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Nickelsen, Kärin
(November 2012):
The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis. How to Discover a Biomedical Pathway.
In: Ambix, Vol. 59, No. 3: pp. 266-293
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Full text not available from 'Open Access LMU'.
Abstract
This paper traces the discovery of the so-called Calvin–Benson cycle of
photosynthesis, that is, the cyclic sequence of reactions through which the
reduction of carbon dioxide to carbohydrates is accomplished in the green
organs of plants. This pathway, which herein is understood to be the model
of a mechanism, was elucidated by a research team of the University
of California at Berkeley in the years 1946–1954. The sequence of working
hypotheses is described, with a focus on the methodology and heuristic
strategies of the research group. While it has often been underlined that the
group’s innovative mixture of new techniques (radiotracers and paper chromatography)
was the secret of its success, this paper describes how these
techniques were applied: it transpires that the group combined the classic
difference test, the interpretation of which was guided by additional heuristic
assumptions and mechanistic thinking, with a specific kind of analogical
inference, namely, the transfer of causal knowledge from one context to
another.
