Niles Eldredge
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153164
- eISBN:
- 9780231526753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153164.003.0003
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter discusses the adventures of Charles Darwin, mainly in South America, during the five-year voyage of the HMS Beagle. The possibility of Darwin engaging with the concept of transmutation ...
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This chapter discusses the adventures of Charles Darwin, mainly in South America, during the five-year voyage of the HMS Beagle. The possibility of Darwin engaging with the concept of transmutation is evident through his Geological Notes, Zoological Notes, Diary, and letters sent to John Stevens Henslow, his Cambridge botany teacher. Darwin was clearly considering transmutational notions as soon as he started his field work on the Beagle, and became a fuly fledged transmutationist by the time he wrote the latter half of the Red Notebook in early 1837. Darwin's earliest analysis of transmutation was generally more Brocchian than Lamarckian; the chapter concludes with Darwin's admission of this fact in a letter addressed to Leonard Jenyns in 1844.Less
This chapter discusses the adventures of Charles Darwin, mainly in South America, during the five-year voyage of the HMS Beagle. The possibility of Darwin engaging with the concept of transmutation is evident through his Geological Notes, Zoological Notes, Diary, and letters sent to John Stevens Henslow, his Cambridge botany teacher. Darwin was clearly considering transmutational notions as soon as he started his field work on the Beagle, and became a fuly fledged transmutationist by the time he wrote the latter half of the Red Notebook in early 1837. Darwin's earliest analysis of transmutation was generally more Brocchian than Lamarckian; the chapter concludes with Darwin's admission of this fact in a letter addressed to Leonard Jenyns in 1844.
Michael Epperson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823223190
- eISBN:
- 9780823235551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823223190.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
The history of an environmental system revolves around its components, and the conception of these local systems within a larger network comprises the spatiotemporal ...
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The history of an environmental system revolves around its components, and the conception of these local systems within a larger network comprises the spatiotemporal extensiveness of reality and the systems of reality. The valuation of the physical object and the mental schema stresses the rational, grounded, and inherent connections of the objective reality. Both the “physical pole” and the “mental pole” manifest a two-way causality property. Local systems have their own coordinates that define their individual histories, which are expansively intertwined with one another; that is to say, they are spatiotemporally coordinated, with a shared larger historical environment. The speed of transmutation of the local systems in composing a shared group of systems is a function of spatial and temporal relativism. Examples are provided in this section to elaborate the historical ordering of events, restricted durations, and relativity theory. The relations in societies of enduring objects and complex historical environments are made possible, taking into account the approximations and differences in individual histories.Less
The history of an environmental system revolves around its components, and the conception of these local systems within a larger network comprises the spatiotemporal extensiveness of reality and the systems of reality. The valuation of the physical object and the mental schema stresses the rational, grounded, and inherent connections of the objective reality. Both the “physical pole” and the “mental pole” manifest a two-way causality property. Local systems have their own coordinates that define their individual histories, which are expansively intertwined with one another; that is to say, they are spatiotemporally coordinated, with a shared larger historical environment. The speed of transmutation of the local systems in composing a shared group of systems is a function of spatial and temporal relativism. Examples are provided in this section to elaborate the historical ordering of events, restricted durations, and relativity theory. The relations in societies of enduring objects and complex historical environments are made possible, taking into account the approximations and differences in individual histories.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804760324
- eISBN:
- 9780804772877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804760324.003.0010
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter attempts to think about alchemy as the production of gold in the context of a larger discourse on “real” production, “real” money, and “real” consumption, and through Marx in particular. ...
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This chapter attempts to think about alchemy as the production of gold in the context of a larger discourse on “real” production, “real” money, and “real” consumption, and through Marx in particular. Marx posits a transition from the commodity in its plain, homely, bodily form—the base material—to exchange-value, and finally, to the development of the general equivalent, a passage that could be viewed as analogous to transmutation in alchemy. But the notion of a transition does not appear sufficient to warrant an alchemical reading of Capital. We need to seek out what, precisely, is alchemical in the book and read it in the key of alchemy.Less
This chapter attempts to think about alchemy as the production of gold in the context of a larger discourse on “real” production, “real” money, and “real” consumption, and through Marx in particular. Marx posits a transition from the commodity in its plain, homely, bodily form—the base material—to exchange-value, and finally, to the development of the general equivalent, a passage that could be viewed as analogous to transmutation in alchemy. But the notion of a transition does not appear sufficient to warrant an alchemical reading of Capital. We need to seek out what, precisely, is alchemical in the book and read it in the key of alchemy.
