Vivarium: Experimental, Quantitative, and Theoretical Biology at Vienna's Biologische Versuchsanstalt (Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology): 19: ... at Vienna's Biologische Versuchsanstalt - Hardcover

Müller, Gerd B.; Gaugusch, Georg; Taschwer, Klaus; Feichtinger, Johannes; Fangerau, Heiner

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262036703 ISBN 13: 9780262036702

Publisher: MIT Press, 2017

Synopsis

The scientific achievements and forgotten legacy of a major Austrian research institute, from its founding in 1902 to its wartime destruction in 1945. The Biologische Versuchsanstalt was founded in Vienna in 1902 with the explicit goal to foster the quantification, mathematization, and theory formation of the biological sciences. Three biologists from affluent Viennese Jewish families-Hans Przibram, Wilhelm Figdor, and Leopold von Portheim-founded, financed, and nurtured the institute, overseeing its development into one of the most advanced biological research institutes of the time. And yet today its accomplishments are nearly forgotten. In 1938, the founders and other members were denied access to the institute by the Nazis and were forced into exile or deported to concentration camps. The building itself was destroyed by fire in April 1945. This book rescues the legacy of the "Vivarium" (as the Institute was often called), describing both its scientific achievements and its place in history. The book covers the Viennese sociocultural context at the time of the Vivarium's founding, and the scientific zeitgeist that shaped its investigations. It discusses the institute's departments and their research topics, and describes two examples that had scientific and international ramifications: the early work of Karl von Frisch, who in 1973 won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; and the connection to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Contributors Heiner Fangerau, Johannes Feichtinger, Georg Gaugusch, Manfred D. Laubichler, Cheryl A. Logan, Gerd B. Muller, Tania Munz, Karin Nickelsen, Christian Reiss, Kate E. Sohasky, Heiko Stoff, Klaus Taschwer

About this title

About the Author:

Gerd B. Muller, is Professor of Zoology and Head of the Department of Theoretical Biology at the University of Vienna and President of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research. Gerd B. Muller, is Professor of Zoology and Head of the Department of Theoretical Biology at the University of Vienna and President of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research. Expert in Jewish Genealogy and a member of the genealogical group called Adler Manfred D. Laubichler is Professor of Theoretical Biology and History of Biology and Affiliated Professor of Philosophy at the School of Life Sciences and Centers for Biology and Society and Social Dynamics and Complexity at Arizona State University.He is the coeditor of From Embryology to Evo-Devo (MIT Press, 2007).

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0262036703
• ISBN 13: 9780262036702
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304