Sergei Vinogradskii and the Cycle of Life

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Plant Physiology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. A Synthesis of Thermodynamics and Bioenergetics in Plant Physiology: The Investigation of a Moody Apprentice

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 3-22

   3. The Exchange of Matter and the Transformation of Energy

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 23-36

3. Experiment and Natural History

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-37

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   2. The Laboratory is Nature: Investigating the Cycle of Life Under the Microscope

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 39-58

   3. Free Nature in the Laboratory

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 59-70

4. Ecology

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 71-71

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   2. Vinogradskii’s Transformation from Plant Physiologist to Ecologist, 1890–1920

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 73-92

   3. Soil Science and Russian Ecology

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 93-103

5. French Agriculture

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-105

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   2. The Master of Brie-Compte-Robert and His “Direct Method:” Translating the Cycle of Life into Ecology

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 107-124

   3. Ecological Microbiology

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 125-137

6. The Impact of Vinogradskii’s Work

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139

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   2. Science is Ecological and Ecology is Scientific: The Uptake of Vinogradskii’s Direct Methods

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 141-160

   3. Vinogradskii’s Reception in Russian and Soviet Microbiology

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 161-172

   4. Conclusions

      • Lloyd Ackert

      Pages 173-178

7. Back Matter

   Pages 179-191

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This is one of those biographies that provide a window onto the broader understanding of science in its social and cultural context. Using Sergei Nikolaevich Vinogradskii’s career and scientific research trajectory as a point of entry, this book illustrates the manner in which microbiologists, chemists, botanists, and plant physiologists inscribed the concept of a “cycle of life” into their investigations. Their research transformed a longstanding notion into the fundamental approaches and concepts that underlay the new ecological disciplines that emerged in the 1920s. The book presents a reconstruction of significant episodes of Vinogradskii’s laboratory practices and the role of theory in their development. It paints the broader picture of the history of ecology, microbiology and soil science and how these are uniquely united: through the concept of the cycle of life.    ​

• Cycle of Life
• History of Science
• Holistic Habit of Mind
• Sergei Winogradsky
• The Delft School of Microbiology
• natural historical methodologies

From the book reviews:

“The book is an important contribution to our picture of shifting disciplinary boundaries, as well as to discussions of the not-so-black-and-white distinction between field science and lab science. … it complicates our understanding of the streams of thought and methodology that blended into ecology and into Vernadsky’s biogeochemistry by 1920 or so. Thus, it is an important contribution to environmental history–particularly restoring the cycle of life concept to the narrative–as well as to the history of biology.” (James Strick, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Vol. 48, 2014)

• , Dept of History & Politics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA

  Lloyd Ackert

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