For many years, we operated in STS UCL a portfolio website, “Made in STS UCL“. Recently, we took the difficult decision to withdraw that site. The concept behind the site was to provide a portfolio of excellent work students have created in their undergraduate degree programmes and Master’s degree programme in our department. This site hosted one Master’s thesis that has been among my favourites over the many years I’ve supervised them: Michael Buttolph (2008) “One hundred and one Mendelians”. Included in the posting was the original database Mike developed for his project. Such was a scale of research undertaken in Mike’s project, I offered to distribute this project for historians in the area. Mike has since developed his ideas in more detail, and with some revision. To my mind, this thesis remains a highly commendable piece of work. An enormous amount of work. When the site came down, I could not bear to see it disappear from open access. To be clear, this is Buttolph’s work – not mine – so, full credit to him.
Summary of Buttolph (2008)
This dissertation presents a detailed analysis of the history of Mendelian genetics in the first decade following its inception in 1900. It shows that there is more to that history than the ‘rediscovery’ of Mendel and a debate between the new Mendelians and the ‘biometricians’, and shows once again that history focussed on ‘big fish’ may mislead.
Publication Information for Buttolph (2008)
| Title | One Hundred and One Mendelians |
| Author | Michael Buttolph |
| Module | MSc dissertation |
| Session | 2007-2008 |
| Level | MSc |
| Assignment | Student completes research project culminating in a dissertation of approximately 10,000 words |
| Credit | Michael Buttolph |
| Other information | This project also included a database for the scientists studied, presented as an Excel database (download database as zip file). |
| Citation | Buttloph, Michael. 2008. One hundred and one Mendelians. MSc dissertation (London Centre for History of Science, Medicine and Technology). |
| Download | Download Buttolph (2008) as zip file |