Elaine Padilla
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263561
- eISBN:
- 9780823266296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263561.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter unfolds a “reality-in-process,” progressively evolving from the notion of heterogeneity from the previous chapter, into the divine movements of multipassage and transmutation, and ...
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This chapter unfolds a “reality-in-process,” progressively evolving from the notion of heterogeneity from the previous chapter, into the divine movements of multipassage and transmutation, and towards intensity by means of the many seeming contrasting elements of life affecting God. By bringing together concepts such as God’s adventurous newness, as in the work of Roland Faber, ancient memories as posited by Ivonne Gebara, and the chaotic disorders that Catherine Keller sees as latent in new life orders, it conceptualizes forms of passion with the potential for God’s love getting “out of control.” The imagery of the “wound” discussed in dialogue with St. Teresa de Avila becomes polymorphous by more explicitly opening the divine self to an intermingling of multiple selves, a prelude to the manifold divine incarnations according to the many loves and lovers in the chapter that follows.Less
This chapter unfolds a “reality-in-process,” progressively evolving from the notion of heterogeneity from the previous chapter, into the divine movements of multipassage and transmutation, and towards intensity by means of the many seeming contrasting elements of life affecting God. By bringing together concepts such as God’s adventurous newness, as in the work of Roland Faber, ancient memories as posited by Ivonne Gebara, and the chaotic disorders that Catherine Keller sees as latent in new life orders, it conceptualizes forms of passion with the potential for God’s love getting “out of control.” The imagery of the “wound” discussed in dialogue with St. Teresa de Avila becomes polymorphous by more explicitly opening the divine self to an intermingling of multiple selves, a prelude to the manifold divine incarnations according to the many loves and lovers in the chapter that follows.
Keith Thomson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300203677
- eISBN:
- 9780300213409
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300203677.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter illustrates how from a theological perspective, Darwin's new transmutation theory had various problematic attributes. It denied the Creator's role in the diversification of life, along ...
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This chapter illustrates how from a theological perspective, Darwin's new transmutation theory had various problematic attributes. It denied the Creator's role in the diversification of life, along with the established theory of centers of Creation. Darwin knew that his theory would be extremely unpopular among religious people and scholars for whom religion was serious business. A combination of fear of rejection and hunger for a comprehensive scope for his new worldview caused Darwin to try to appease his religious audience by emphasizing the role of the Almighty. Darwin regretted such decision since he did not believe what he had written, his wordings being a real case of quasi-theology. Darwin conducted a lifelong debate with himself over religion, and he died not absolutely closing off God's existence but dubious about his roles.Less
This chapter illustrates how from a theological perspective, Darwin's new transmutation theory had various problematic attributes. It denied the Creator's role in the diversification of life, along with the established theory of centers of Creation. Darwin knew that his theory would be extremely unpopular among religious people and scholars for whom religion was serious business. A combination of fear of rejection and hunger for a comprehensive scope for his new worldview caused Darwin to try to appease his religious audience by emphasizing the role of the Almighty. Darwin regretted such decision since he did not believe what he had written, his wordings being a real case of quasi-theology. Darwin conducted a lifelong debate with himself over religion, and he died not absolutely closing off God's existence but dubious about his roles.
Niles Eldredge
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153164
- eISBN:
- 9780231526753
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153164.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter talks about the earliest decades of the scientific study of “transmutation,” previously called evolution, in which early evolutionists focused on the search for a natural causal ...
