This class explores the history of the life sciences over the course of the last century, with an emphasis on model organisms and how they shape research. The great puzzles of evolution, heredity, and development were posed in the nineteenth century, by naturalists working with a series of plants and animals including barnacles, pigeons and peas. The century just past delved deeper into the mechanisms of these processes using new model organisms. In the first few decades of the century, various experiments were conducted on that most intractable of organisms, Homo sapiens. After the Second World War, researchers from the physical sciences seized on tools like bacteriophage, which seemed to straddle the organic and inorganic worlds. Other organisms such as mice and fruit flies leant themselves to the standardization, replication and circulation demanded by global scientific co-operation and competition. By the century’s end, laboratory animals could be genetically engineered to answer specific research questions. This course will explore how our experimental engagement with the non-human world has begun to unlock the secrets of life, opening up unprecedented manipulative and predictive powers for our endlessly inquisitive species.

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导言：重温加兰·艾伦对 20 世纪生命科学史的看法

本课程探讨上个世纪生命科学的历史，重点介绍模式生物及其如何影响研究。进化、遗传和发展的巨大难题是在 19 世纪由博物学家与一系列植物和动物（包括藤壶、鸽子和豌豆）一起提出的。刚刚过去的一个世纪使用新的模式生物深入研究了这些过程的机制。在本世纪的最初几十年里，人们对最难对付的生物——智人进行了各种实验。第二次世界大战后，物理科学的研究人员抓住了像噬菌体这样的工具，它们似乎跨越了有机和无机世界。其他生物，如老鼠和果蝇，也倾向于标准化，全球科学合作和竞争所要求的复制和流通。到本世纪末，实验室动物可以通过基因工程来回答特定的研究问题。本课程将探索我们与非人类世界的实验性接触如何开始解开生命的秘密，为我们无休止地好奇的物种开启前所未有的操纵和预测能力。