What history tells us Ⅳ. Ciliates as models... of what?

摘要

We have described the way(s) in which ciliates were considered as a biological model over a long time frame, of more than a century. Historians usually prefer to focus on a more limited period of time. In most cases of animal models, such a strategy is possible since the half-life of a model is rarely more than two or three decades. The ciliates are somehow exceptional. They are - and have always been -fascinating organisms: they have developed a specialization of intracellular structures and functions comparable to what has occurred between the different cells of a multicellular organism. The history of studies on ciliates and paramecia is full of furore and controversies, and rich too in wrong observations and false models (Hall 1998). It cannot be told independently of the particular people who made it: exceptional objects in science always attract exceptional characters (Nanney 1982), those who are not uniquely motivated by the art of the soluble, and not repelled by a flavour of heterodoxy. Ciliates are exceptional, but as Sonneborn used to say, quoting Bateson: "Treasure your exceptions" (Preer 1997).