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This chapter talks about the earliest decades of the scientific study of “transmutation,” previously called evolution, in which early evolutionists focused on the search for a natural causal explanation for the origin of species alive today. The two contrasting positions that have dominated evolutionary thought came from two naturalists who based their theories on empirical data drawn from a comparison of fossil mollusks—Jean Baptiste Lamarck and Giambattista Brocchi. The chapter examines the ideas of both Lamarck and Brocchi, most of which were published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, which was founded by Robert Jameson. Jameson was Charles Darwin's teacher at the University of Edinburgh. Darwin's exposure to scientific analysis, natural history, and transmutational thinking continued at Cambridge where he read John Herschel's Preliminary Discourse on Natural Philosophy, a book that influenced him to pursue a scientific career.Less
This chapter talks about the earliest decades of the scientific study of “transmutation,” previously called evolution, in which early evolutionists focused on the search for a natural causal explanation for the origin of species alive today. The two contrasting positions that have dominated evolutionary thought came from two naturalists who based their theories on empirical data drawn from a comparison of fossil mollusks—Jean Baptiste Lamarck and Giambattista Brocchi. The chapter examines the ideas of both Lamarck and Brocchi, most of which were published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, which was founded by Robert Jameson. Jameson was Charles Darwin's teacher at the University of Edinburgh. Darwin's exposure to scientific analysis, natural history, and transmutational thinking continued at Cambridge where he read John Herschel's Preliminary Discourse on Natural Philosophy, a book that influenced him to pursue a scientific career.
Dan McKanan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520290051
- eISBN:
- 9780520964389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520290051.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Anthroposophy, with its alchemical emphasis on the balancing of polarities, brings several gifts to the ongoing evolution of the environmental movement. These gifts include a cosmic holism that ...
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Anthroposophy, with its alchemical emphasis on the balancing of polarities, brings several gifts to the ongoing evolution of the environmental movement. These gifts include a cosmic holism that challenges us to attend to ever-widening circles of interconnection; a homeopathic model of social change that invites us to use subtle influences to heal the world; an appropriate anthropocentrism that allows us to experience ourselves as fully at home in the world; and a vision of planetary transmutation that can resist climate change while embracing biological and spiritual evolution.Less
Anthroposophy, with its alchemical emphasis on the balancing of polarities, brings several gifts to the ongoing evolution of the environmental movement. These gifts include a cosmic holism that challenges us to attend to ever-widening circles of interconnection; a homeopathic model of social change that invites us to use subtle influences to heal the world; an appropriate anthropocentrism that allows us to experience ourselves as fully at home in the world; and a vision of planetary transmutation that can resist climate change while embracing biological and spiritual evolution.
Daniela Boccassini
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263868
- eISBN:
- 9780823266302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263868.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This paper argues the hypothesis that the condition of the souls in Dante’s Purgatorio and Dante’s own journey of ascent of that transformative mountain lend themselves to be understood in terms of ...
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This paper argues the hypothesis that the condition of the souls in Dante’s Purgatorio and Dante’s own journey of ascent of that transformative mountain lend themselves to be understood in terms of falconry — the art of training a wild raptor to relate to the presence of the falconer and respond to his call. By analyzing the falconry techniques Dante mentions in the Commedia and tracing their origin in the practices that Emperor Frederick II had imported from the Islamic world, we can also better gauge the symbolic value Dante attributes to falconry as an initiatory art of inner transmutation. Seen in the larger perspective of a Mediterranean shared culture, Dante’s understanding of falconry clearly mirrors, on European grounds, the views of some of the towering figures of Islamic medieval poetry and speculative thinking, such as Attar, Ibn Arabi and Rumi. The article finally explores the way in which the concept of inner transmutation, foundational to the art of falconry, contributes to a renewed understanding of Dante’s Purgatory as the locus where Law transmutes into Love — where “amor d’animo” paradoxically learns to respond to the call of “amor naturale”.Less
This paper argues the hypothesis that the condition of the souls in Dante’s Purgatorio and Dante’s own journey of ascent of that transformative mountain lend themselves to be understood in terms of falconry — the art of training a wild raptor to relate to the presence of the falconer and respond to his call. By analyzing the falconry techniques Dante mentions in the Commedia and tracing their origin in the practices that Emperor Frederick II had imported from the Islamic world, we can also better gauge the symbolic value Dante attributes to falconry as an initiatory art of inner transmutation. Seen in the larger perspective of a Mediterranean shared culture, Dante’s understanding of falconry clearly mirrors, on European grounds, the views of some of the towering figures of Islamic medieval poetry and speculative thinking, such as Attar, Ibn Arabi and Rumi. The article finally explores the way in which the concept of inner transmutation, foundational to the art of falconry, contributes to a renewed understanding of Dante’s Purgatory as the locus where Law transmutes into Love — where “amor d’animo” paradoxically learns to respond to the call of “amor naturale”.
