Outsider Scientists
Routes to Innovation in Biology
"Outsider Scientists" describes the transformative role played by "outsiders" in the growth of the modern life sciences. Biology, which occupies a special place between the exact and human sciences, has historically attracted many thinkers whose primary training was in other fields: mathematics, physics, chemistry, linguistics, philosophy, history, anthropology, engineering, and even literature. These outsiders brought with them ideas and tools that were foreign to biology, but which, when applied to biological problems, helped to bring about dramatic, and often surprising, breakthroughs.
This volume brings together eighteen thought-provoking biographical essays of some of the most remarkable outsiders of the modern era, each written by an authority in the respective field. From Noam Chomsky using linguistics to answer questions about brain architecture, to Erwin Schrodinger contemplating DNA as a physicist would, to Drew Endy tinkering with Biobricks to create new forms of synthetic life, the outsiders featured here make clear just how much there is to gain from disrespecting conventional boundaries. Innovation, it turns out, often relies on importing new ideas from other fields. Without its outsiders, modern biology would hardly be recognizable.
About the Author
Oren Harman is the chair of the Graduate Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, the author of "The Man Who Invented the Chromosome" and "The Price of Altruism", and co-editor of "Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology". He lives in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Michael R. Dietrich is a professor in the History and Philosophy of Science Department at the University of Pittsburgh and co-editor of "The Educated Eye" and "Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology".
Reviews
"Biology is a constantly shifting chimera – so we learn from this remarkable set of essays curated by Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich. But unlike the Greek mythic creature (lion, goat, snake), biology, these authors show, has been even more polymorphic, and in ever new ways: biology is put together from linguistic, philosophical, and literary practices, and involves skills borrowed from physics, computation, and chemistry, among other fields. Anyone interested in biology should read this book – and so should all of us who want to understand outside thinking as a crucial driver of innovation" – Peter Galison, Harvard University
