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Please join us on Monday, November 19, for an STS colloquium co-sponsored
with the History of Science Department at Harvard.<br><br>
<div align="center"><font size=4><b>From Messengers and Bodies to Signals
and Cells: <br>
Theories of Hormone Action, 1960-1975<br>
<i> <br>
</i>Hannah Landecker, Rice University and Harvard University
(Visiting)<br>
<br>
4:00 p.m., MIT, E51-095*<br>
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In the 1960s, the concept of hormones as messengers that traveled from
one organ to another in the body and acted on enzymes to cause
physiological changes was gradually replaced by hormones as signals that
traveled from one cell to another, and acted via the cellular mechanisms
of receptors and gene transcription to cause a cascade of molecular
events. In particular, metabolic effects of hormones in the liver
were a site of intensive work and debate about the mechanism of hormonal
translation of environmental cues into bodily responses. This story
of the mechanism of hormone action is offered as an example of a larger
history of the organism and its milieu in twentieth century biology: how
the field of cell signaling or cell signal transduction moved to the
center of our understanding of the mediating mechanisms between bodies
and environments.<br>
<br>
Hannah Landecker is an Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department
at Rice University, and in 2007-2008 Visiting Assistant Professor in the
History of Science Department at Harvard. She is the author
of <i>Culturing Life: How Cells Became Technologies</i>, published
in 2007 by Harvard University Press.<br><br>
For further information, please call 617-452-2390.<br>
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* Location of E51 on MIT campus:
<a href="http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=E51-095&mapsearch=go" eudora="autourl">
http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=E51-095&mapsearch=go<br><br>
</a><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Debbie Meinbresse<br>
STS Program, MIT<br>
617-452-2390<br>
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