Discovering Life, Manufacturing Life, 2010 How the experimental method shaped life sciences

Francis BACON, in his Novum Organum, Robert BOYLE, in his Skeptical Chemist and René DESCARTES, in his Discourse on Method; all of these men were witnesses to the th scientific revolution, which, in the 17 century, began to awaken the western world from a long sleep. In each of these works, the author emphasizes the role of the experimental method in exploring the laws of Nature, that is to say, the way in which an experiment is designed, implemented according to tried and tested te- niques, and used as a basis for drawing conclusions that are based only on results, with their margins of error, taking into account contemporary traditions and prejudices. Two centuries later, Claude BERNARD, in his Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, made a passionate plea for the application of the experimental method when studying the functions of living beings. Twenty-first century Biology, which has been fertilized by highly sophisticated techniques inherited from Physics and Chemistry, blessed with a constantly increasing expertise in the manipulation of the genome, initiated into the mysteries of information techn- ogy, and enriched with the ever-growing fund of basic knowledge, at times appears to have forgotten its roots.

The Roots of Experimental Science from Ancient Greece to the Renaissance.- The Birth of the Experimental Method in the 17th and 18th Centuries.- The Impact of Determinism in the Life Sciences of the 19th and 20th Centuries.- Challenges for Experimentation on Living Beings at the Dawn of the 21st Century.- Epilogue.

Pierre VIGNAIS, was a science doctor, doctor of medicine, was treasurer of the Fondation Roux at the Pasteur Institute of Paris. Professor emeritus of Biochemistry of the medical college of the University Joseph Fourier and director of a URA-CNRS at the ECA. He died in September 2006 at the age of 80.

Both he and his wife Paulette published extensively and their contributions are highly regarded in the fields of biochemistry, molecular biology and bioenergetics.