William R. Newman
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226577128
- eISBN:
- 9780226577135
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226577135.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In this book, the author uses alchemy to investigate the thinning boundary between the natural and the artificial. Focusing primarily on the period between 1200 and 1700, he examines the labors of ...
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In this book, the author uses alchemy to investigate the thinning boundary between the natural and the artificial. Focusing primarily on the period between 1200 and 1700, he examines the labors of pioneering alchemists and the impassioned—and often negative—responses to their efforts. By the thirteenth century alchemy had become a benchmark for determining the abilities of both men and demons, representing the epitome of creative power in the natural world. The author frames the art–nature debate by contrasting the supposed transmutational power of alchemy with the merely representational abilities of the pictorial and plastic arts—a dispute that found artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Bernard Palissy attacking alchemy as an irreligious fraud. The later assertion by the Paracelsian school that one could make an artificial human being—the homunculus—led to further disparagement of alchemy, but as Newman shows, the immense power over nature promised by the field contributed directly to the technological apologetics of Francis Bacon and his followers. By the mid-seventeenth century, the famous “father of modern chemistry,” Robert Boyle, was employing the arguments of medieval alchemists to support the identity of naturally occurring substances with those manufactured by “chymical” means. In using history to highlight the art–nature debate, the author here shows that alchemy was not an unformed and capricious precursor to chemistry; it was an art founded on coherent philosophical and empirical principles, with vocal supporters and even louder critics, which attracted individuals of first-rate intellect.Less
In this book, the author uses alchemy to investigate the thinning boundary between the natural and the artificial. Focusing primarily on the period between 1200 and 1700, he examines the labors of pioneering alchemists and the impassioned—and often negative—responses to their efforts. By the thirteenth century alchemy had become a benchmark for determining the abilities of both men and demons, representing the epitome of creative power in the natural world. The author frames the art–nature debate by contrasting the supposed transmutational power of alchemy with the merely representational abilities of the pictorial and plastic arts—a dispute that found artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Bernard Palissy attacking alchemy as an irreligious fraud. The later assertion by the Paracelsian school that one could make an artificial human being—the homunculus—led to further disparagement of alchemy, but as Newman shows, the immense power over nature promised by the field contributed directly to the technological apologetics of Francis Bacon and his followers. By the mid-seventeenth century, the famous “father of modern chemistry,” Robert Boyle, was employing the arguments of medieval alchemists to support the identity of naturally occurring substances with those manufactured by “chymical” means. In using history to highlight the art–nature debate, the author here shows that alchemy was not an unformed and capricious precursor to chemistry; it was an art founded on coherent philosophical and empirical principles, with vocal supporters and even louder critics, which attracted individuals of first-rate intellect.
Luis A. Campos
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226238272
- eISBN:
- 9780226238302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226238302.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines how botanical investigators in the early twentieth century used radium to induce or control biological evolution. Explicitly linking the transmutation of the physical species of ...
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This chapter examines how botanical investigators in the early twentieth century used radium to induce or control biological evolution. Explicitly linking the transmutation of the physical species of radium with the transmutation of biological species, Daniel Trembley MacDougal and Charles Stuart Gager of the New York Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, respectively, independently irradiated plants with radium in an attempt to study the physiological effects induced as well as to provide experimental confirmation of Hugo de Vries’ new “mutation theory.” Metaphors of radium’s powers were put to experimental test at this moment and passed. Even among those plants that happened not to mutate, radium was seen to have “stimulated” and “accelerated” their growth toward an “early senescence.” What would later be taken as a clear sign of mutagenic damage was at this time clear proof of radium’s relevance in the novel early twentieth-century quest to experimentally induce and ultimately control evolution.Less
This chapter examines how botanical investigators in the early twentieth century used radium to induce or control biological evolution. Explicitly linking the transmutation of the physical species of radium with the transmutation of biological species, Daniel Trembley MacDougal and Charles Stuart Gager of the New York Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, respectively, independently irradiated plants with radium in an attempt to study the physiological effects induced as well as to provide experimental confirmation of Hugo de Vries’ new “mutation theory.” Metaphors of radium’s powers were put to experimental test at this moment and passed. Even among those plants that happened not to mutate, radium was seen to have “stimulated” and “accelerated” their growth toward an “early senescence.” What would later be taken as a clear sign of mutagenic damage was at this time clear proof of radium’s relevance in the novel early twentieth-century quest to experimentally induce and ultimately control evolution.
