To Fly Under Borrowed Colours”

Insulin Discovery Accounts, Scientific Credit, and the Nobel Prize

Bibliographic Data

ID12464878
AuthorsCheryl R Jorgensen‐Earp (corresponding author), Cheryl R Jorgensen-Earp, Darwin D Jorgensen
Year2020
Volume23
Issue1
Pages1-45
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueRhetoric and Public Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1094-8392 • E-ISSN: 1534-5238
PublisherMichigan State University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.14321/rhetpublaffa.23.1.0001
OpenAlexW3015664349
LanguageEN
References cited29

The struggle over credit for the discovery of insulin serves as one of the ugliest examples of the tensions and rivalries inherent in the growth of large-scale laboratory science. An understanding of this historic controversy also lends insight into the use of informal self-narratives directed to the scientifıc community in the negotiation of credit for discovery. Such informal accounts constitute a distinct form of argumentative address that is separate both from formal oral and written presentations of research, also aimed at a scientifıc audience, and popularized accounts aimed at a lay audience. In providing informal self-narratives to their scientifıc peers, the four insulin principals discussed in this article apparently shared a tacit understanding of the narrative grounds on which they could base their claims for discovery credit. In this study, we uncover widespread thematic similarities within these narratives, possibly indicating a common set of criteria within the scientifıc community for judging not only formal scientifıc proof but also the narrative proof found in informal discovery accounts

Argumentative · Art · Cognitive science · Literature · Narrative · Negotiation · Political science · Scientific discovery · Social science · Sociology · Diabetes Management and Research · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · Law · Philosophy and History of Science · Psychology

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