Book Review

摘要

If we had to think about the effects that the dropping of the two atomic bombs in 1945 had on post-war life sciences, immediately genetics and molecular biology would come to mind. Indeed, the aftermath of the war triggered a process of genuine soul searching for many physicists that were involved directly or indirectly in the Manhattan Project. Biology, in this sense, constituted a field where many scientists could ‘redeem’ themselves by working on questions related to life and the physical and chemical mechanisms of biological systems. The rest is history: one that has been extensively documented. Yet, the life sciences involve a vast number of fields and subfields that are often not part of the stories being told. So, what about them? What was the impact of the world war on, say, cancer research, sexology or even anthropology? provides an account of the scientific consequences brought about by major post-war processes in numerous fields and subfields of the life sciences. Combining perspectives from the history of science and world history, the essays that make up this excellently curated volume contain, thorough analyses of how the post-war and decolonisation contexts, along with the formation of international organisations, shaped scientific practices, research agendas and aspirations in many fields of the life sciences beyond molecular biology and genetics.