ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Second Nature: Synthetic Materials and the (Re)making of Biological Knowledge in the Twentieth Century

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

Second Nature: Synthetic Materials and the (Re)making of Biological Knowledge in the Twentieth Century


Synthetic materials are often defined in opposition to those found in nature and increasingly cast as threats to it. Yet synthetics did not merely despoil the living natural world but also engendered new forms of biological knowledge. While attending to the real harms and toxicities of chemical production, the contributors to this session seek to unsettle easy distinctions between the organic and the inorganic by recognizing the generative potential of synthetic materials. Interweaving histories of materials science and biology in the twentieth century, they ask: how did synthetic materials prompt scientists to develop new concepts, measurement practices, and experimental systems; what kinds of knowledge emerged at the interface of engineered and living systems; and in what ways did they expose the limits and possibilities of existing models, from heredity to toxicity to biocompatibility? Amalia Sweet traces Paul Doty’s turn from physical chemistry to DNA research, detailing how he applied synthetic polymer techniques to understand the structure and behavior of biological molecules. Lisa Onaga uses a case study of coronary guidewires made from alloys and polymers to historicize the interrelated discourses of biocompatibility, biomaterials, and medical waste. Jessica Varner analyzes how DuPont’s toxicological testing of Teflon unsettled basic assumptions about the interchangeability of bodies, forcing corporate scientists to renegotiate concepts of toxicity, uncertainty, and “competing biologies.” Finally, Evan Hepler-Smith’s “material genealogy” of the pesticide toxaphene reveals how a forest-derived chemical linked industrial production, global agriculture, and environmental regulation while complicating contemporary understandings of “bio-based” materials and their risks.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Miguel Garcia-Sancho, University of Edinburgh

Individual Presentations

• Beyond the Double Helix: Paul Doty, Polymer Chemistry, and the Structure of DNA - Amalia Rose Sweet, Harvard University

• Down to the Guidewire: Making a Place for Biomaterials in Mid-Twentieth Century Medicine - Lisa Onaga, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

• Competing Biologies: Testing Teflon's Toxicities - Jessica Varner, University of Pennsylvania

• Toxaphene: Material Genealogy of a Forest Product - Evan Hepler-Smith, Duke University

Session Organizer

• Amalia Rose Sweet, Harvard University