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Styles of Scientific Practice and the Prion Controversy

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Infectious Processes

Part of the book series: Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History ((STMMH))

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Abstract

In 1982, Stanley Prusiner proposed the prion hypothesis to account for the unusual characteristics of the agent of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). However, his was not the only alternative hypothesis that sought to explain the strange behaviour of this infectious agent. At about the same time Alan Dickinson, later director of the Neuropathogenesis Unit (NPU) in Edinburgh, suggested that the agent might be a virino, that is, a piece of nucleic acid coated with host protein. These opposing views led to a controversy between two groups of TSE researchers.

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Interview material

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Authors
  1. Ki-Heung Kim
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Aberdeen, UK

    Eve Seguin (political scientist and a researcher) (political scientist and a researcher)

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© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Kim, KH. (2004). Styles of Scientific Practice and the Prion Controversy. In: Seguin, E. (eds) Infectious Processes. Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524392_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524392_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51588-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-52439-2

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