detailed information on Lynn Margulis' biography?
July 13, 2017 10:42 AM Subscribe
Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) was a researcher of cell evolution who shaped the current theory of symbiogenesis, a complementing bit of theory to classical (neo-)darwinism. I would need some concise information on her scientific biography. Although I have plenty of material on her work and I spent hours researching, I can't find the answers to two specific questions.
The questions are:
1. what was the subject of the research group she worked in in der 60es before she published her seminal paper "On the Origin of Mitosing Cells" in 1967, and how were the researchers she worked with,
2. did she say somewhere that she was not aware of the work Merezhkowski and others had done on the subject of symbiogenesis before? I can not find anything like this, although several sources pretend that she did utterances in this sense.
So this is a question really for specialists. Maybe someone is here by chance. If not, if you can indicate a forum on evolutionary biology to me, where I can ask this question with better chances to find the specialist I need, I would be very grateful as well!
The questions are:
1. what was the subject of the research group she worked in in der 60es before she published her seminal paper "On the Origin of Mitosing Cells" in 1967, and how were the researchers she worked with,
2. did she say somewhere that she was not aware of the work Merezhkowski and others had done on the subject of symbiogenesis before? I can not find anything like this, although several sources pretend that she did utterances in this sense.
So this is a question really for specialists. Maybe someone is here by chance. If not, if you can indicate a forum on evolutionary biology to me, where I can ask this question with better chances to find the specialist I need, I would be very grateful as well!
Here's google scholar's search for Lynn Sagan's published research 1960-1967. There are a lot of spurious hits later in the search but the first page has a few papers definitely by her, lots of co-authors listed. In addition to Euglena spp. she also worked with some Amoebae.
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:49 PM on July 13, 2017
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:49 PM on July 13, 2017
Best answer: I knew Lynn in the last decade of her life, and I know one of her former students who's working on various tributes to her scientific career. If you'd like me to put you in touch with him, let me know. He wasn't around for that phase of her career, but he might be able to give you some leads. (Of course, as a historian of science, I feel compelled to add that those who knew a subject of historical research are often rich sources, but usually not impartial sources.)
posted by brianogilvie at 4:41 PM on July 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by brianogilvie at 4:41 PM on July 13, 2017 [3 favorites]
According to a UMass 1998 press release, her archives should be at the Library of Congress. I can't see a finding aid online, but you can ask a librarian: https://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/
posted by mollymillions at 9:23 PM on July 13, 2017
posted by mollymillions at 9:23 PM on July 13, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks everybody. SaltySalticid's link to the 1965 paper confirmed that Margulis' main interest was on plastid DNA at this time (although the paper is not from Boston yet), which fits with the later developments. brianogilvie, thanks for your offer to put me in touch. If further questions arise, I will happily make use of it. The second part of my question – if Margulis missed to declare the inspiration by Mereschkowski, Wallin and others – remained unanswered. This was an accusation made by Ulrich Kutschera, who works on similar subjects today. But as Margulis mentions these authors in her 1967 paper, I doubt that these claims are justified.
posted by megob at 4:06 AM on July 14, 2017
posted by megob at 4:06 AM on July 14, 2017
FWIW, Citing other's work is pretty much the the best acknowledgement you can give. She explicitly says "Although these ideas are not new [Merechowsky (1910) & Minchin (1915) in Wilson (1925), Wallin (1927), Lederberg (1952), Haldane (1954), Ris & Plaut (1962)], in this paper they have been synthesized in such a way as to be consistent with recent data on the biochemistry and cytology of subcellular organelles. " -- emphasis mine.
If anyone claims she said she was unfamiliar with Merechowsky's prior work, her own published work clearly acknowledges the prior work of Merechowsky and many others. I suppose she may have later in life made some comments that seemed to overstate the novelty of her contributions or not give enough respect to the men who worked before her, but hearsay is cheap, and her published words are clearly archived.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:45 AM on July 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
If anyone claims she said she was unfamiliar with Merechowsky's prior work, her own published work clearly acknowledges the prior work of Merechowsky and many others. I suppose she may have later in life made some comments that seemed to overstate the novelty of her contributions or not give enough respect to the men who worked before her, but hearsay is cheap, and her published words are clearly archived.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:45 AM on July 14, 2017 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you look at her seminal paper on mitosing cells, the bibliography includes a citation to this paper she lead authored in 1965, about chloroplast development and radiographic techniques. I don't have time to read any more of her stuff at present, but it's fairly closely related cell bio. You can get a feel for her cell biology research prior to 1967 by looking at Lynn Sagan's records on NCBI.
posted by SaltySalticid at 11:58 AM on July 13, 2017 [3 favorites]