Chapter 6, Interlude: A Sketch of the Terrain Summary and Analysis

Genetics in many ways had a 'climactic' period during the 1940s. At this time, genes were considered mere theoretical entities, whereas chromosomes were the 'real' entities. This idea continued even into the sixties. Genetics was also not integrated well with biology or evolutionary sciences during that period; this marginalization helps the reader to understand McClintock's work, because she was simply not on the map of biological science. She did not hew close to any institutional school. The 1940s and '50s further marginalized her work. New research paradigms split developmental theory and gene transmission, leaving McClintock in a world of her own. Embryology and genetics were also not closely tied either. Genetics was an outsider vis-à-vis several related sciences that would only much later become integrated. For some...