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Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
  • A Cell-Based Epistemology: Human Genetics in The Era of Biomedicine
Chromosome Photography and the Human Karyotype
Soraya de Chadarevian
HIST STUD NAT SCI, Vol. 45 No. 1, Winter 2014; (pp. 115-146) DOI: 10.1525/hsns.2015.45.1.115
Soraya de Chadarevian
Department of History and Institute for Society and Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, 6265 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1473; chadarevian@history.ucla.edu.
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Abstract

In 1956, Joe Hin Tjio and Albert Levan published a paper in which they suggested that the number of human chromosomes was 46 and not 48. The story of the recount has been the subject of numerous studies and debates. In this essay I propose to revisit the 1956 paper and the questions surrounding it by considering the chromosome images it contained. Paying attention to the images, including especially the photomicrograph that has come to represent the new chromosome count, offers the opportunity to study the history of an iconic image of genetics. In the course of this history the image moved from proving the quality of Tjio and Levan’s preparations to becoming an object of contention, proof of authorship, example to emulate, manipulable object, recognizable icon, and historical object in its own right. More generally, the essay highlights the role of visual techniques and materials in shaping knowledge and staking claims in human heredity in the mid-twentieth century. The history of postwar cytogenetics has long been overshadowed by dominant accounts of molecular approaches in biology that developed rapidly at the same time. Yet the recognition that, well into the 1970s, chromosome pictures were the most recognizable images of genetics points to the need for new approaches to the historiography.

  • human chromosome number
  • human karyotype
  • microscopy
  • photomicrographs
  • iconic images of science
  • Joe Hin Tjio
  • Albert Levan
  • © 2015 by the Regents of the University of California
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Vol. 45 No. 1, Winter 2014

Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences: 45 (1)
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Chromosome Photography and the Human Karyotype
Soraya de Chadarevian
HIST STUD NAT SCI, Vol. 45 No. 1, Winter 2014; (pp. 115-146) DOI: 10.1525/hsns.2015.45.1.115
Soraya de Chadarevian
Department of History and Institute for Society and Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, 6265 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1473; chadarevian@history.ucla.edu.
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Chromosome Photography and the Human Karyotype
Soraya de Chadarevian
HIST STUD NAT SCI, Vol. 45 No. 1, Winter 2014; (pp. 115-146) DOI: 10.1525/hsns.2015.45.1.115
Soraya de Chadarevian
Department of History and Institute for Society and Genetics, University of California Los Angeles, 6265 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1473; chadarevian@history.ucla.edu.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
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