Luis A. Campos
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226238272
- eISBN:
- 9780226238302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226238302.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on Hermann J. Muller’s legendary “artificial transmutation of the gene,” and how he came to his researches through his fascination with radium. Muller argued that mutation and ...
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This chapter focuses on Hermann J. Muller’s legendary “artificial transmutation of the gene,” and how he came to his researches through his fascination with radium. Muller argued that mutation and transmutation were fundamentally connected, and that radium could be useful not only to produce phenotypic and chromosomal mutants in Drosophila but mutations at the most fundamental level of all—the genes. In his shift from radium to X-rays, and from transmission genetics to transmutation genetics, Muller radically recharacterized what had been a pluralistic set of understandings of “mutation” into a fundamentally genic phenomenon. This shift in the meaning and referent of “mutant” and “mutation”—from organism to chromosome to gene—marked not only the beginning of the end for a multi-level nuanced understanding of mutation in favor of a fundamentally genic theory of mutation, but also ended up distancing radium from life in experimental terms. As the gamma rays of radium were increasingly understood by biologists to have the same effect as X-rays, Muller’s focus on the gene as the proper target for mutation and the X-ray as the proper tool—work for which he later won the Nobel Prize—became a sentiment and a practice more widely shared.Less
This chapter focuses on Hermann J. Muller’s legendary “artificial transmutation of the gene,” and how he came to his researches through his fascination with radium. Muller argued that mutation and transmutation were fundamentally connected, and that radium could be useful not only to produce phenotypic and chromosomal mutants in Drosophila but mutations at the most fundamental level of all—the genes. In his shift from radium to X-rays, and from transmission genetics to transmutation genetics, Muller radically recharacterized what had been a pluralistic set of understandings of “mutation” into a fundamentally genic phenomenon. This shift in the meaning and referent of “mutant” and “mutation”—from organism to chromosome to gene—marked not only the beginning of the end for a multi-level nuanced understanding of mutation in favor of a fundamentally genic theory of mutation, but also ended up distancing radium from life in experimental terms. As the gamma rays of radium were increasingly understood by biologists to have the same effect as X-rays, Muller’s focus on the gene as the proper target for mutation and the X-ray as the proper tool—work for which he later won the Nobel Prize—became a sentiment and a practice more widely shared.
Luis A. Campos
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226238272
- eISBN:
- 9780226238302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226238302.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In the final chapter I explore the afterlife and persistence of radioactive residues in Muller’s later work, in that of his contemporaries, and in the larger context of the study of heredity in the ...
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In the final chapter I explore the afterlife and persistence of radioactive residues in Muller’s later work, in that of his contemporaries, and in the larger context of the study of heredity in the 1930s and 1940s, including radiation genetics. As the experimental productivity of this once all-powerful metaphorical and metaphysical association between radium and life slowly decayed to trace residues (and tracers) in a generalized background of radiobiology, the once-pronounced clicking of the Geiger counter of historical narrative slowly merges into noise. In these cases, it becomes increasingly less clear whether there is any such legitimate connection to be drawn to these further transmutations, decays, and disintegrations of what were once powerful associations between radium and life. In recounting such a history, with its countless possible historical residues, Radium and the Secret of Life thereby challenges the very idea of any neat historical narratives of the “life and death” of radium’s role in biology. This form of historical narration suggests what a “hermeneutic of transmutation”—a serious attempt to deploy “radium” as an epistemic tool for the historian as much as it was for the scientist—might look like.Less
In the final chapter I explore the afterlife and persistence of radioactive residues in Muller’s later work, in that of his contemporaries, and in the larger context of the study of heredity in the 1930s and 1940s, including radiation genetics. As the experimental productivity of this once all-powerful metaphorical and metaphysical association between radium and life slowly decayed to trace residues (and tracers) in a generalized background of radiobiology, the once-pronounced clicking of the Geiger counter of historical narrative slowly merges into noise. In these cases, it becomes increasingly less clear whether there is any such legitimate connection to be drawn to these further transmutations, decays, and disintegrations of what were once powerful associations between radium and life. In recounting such a history, with its countless possible historical residues, Radium and the Secret of Life thereby challenges the very idea of any neat historical narratives of the “life and death” of radium’s role in biology. This form of historical narration suggests what a “hermeneutic of transmutation”—a serious attempt to deploy “radium” as an epistemic tool for the historian as much as it was for the scientist—might look like.
