In Context #22

Fall 2009

Feature Articles

“Milkweed: A Brief Photoessay”
By Craig Holdrege
Capturing the visual metamorphosis of the common milkweed from rhizome to flower and finally to a tall stalk with large pods that split open to release a multitude of seeds. This is part of a more comprehensive study of milkweed by Craig, “The Story of an Organism: Common Milkweed.”

“Can Biologists Speak of the ‘Whole Organism’? A Conversation”
By Stephen L. Talbott
There are many misconceptions about what holism in biology might mean, and these misconceptions account for the widespread sense among biologists that the striving for holism is more or less misdirected. In this article, Steve takes a conversational approach as a means to stimulate thinking about the crucial issues.

Notes and Reviews

“When Holism Was the Future”
By Stephen L. Talbott
British biologist E. S. Russell, writing during the first half of the twentieth century, championed a whole-organism biology that refused many of the then-nascent tendencies that have now triumphed in molecular biology. But Russell foresaw to an uncanny degree the limitations and distortions that have infected the molecular point of view.

“A Critique of the Modern Gene — From 1930”
E. S. Russell’s trenchant criticism of the genetic understanding of the organism, as it was developing in his day, looks surprisingly relevant to the genetic landscape today.