The rhetoric of informational molecules: Authority and promises in the early study of molecular evolution

Abstract

This paper explores the connection between the epistemic and the "political" dimensions of the metaphor of biformation during the early days of the study of Molecular Evolution. While preserving some of the meanings already documented in the history of molecular biology, the metaphor acquired a new, powerful use as a substitute for "history." A rhetorical analysis of Emile Zuckerkandl's paper, "Molecules as Documents of Evolutionary History," highlights the ways in which epistemic claims on the validity and superiority of molecular evidence for evolution were intimately connected with authority issues in evolutionary biology. The debate is situated within the framework of the battle for resources between traditional evolutionists and molecular biologists at the beginning of the 1960s. The architects of evolutionary synthesis questioned the idea that molecular characters constitute "cleaner" and "more direct" evidence of evolution. Nevertheless, the information discourse constituted a productive space for the development of a new research program that, paradoxically, has made explicit the limitations of the information metaphor in reconstructing life's history.