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226712024
- eISBN:
- 9780226712055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226712055.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter describes the early discussions on embryological recapitulation and species evolution and Charles Darwin's views regarding them. From ancient time to the beginning of the nineteenth ...
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This chapter describes the early discussions on embryological recapitulation and species evolution and Charles Darwin's views regarding them. From ancient time to the beginning of the nineteenth century, ideas about species change smoldered but failed to ignite the imaginations of most naturalists. Even Aristotle had acknowledged the creation of new kinds of animals through hybridization, and he elaborated the theory that spontaneous generation of insects, worms, and marine invertebrates would later give support to wobbly proposals of species evolution. Although Georges Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, had initially opposed the idea of transmutation, certain breeding experiments and theoretical considerations brought him to the view that the originally created kinds of animals had degenerated into the myriad of species because of the influence of the environment.Less
This chapter describes the early discussions on embryological recapitulation and species evolution and Charles Darwin's views regarding them. From ancient time to the beginning of the nineteenth century, ideas about species change smoldered but failed to ignite the imaginations of most naturalists. Even Aristotle had acknowledged the creation of new kinds of animals through hybridization, and he elaborated the theory that spontaneous generation of insects, worms, and marine invertebrates would later give support to wobbly proposals of species evolution. Although Georges Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, had initially opposed the idea of transmutation, certain breeding experiments and theoretical considerations brought him to the view that the originally created kinds of animals had degenerated into the myriad of species because of the influence of the environment.
Theodore Ziolkowski
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198746836
- eISBN:
- 9780191809187
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198746836.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in Dante down to the present. From the beginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the ...
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This book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in Dante down to the present. From the beginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the transmutation of baser metals into gold) and esoteric or speculative (the spiritual transformation of the alchemist himself). From Dante to Ben Jonson, during the centuries when the belief in exoteric alchemy was still strong, writers in many literatures treated alchemists with ridicule. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as that belief weakened, the figure of the alchemist disappeared, even though Protestant poets in England and Germany were still fond of alchemical images. But when eighteenth-century science undermined alchemy, the figure of the alchemist began to emerge again in literature—now as a humanitarian hero or as a spirit striving for sublimation. As scholarly interest in alchemy intensified, writers were attracted to the figure of the alchemist and his quest for power. The fin de siècle witnessed a further transformation as some poets saw in the alchemist a symbol for the poet and others a manifestation of religious spirit. During the interwar years many writers turned to the figure of the alchemist as a spiritual model or as a national figurehead. This tendency, theorized by C. G. Jung, inspired after World War II a popularization of the figure in the novel. In sum: the figure of the alchemist in literature provides a seismograph for major shifts in intellectual and cultural history.Less
This book traces the figure of the alchemist in Western literature from its first appearance in Dante down to the present. From the beginning alchemy has had two aspects: exoteric or operative (the transmutation of baser metals into gold) and esoteric or speculative (the spiritual transformation of the alchemist himself). From Dante to Ben Jonson, during the centuries when the belief in exoteric alchemy was still strong, writers in many literatures treated alchemists with ridicule. From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as that belief weakened, the figure of the alchemist disappeared, even though Protestant poets in England and Germany were still fond of alchemical images. But when eighteenth-century science undermined alchemy, the figure of the alchemist began to emerge again in literature—now as a humanitarian hero or as a spirit striving for sublimation. As scholarly interest in alchemy intensified, writers were attracted to the figure of the alchemist and his quest for power. The fin de siècle witnessed a further transformation as some poets saw in the alchemist a symbol for the poet and others a manifestation of religious spirit. During the interwar years many writers turned to the figure of the alchemist as a spiritual model or as a national figurehead. This tendency, theorized by C. G. Jung, inspired after World War II a popularization of the figure in the novel. In sum: the figure of the alchemist in literature provides a seismograph for major shifts in intellectual and cultural history.
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226577128
- eISBN:
- 9780226577135
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226577135.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter discusses artificial life and the homunculus. The vast literature focusing on alchemy in the debate on art and nature often draws on the spontaneous generation of animals for examples ...
