Thomas Söderqvist If you happen to pass by Oxford (UK) early next week, use the occasion to attend the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine seminar on Monday 12 November, when Miguel Garcia-Sancho will speak about “Creating a genetic language: DNA sequencing and the emergence of the modern biological databases (1965-1985)” (47 Banbury Road at 2.15 pm).
Here’s some background info extracted from the net:
Miguel Garcia-Sancho has a background in science journalism and is about to complete his dissertation (at Imperial College’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine) about the interplay of information technologies and conceptions of DNA in the ~15-year period before the start of the Human Genome Project. Basing his work on the archives of the Sanger Institute, Caltech, Applied Biosystems etc. and interviews with some of the major actors (including Fred Sanger, Sydney Brenner, Kary Mullis etc), Garcia-Sancho pays special attention to the role of computers and databases in sequencing practices.
Garcia-Sancho’s publications include ‘The rise and fall of the ideal of genetic information (1948-2006)’ in Genomics, Society and Policy, vol. 2 (3), 2007, and ‘Mapping and sequencing information: the social context for the genomics revolution, in Endeavour, vol. 31(1), 2007.
Looks like a project to watch — read more about it here.
Project to watch: Miguel Garcia-Sancho on the history of early DNA sequencing
If you happen to pass by Oxford (UK) early next week, use the occasion to attend the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine seminar on Monday 12 November, when Miguel Garcia-Sancho will speak about “Creating a genetic language: DNA sequencing and the emergence of the modern biological databases (1965-1985)” (47 Banbury Road at 2.15 pm). […]
