In this paper I will compare two conceptions of basic elements or units of living organisms from the second half of the nineteenth century: Goodsir’s cellular centers and Bütschli’s protoplam. The comparison will be made from the proposition of a nucleoplasmic form, and the referred conceptions are historical expressions of this general form. The nutrition center is a form that combines the functions of nutrition, germination and reproduction, responsible for the production of tissues, organs, tumors and the whole organism from (...) the fertilized egg. Microscopic foams produce organic differentiation through dynamic stabilization of the surface tension between the alveoli. I will conclude critically by discussing the relationship of these two expressions in terms of their continuity or exhaustion as scientific achievements of the biology of the period cited. (shrink)

In this paper I will compare two conceptions of basic elements or units of living organisms from the second half of the nineteenth century: Goodsir’s cellular centers and Bütschli’s protoplam. The comparison will be made from the proposition of a nucleoplasmic form, and the referred conceptions are historical expressions of this general form. The nutrition center is a form that combines the functions of nutrition, germination and reproduction, responsible for the production of tissues, organs, tumors and the whole organism from (...) the fertilized egg. Microscopic foams produce organic differentiation through dynamic stabilization of the surface tension between the alveoli. I will conclude critically by discussing the relationship of these two expressions in terms of their continuity or exhaustion as scientific achievements of the biology of the period cited. (shrink)

resumo: Neste artigo propomos abordar a relação entre os conceitos de natureza e de artefato a partir de uma racionalidade química e alquímica. Pretendemos mostrar que essa racionalidade é originariamente tecnocientífica e apontar o modo como alquimistas e químicos construíram um quadro conceitual ancorado no laboratório do químico e no laboratório do orgânico. Nosso propósito é explicitar as transgressões e a capilaridade tecnocultural dos materiais criados nos laboratórios, bem como da existência de um estilo químico de raciocinar com suas particularidades (...) ontológicas, epistemológicas e metodológicas. abstract: In this article we propose to treat the relation between the concepts of nature and artifact from a chemical and alchemical rationality. We intend to show that this rationality is originally technoscientific and to point out the way alchemists and chemists built a conceptual board anchored in the laboratory of the chemical and in the laboratory of the organic. Our proposal is to explain the transgressions and technocultural capillarity of the materials created in the laboratories, as well as the existence of a chemical style of reasoning with its ontological, epistemological and methodological particularities. (shrink)