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This chapter discusses artificial life and the homunculus. The vast literature focusing on alchemy in the debate on art and nature often draws on the spontaneous generation of animals for examples that are relevant to alchemical transmutation. Late antique and medieval theories of artificial life can be broken into two main categories: those predicated on the theory of spontaneous generation, primarily as outlined in the biological works of Aristotle; and those based on the cosmogonyc myths of a creator God, like the golem of medieval Judaism. One of the great pillars in the edifice of artificial life was Aristotle's theory of sexual, as opposed to spontaneous, generation. The concept of the marvelous power of male sperm, like the ability of specific types of matter to generate life spontaneously, opened up a vast field of speculation about the possibilities of artificial life.Less
This chapter discusses artificial life and the homunculus. The vast literature focusing on alchemy in the debate on art and nature often draws on the spontaneous generation of animals for examples that are relevant to alchemical transmutation. Late antique and medieval theories of artificial life can be broken into two main categories: those predicated on the theory of spontaneous generation, primarily as outlined in the biological works of Aristotle; and those based on the cosmogonyc myths of a creator God, like the golem of medieval Judaism. One of the great pillars in the edifice of artificial life was Aristotle's theory of sexual, as opposed to spontaneous, generation. The concept of the marvelous power of male sperm, like the ability of specific types of matter to generate life spontaneously, opened up a vast field of speculation about the possibilities of artificial life.
Laurent Baulieu, John Iliopoulos, and Roland Sénéor
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198788393
- eISBN:
- 9780191830310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198788393.003.0019
- Subject:
- Physics, Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology, Theoretical, Computational, and Statistical Physics
The use of the renormalisation group and the Callan–Symanzik equations in the study of the asymptotic behaviour of Green functions. The stability properties of a Lagrangian field theory. The ...
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The use of the renormalisation group and the Callan–Symanzik equations in the study of the asymptotic behaviour of Green functions. The stability properties of a Lagrangian field theory. The phenomenon of dimensional transmutation.Less
The use of the renormalisation group and the Callan–Symanzik equations in the study of the asymptotic behaviour of Green functions. The stability properties of a Lagrangian field theory. The phenomenon of dimensional transmutation.
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691156934
- eISBN:
- 9780691186092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691156934.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter examines alchemy. Alchemy is one of the best-known, yet most misunderstood, forms of arcane magical lore. Alchemy in the ancient Greco-Roman world may be defined as the art or craft of ...
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This chapter examines alchemy. Alchemy is one of the best-known, yet most misunderstood, forms of arcane magical lore. Alchemy in the ancient Greco-Roman world may be defined as the art or craft of the transmutation of the qualities of matter. Such a definition hinges on the theoretical aspect, stressing the importance of considering qualities as transferrable in the abstract, but it encompasses a range of practices, from procedures to change the color of metals to rituals to purify and perfect the soul. Although the accounts that trace the origins of Greek alchemy back to the alien wisdom of the Persian magi and the Egyptian sages are essentially a familiar kind of mythic tale of origin designed to reinforce the authority of the discourse, much of the technical knowledge that supports this lore for the manipulation of physical substances can nevertheless be clearly traced to very ancient metallurgical practices in Mesopotamia and Egypt. As these traditions of knowledge are systematized into arcane lore that derives its authority from the alien wisdom of the Egyptians and the magi, the practices of alchemy shift into the realm of things that can be labeled as magic.Less
This chapter examines alchemy. Alchemy is one of the best-known, yet most misunderstood, forms of arcane magical lore. Alchemy in the ancient Greco-Roman world may be defined as the art or craft of the transmutation of the qualities of matter. Such a definition hinges on the theoretical aspect, stressing the importance of considering qualities as transferrable in the abstract, but it encompasses a range of practices, from procedures to change the color of metals to rituals to purify and perfect the soul. Although the accounts that trace the origins of Greek alchemy back to the alien wisdom of the Persian magi and the Egyptian sages are essentially a familiar kind of mythic tale of origin designed to reinforce the authority of the discourse, much of the technical knowledge that supports this lore for the manipulation of physical substances can nevertheless be clearly traced to very ancient metallurgical practices in Mesopotamia and Egypt. As these traditions of knowledge are systematized into arcane lore that derives its authority from the alien wisdom of the Egyptians and the magi, the practices of alchemy shift into the realm of things that can be labeled as magic.
