	(13)
David L. Hull
Reflections on Hull's Remarks	342	(4)
Gonzalo Munevar
Comments	346	(8)
Gunther S .Stent
Extensions and Complexities: In Defense of Prematurity in Scientific Discovery	354	(13)
Ernest B. Hook
Index	367