ArticleJournal of the history of biology2006
Mice and the reactor: the "genetics experiment" in 1950s Britain.
Article in Journal of the history of biology, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- A fascination with tailless mice: a scientific historical review of studies of the T/t complex.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2025Review
- The Cold Futures of Mouse Genetics: Modes of Strain Cryopreservation Since the 1970s.Science, technology & human values · 2023Article
- The Electrophoretic Revolution in the 1960s: Historical Epistemology Meets the Global History of Science and Technology.Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte · 2022Article
- Connecting to the Living History of Radiation Exposure.Journal of the history of biology · 2021Article
- The Molecular Basis of Evolution and Disease: A Cold War Alliance.Journal of the history of biology · 2019Article
- Article
- Shifting syndromes: Sex chromosome variations and intersex classifications.Social studies of science · 2018Article
- "A Cold Spring Harbor in Europe." EURATOM, UNESCO and the Foundation of EMBO.Journal of the history of biology · 2015Article
- Animal models for medical countermeasures to radiation exposure.Radiation research · 2010Article
- Revisiting the "quiet debut" of the double helix: a bibliometric and methodological note on the "impact" of scientific publications.Journal of the history of biology · 2010Article
- Phosphorus-32 in the Phage Group: radioisotopes as historical tracers of molecular biology.Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences · 2009Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The postwar investments by several governments into the development of atomic energy for military and peaceful uses fuelled the fears not only of the exposure to acute doses of radiation as could be expected from nuclear accidents or atomic warfare but also of the long-term effects of low-dose exposure to radiation. Following similar studies pursued under the aegis of the Manhattan Project in the United States, the "genetics experiment" discussed by scientists and government officials in Britain soon after the war, consisted in large-scale low-dose irradiation experiments of laboratory animals to assess the effects of such exposures on humans. The essay deals with the history of that project and its impact on postwar genetics. It argues that radiobiological concerns driven by atomic politics lay at the heart of much genetics research after the war and that the atomic links are crucial to understand how genetics became an overriding concern in the late 20th century.
Indexed as
Identifiers
17575956What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.