Abstract
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).
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Notes
- 1.
Wang Xiji (王希季), former director of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), applauded the efforts of the biophysicists this way: “the research of cosmobiology and the launch of biological rocket flights at the Institute of Biophysics laid the cornerstone for developing China’s manned spaceflight.” See IBP-CAS (2009) foreword.
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Luk, C.Y.L. (2015). Introduction: Biophysics in Contemporary China. In: A History of Biophysics in Contemporary China. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18093-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18093-9_1
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