Paul Kammerer (1880–1926) was one of the most controversial and tragic figures in the history of biology of the early 20th century. For a quite short time, the Viennese zoologist became world-famous with his experiments with toads and salamanders that showed the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
In 1926, a zoologist from New York came to Vienna and found out that a conserved midwife-toad, one of the crucial specimens of Kammerer’s collection, had been manipulated. A few weeks after this discovery was revealed in the magazine Nature, Kammerer committed suicide, which of course was interpreted as a confession of guilt. Consequently, his neo-Lamarckist theories were banned in the West (but not in Soviet-Union, where it served as a basis for Lyssenkoism) until very recently. (Today, his experiments are being re-evaluated in the light of epigenetics.)
The criminal case itself, the topic of hundreds of accounts (one book, book-chapters, articles, dissertations), is still unsolved. In my presentation, I will offer a new theory, which for the first time names a possible suspect other than Kammerer and a surprising motive for the manipulation. Thereby, I will also shed new light on the intense politicisation of science and especially biology already in the 1920ies
To the 12h will project the film "Salamandra" (1928)
Organized by: Residence for Researchers and Institució Milà i Fontanals
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