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SUMMARY:A contagious cause: the search for cancer viruses and the growth o
 f American biomedicine - Robin Scheffler (Massachusetts Institute of Techn
 ology)
DTSTART:20171026T143000Z
DTEND:20171026T160000Z
UID:TALK84991@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Agnes Bolinska
DESCRIPTION:Throughout the twentieth century\, successive generations of m
 edical\, scientific and organizational advances confronted\, and were conf
 ounded by\, the challenge of cancer. Few theories of cancer embodied this 
 cycle of hope and frustration better than the idea that cancer might be ca
 used by an infectious agent\, particularly a virus. Following cancer virus
 es through the twentieth century allows us to understand the political gro
 und upon which biology and medicine merged together to form biomedicine in
  America\, as well as the impact that this new political formation had on 
 the capacity of biologists to reimage the nature of life in molecular term
 s. In considering this path\, I also offer some more general points as to 
 how historians of science and medicine should think about the relationship
  between experimental and political systems and the relevance that this re
 lationship has for our understanding of 'failed' scientific endeavours.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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