The history of science is mostly written retrospec tively, a generation or two after the actual events being discussed. Science historians are now analyzing and evaluating the origins of evolutionary and genetical theory in the nineteenth century and a sort of "Darwin industry" seems to have grown up. A history of mammalian cytogenetics by one of the main participants is, hence, a very welcome change, since it has a vividness, an immediacy and a personal flavor which these scholarly tomes and the official biog raphies of scientists mostly lack. The life of the author, Chinese-born, T. C. Hsu, has been a romantic and color ful one, and he is himself a unique personality, so that his book is a very unusual blend of reminiscences, history of his special field (which has transformed human genetics) and wise comments on the mistakes made along the way. The best qualities of a very fine Chinese mind have contributed to Dr. Hsu's career, including this book. Those qualities (which seem to me especially Chinese) include a kind of transparent honesty, a very direct em pirical approach to problems and superb technical ability.

Klappentext

The history of science is mostly written retrospec­ tively, a generation or two after the actual events being discussed. Science historians are now analyzing and evaluating the origins of evolutionary and genetical theory in the nineteenth century and a sort of "Darwin industry" seems to have grown up. A history of mammalian cytogenetics by one of the main participants is, hence, a very welcome change, since it has a vividness, an immediacy and a personal flavor which these scholarly tomes and the official biog­ raphies of scientists mostly lack. The life of the author, Chinese-born, T. C. Hsu, has been a romantic and color­ ful one, and he is himself a unique personality, so that his book is a very unusual blend of reminiscences, history of his special field (which has transformed human genetics) and wise comments on the mistakes made along the way. The best qualities of a very fine Chinese mind have contributed to Dr. Hsu's career, including this book. Those qualities (which seem to me especially Chinese) include a kind of transparent honesty, a very direct em­ pirical approach to problems and superb technical ability.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. The Knights of the Dark Age.- 3. The Hypotonic Miracle.- 4. From 48 to 46.- 5. The Foundation of Somatic Cell Genetics.- 6. Funny Looking Kids.- 7. Of Beans, Weeds, and Human Cytogenetics.- 8. Sex and the Single Chromosome.- 9. The Denver Conference and Beyond.- 10. The Occasional Lion Tamer.- 11. The Pathologist Who Went Astray.- 12. Anomalous Sex Chromosome Systems.- 13. The Somatic Cell Genetics Conferences.- 14. Mammals for Cytogeneticists.- 15. Old Cultures Never Die?.- 16. The Bandwagon.- 17. In Situ Hybridization: Marriage Between Molecular Biology and Cytology.- 18. Junk DNA and Chromatin?.- 19. The Giemsa Magic.- 20. Parasexual Reproduction.- 21. Interphase Chromosomes.- 22. Cancer Chromosomes.- 23. Chromosomes and Mammalian Phylogeny.- 24. The Future.- Suggested Readings.- References.