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Concepts and practices of human tissue preservation in the International Biological Program

Bibliographic Data

ID11923374
AuthorsJoanna Radin (0000-0002-2332-6535, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume43
Issue4
Pages484-508
Publication date2013-04-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Studies of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-3127 • E-ISSN: 1460-3659
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0306312713476131
OpenAlexW2144842762
LanguageEN
Citations received74
References cited85

Before the rise of DNA sequence analysis or the controversies over the Human Genome Diversity Project, there was the International Biological Program, which ran from 1964 to 1974. The Human Adaptability arm of the International Biological Program featured a complex encounter between human geneticists and biological anthropologists. These scientists were especially interested in what could be learned from the bodies of people they referred to as both primitive and in danger of going extinct. In this article, I address how new access to technologies of cold storage, which would allow blood to be transported from the field to the lab and be stored for subsequent reanalysis, gave shape to this episode in Cold War human biology and has ramified into our genomic age. This case study highlights the importance of cryopreservation to projects of genetic salvage as well as to the life sciences, more generally. I argue that ‘latency’, a technical term initially used by cryobiologists to describe life in a state of suspended animation, can be extended as a concept for science studies scholars interested in technoscientific efforts to manage the future

Adaptability · Biological sciences · Biology · Cold war · Computational biology · Data science · Diversity (politics · Engineering ethics · Environmental ethics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Race, Genetics, and Society · Ecology

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Unique citing works74
Citations per year5,69
Citation span2013 - 2026 (14)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 72
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