The Network Collective: Rise and Fall of a Scientific Paradigm

ISBN-13: 9783764383725 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 284 str.

Klaus Eichmann

Opis

The network paradigm dominated immunological research from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. The originator was Niels Jerne, who shared the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with G. Kohler and C. Milstein for his brilliant theories in immunology. Jerne hypothesized that the vast diversity of antibodies present in each individual form a network by mutual "idiotypic" recognition, thus regulating the immune system. By making the connection from this postulated "Eigenbehavior" to emerging concepts in systems biology including cybernetics, the network theory opened a whole new way of looking at the immune system, thus elevating immunology onto a higher intellectual level. Eventually, with the advent of exact scientific technologies, the network paradigm became subject to criticism and is now largely abandoned. This book is a first hand historical account of the rise and fall of the network paradigm, describing the main laboratories in the field with their scientific contributions, ways of experimenting and thinking. The description of the scientific aspects is complemented by personal interviews with most of the prominent protagonists and antagonists, disclosing their retrospective views on the network paradigm.

Spis treści

Autobiographical note.- Autobiographical note.- Scientific Knowledge, Delusive or Deductive.- Realism, constructivism, and the naiveté of the experimental scientist.- Beyond underdeterminism: Popper, Kuhn, et al..- The anthropology of science: Ludwik Fleck et al..- The science wars.- Origins, Rise, and Fall of the Network Paradigm.- The immune system, pre-network paradigms.- The necessity for an interactive theory of immunity.- Proto-ideas of the network theory: antibody self-regulation, idiotypy, the brain analogy, and cybernetics.- The idiotypic network theory.- The T cell receptor puzzle.- Suppression turned idiotypic.- Network mannerism.- Post-network immunology: Idiotypic network continues at the bedside.- Hindsight.- Science between Fact and Fiction.- The fictional nature of scientific notions.- Fiction turned fact: The case of antibodies.- The enticing network: Fiction forever.- Logic and laws in life science.

Blurb

The network paradigm dominated immunological research from the early 1970s to the late 1980s. The originator, Niels Jerne, hypothesized that the vast diversity of antibodies in each individual forms a network of mutual "idiotypic" recognition, thus regulating the immune system. In context of emerging concepts of systems biology such as cybernetics and autopoesis, the "Eigenbehavior" of the immune system fascinated an entire generation of young immunologists. But fascination led to experimental errors and overinterpretation, eventually magnifying the immune system from a mere infection-fighting device to a substrate of personality and individuality. As a result, what initially appeared as an exciting new perspective of the immune system is now viewed as a scientific vagary, and is largely abandoned.

 

The author, himself a participant in the network vagary, begins with a description of the leading theoretical concepts on fact finding in science. This is followed by a historical account of the rise and fall of the network paradigm, complemented by personal interviews with some of the prominent protagonists. By comparing the network paradigm to other, more lasting concepts in life science, the author develops a general perspective on how solid knowledge is derived from error-prone scientific methodology, namely by exposure of scientific notions to the scrutiny of reality.