A. PROJECT SUMMARY American Life: Biologists and the Shaping of a Nation Professor Pauly is examining the interrelations between the history of American biology and the biohistory of North American with the aim of clarifying the degree to which the goals of American biologists have been linked to national goals. Professor Pauly hopes to delineate the biotic foundations of the development of the life sciences in the U.S. to uncover how biologists' activities affected the continent's organisms (plant, animal, and human), and to show how these interactions influenced biologists' identities, work experiences, and social relations. The project will explicate how biology and biologists were pivotal in interpreting and advancing what was singular about America. More specifically, Professor Pauly argues that the enduring aim of American biologists was to coadapt diverse populations within a unique and seemingly malleable geographic setting. He describes three movements: 1) A small group of scientists built a bureaucratized network that would, in conjunction with the federal government, identify and manage the plant, animal, and human populations of much of North America. 2) Then, laboratory biologists turned to new subjects of inquiry that seemed intellectually deeper and personally more fulfilling; this academic work soon led to significant reflections regarding the links between the organization of nature and the organization of democracy. 3) And finally, biologists sought new paths through which they could effectively influence American populations. They found different challenges in agriculture, medicine, eugenics, and education. Professor Pauly's research highlights the variety of ways in which biology was a contested and unclear science. Its definition and boundaries were contested. Biologists seemingly conflated thinking about their objects of study and themselves. The involvement of biologists with such contentious ideas and practices as evolution, sex, and viv isection led to difficult relations with members of the public. The relations between universal knowledge claims and national facts and interests were obscure. Professor Pauly argues that these difficulties were not liabilities; rather they formed crucial resources for scientific and political creativity.
