"Over the past forty years a molecular vision has transformed biology. What began as an attempt to understand and explain life by looking at organisms at the microscopic level soon led to the rapid development of pathbreaking new technologies and discoveries that would change our understanding of science. In The Black Box of Biology Michel Morange shows that what led to this incredible transformation of biology was not an accumulation of new results, but the molecularization of a large part of biology. The expansion led to a cluster of explanatory tools and mechanisms used across biology and medicine. Yet, it was the fusion of the principles and concepts of molecular biology with those of other subdisciplines that led to the most decisive changes, including the discoveries of regulatory RNAs, the development of massive scientific programs like the Human Genome sequencing program, and the emergence of new disciplines like synthetic biology, systems biology, and epigenetics. Yet the progress was not one sided. Morange reveals that molecular biology opened the black box of biology, and in turn, the discipline has been enriched by its expansion"--.

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• PART ONE. THE BIRTH OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
  • 1. The Roots of the New Science
  • 2. The One Gene–One Enzyme Hypothesis
  • 3. The Chemical Nature of the Gene
  • 4. The Phage Group
  • 5. The Birth of Bacterial Genetics
  • 6. The Crystallization of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus
  • 7. Enter the Physicists
  • 8. The Influence of the Rockefeller Foundation
  • 9. Physical Techniques in Molecular Biology
  • 10. The Role of Physics
• PART TWO. THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
  • 11. The Discovery of the Double Helix
  • 12. Deciphering the Genetic Code
  • 13. The Discovery of Messenger RNA
  • 14. The French School
• PART THREE. THE EXPANSION OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
  • 15. Normal Science
  • 16. Genetic Engineering
  • 17. Split Genes and Splicing
  • 18. The Discovery of Oncogenes
  • 19. From DNA Polymerase to the Amplification of DNA
• PART FOUR. BEYOND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY?
  • 20. The Molecularization of Biology and Medicine
  • 21. Protein Structure
  • 22. The Rise of Developmental Biology
  • 23. Molecular Biology and Evolution
  • 24. Gene Therapy
  • 25. The Central Place of RNA
  • 26. Epigenetics
  • 27. Sequencing the Human Genome
  • 28, Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology
  • 29. Images, Representations, and Metaphors in Molecular Biology
• General Conclusion
• Appendix: Definition of Terms
• Notes
• Index