| Popis: |
Following the prologue that introduces amorphousness and fluidity as central characteristics of biophysics in Western scientific literature, this chapter argues that since biophysics has always been known as a discipline “defined by doing,” it is meaningful to study the varying content and the formational context of the discipline. The foundation of my study is: as biophysics can only be captured through depicting what biophysicists do in practice, the Chinese experience of building biophysics is one of the many ways that gives a concrete meaning to biophysics. Biophysics was in its infancy in the first half of twentieth-century China, but its connection with the military-industrial complex gave it the necessary financial resources and political impetus to survive and thrive. In addition to a chapter-by-chapter summary, this chapter considers the peculiarities of China’s biophysics as it was immersed in the experimental development of research rockets for the strategic defense program, liangdan yixing (Two Bombs, One Star). |
