LANCASTER, Pa - Lloyd Ackert, an instructor of history of science and technology at Drexel University, will discuss "The History of Holism in Life Sciences" on Tuesday, March 20, at 4:30 p.m. in Franklin & Marshall's Stahr Auditorium, Stager Hall. Ackert's talk, sponsored by the department of earth and environment and the program in science, technology and society, is free and open to the public. Ackert will trace how a series of scientists developed laboratory-based methods to investigate a holistic vision of nature known as the "cycle of life." He will survey late-18th to mid-20th century sciences as varied as biogeography, organic chemistry, plant physiology, microbiology, soil science, and ecosystem ecology. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, with a degree in history of science, evolutionary biology, and Russian language and areas studies, Ackert went on to earn his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in the history of science, medicine and technology. His doctoral dissertation was on the Russian/Soviet microbiologist Sergei Winogradksy who was among the first to discover the critical roles bacteria in the environment play in major nutrient cycles (sulfur, nitrogen, iron, etc.) Ackert shows that Winogradsky's work was important in bringing agricultural science and soil science into the newly forming discipline of ecology in the early 20th century, especially via his concept of "the cycle of life." In addition, Ackert is currently working on a book for Yale University Press on the concept of holism in the life sciences, from the time of Lavoisier & the origins of physiological chemistry (c. 1780) up through Lovelock and Margulis' Gaia hypothesis and Margulis' cell symbiosis theory of the present day.
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