The eyes of the olms
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In: History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2009, p. 215-238.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The eyes of the olms
AU - Berz, Peter
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The experiments of the Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer to breed eyes in blind olms is probably one of the most notable manifesations of Lamarckian thinking and research at the beginning of the 20th century. If living in the environment of the dark caves in the Slovenian Kraijna for thousands of years has reduced the eyes of the olms until they nearly disappeared, then is it possible to influence the development in the other direction and speed it up? Will a transformed milieux or media (in a Lamarckian sense) conduct olms to vision, to the mysteries of light? Kammerer's legendary skill in taking care of animals (especially amphibians), the highly modern research environment of an institution unique in whole Europe and America at that time (the Biologische Versuchsanstalt Wien), years of experimental crossings, and, finally, the convergence of biological media and technical media (for example media of development in photography), provided the opportunity for Kammerer to succeed. The olm experiments are part of an elaborate research program of the Viennese Versuchsanstalt and its facilities that assume the environment of animals to be the critical point in developmental, hereditary, and evolutionary research. Theoretically Kammerer's olms ask questions about vision in general and its organ, the eye.
AB - The experiments of the Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer to breed eyes in blind olms is probably one of the most notable manifesations of Lamarckian thinking and research at the beginning of the 20th century. If living in the environment of the dark caves in the Slovenian Kraijna for thousands of years has reduced the eyes of the olms until they nearly disappeared, then is it possible to influence the development in the other direction and speed it up? Will a transformed milieux or media (in a Lamarckian sense) conduct olms to vision, to the mysteries of light? Kammerer's legendary skill in taking care of animals (especially amphibians), the highly modern research environment of an institution unique in whole Europe and America at that time (the Biologische Versuchsanstalt Wien), years of experimental crossings, and, finally, the convergence of biological media and technical media (for example media of development in photography), provided the opportunity for Kammerer to succeed. The olm experiments are part of an elaborate research program of the Viennese Versuchsanstalt and its facilities that assume the environment of animals to be the critical point in developmental, hereditary, and evolutionary research. Theoretically Kammerer's olms ask questions about vision in general and its organ, the eye.
KW - Philosophy
KW - Amphibia
KW - Biological media
KW - Developmental biology
KW - Inheritance of acquired characters
KW - Media
KW - Non-darwinian biologies
KW - Paul kammerer
KW - Theory of vision
KW - Vienna biology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77949412100&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 31
SP - 215
EP - 238
JO - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
JF - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
SN - 0391-9714
IS - 2
ER -