Customer Reviews (1)

Informative, interesting, and detailed
Although somewhat out-of-date (frequently referring to the physiological and psychological developments of the 1970s), this book provides a thorough account of Ivan Pavlov's life and his research in physiology and behavior. ... Read more

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Hailed as the "Prince of World Physiology," Ivan Pavlov continues to influence scientists today. His pioneering research on digestion, the brain, and behavior still provides important insights into the minds of animals--including humans--and is an inspiring example of imaginative experimental technique. Pavlov graduated from the theological seminary in his native Ryazan, Russia, in 1869 but almost immediately switched to medicine and enrolled at St. Petersburg University. He became interested in the physiology of circulation and digestion, which led him to the study of conditional and unconditional reflexes. He conducted thousands of experiments with dogs, developing a way to use a dogs salivary glands as a window through which to observe the workings of its brain.
Pavlov lived through the Russian Revolution and the civil war that followed it. Lenin himself recognized his genius and provided financial backing for his research; the new Soviet government built a research complex dedicated exclusively to his experiments. Pavlov was honored for his contributions to science with the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1904.

Oxford Portraits in Science is an ongoing series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world. ... Read more

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Russian physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov is most famous for his development of the concept of the conditional reflex and the classic experiment in which he trained a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. In Pavlov's Physiology Factory: Experiment, Interpretation, Laboratory Enterprise, Daniel P. Todes explores Pavlov's early work in digestive physiology through the structures and practices of his landmark laboratory—the physiology department of the Imperial Institute for Experimental Medicine.

In Lectures on the Work of the Main Digestive Glands, for which Pavlov won the Nobel Prize in 1904, the scientist frequently referred to the experiments of his coworkers and stated that his conclusions reflected "the deed of the entire laboratory."This novel claim caused the prize committee some consternation. Was he alone deserving of the prize? Examining the fascinatingcontent of Pavlov's scientific notes and correspondence, unpublished memoirs, and laboratory publications, Pavlov's Physiology Factory explores the importance of Pavlov's directorship of what the author calls a "physiology factory" and illuminates its relationship to Pavlov's Nobel Prize-winning work and the research on conditional reflexes that followed it.

Todes looks at Pavlov's performance in his various roles as laboratory manager, experimentalist, entrepreneur, and scientific visionary. He discusses changes wrought by government and commercial interests in science and sheds light on the pathways of scientific development in Russia—making clear Pavlov's personal achievements while also examining his style of laboratory management. Pavlov's Physiology Factory thus addresses issues of importance to historians of science and scientists today: "big" versus "small" science, the dynamics of experiment and interpretation, and the development of research cultures. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Insights into the Scientific Process
Dr. Todes's exhaustive study of Ivan Pavlov's laboratory from 1891 to 1904 illustrates the transformation of a lone-investigator to the manager of a large team of scientists all contributing data, experiments, and methods to a larger body of work.This change in scientific style is characeristic of the professionalization of scientific careers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and has much to say about the origins of current laboratory enterprises with teams of technicians, research assistants, graduate students, and post-doctoral scientists all working under a single senior scientist.Todes's detailed analysis of letters, laboratory notebooks, and archival collections in Russia makes this the definitive work in English on Ivan Pavlov's work.It is limited to the work on digestion that earned Pavlov the Nobel Prize, but does not provide a complete account of the work on conditioned reflexes for which Pavlov is now most famous, a subject that the author may have chosen to save for a larger biography of Pavlov.Nonetheless, if we want to understand how a previously obscure physiologist became the leader of a world-class research institute, using the Russian royal family for support, Todes's work is the place to start.Definitive and well worth reading!

Unfortunate approach to history
In the beginning of 20th century Pavlov (Russian physiologist) was nominated several times for the Nobel prize. Pavlov was rejected several times because he freely credited his co-workers which was very unusual at that time and the Nobel committee concerned who was mostly responsible for results - Pavlov, or people working in his lab. Daniel Todes, the author of the book, failes to mention that since then crediting of one's coworkers became very common in the West too. Today it is almost impossible to find a lab where the boss failes to credit his or her multiple co-workers for the experiments conducted by them but conceived by the boss. Nobel Commettee doesn't have a problem with this any more. But Daniel Todes does. He is painstakingly counting the references for Pavlov's technicians on the pages of his Lectures, making it almost a crime. I am well in the middle of the book (probably I will never finish it), and I am still left wondering why such undistinguished guy (in the Mr. Todes' view) finally got his Nobel Prize. According to the book, Pavlov was rather a mediocre scientist, working in mediocre institution in a backward country (that's Russia, and this is probably the key to understand Mr. Todes position), who never invented anything new (Pavlov's famous surgical technics were traced to old technics, in which nerves were freely cut on an assumption that they are irrelevant. This is the same as saying that invention of the automobile was nothing exceptional, since long before people used horse-drawn carriages). Mr. Todes comes very close to accusing Pavlov of scientific dishonesty (Pavlov's claim of his "happy dogs" was not true, in Mr. Todes oppinion, because before he would get "happy dogs" after surgical operations, he would have to kill over 20 dogs to perfect his surgical technics). The fact what rarely anyone could repeat Pavlov's surgery was again used not as an illustration of Pavlov's skill, but only to complain that it was almost impossible to anyone to repeat his experiments. Even Pavlov's attempts to again and again confirm his own results were used against him - logic goes something like this "if he is repeating his own experiments - he is not sure of them, and if he is not sure of them why did he publish them before he was sure".
It looks like an author does not know that nothing in science can be done the first time, all experiments must be repeated and animal sacrifice is a sad, but nesessary part of any physiological experiment, that if someone can not perform a complex operation, it is his problem, not of the one who can, and repeating of experiments after publication is a common thing. It looks like author's logic goes like this "If everything with these damn Russians appears to be great, we know it can not be true, and nothing can be good in reality". And since he "knows" it for sure, he will try to find all that bad which does not exist in reality but is so obvious in his imagination.

I sincerely hope that author is a journalist fairly ignorant of the process of making science in a physiology lab (I do know as I am working in the lab myself) because the book then can be considered a result of a journalist's incompetence. If the author is a scientist, I can not find another explanation than malicious intent to knowingly stretch the facts.
I give it 2 stars, to prise the big work author did in Russian archives, and to honor work of his sincere helpers in both Russia and the US. It also has several nice photographs of Pavlov and his lab. I will scroll the rest of the books for photos, but I feel too bad for the author to read the book to the end. ... Read more

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Pavlov A BIOGRAPHY By B. P. BABKIN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS I. P. PAVLOV Foreword THE following pages, which contain an account of the life and scientific achievements of the great Russian physiologist, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, must be considered only as material for a future, more comprehensive biography. The interval since Pavlovs death has not been sufficiently long for the collection of all the necessary data on his life and work, even by biographers living in Russia. For me, a resident of Canada, it has been much more difficult to obtain the information I desired. Then, inevitably, the biographer is handicapped by a certain lack of perspective in writing of a great man recently departed. He is, as it were, still among us. We see and hear him as he was at our last meeting we regard him from a per sonal angle, which makes it difficult to maintain strict objectivity in the description of his character and work. Nevertheless, I de cided to write a biography of Pavlov for the following reasons. I am Pavlovs senior surviving pupil. I knew him well for thirty five years from 1901 to the time of his death in 1936. I served for ten years as his assistant in the Department of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg. Our associ ation in the laboratory developed into a lasting friendship. These circumstances entitle me to speak of Pavlov as a contemporary who was familiar with his scientific activity throughout the greater part of his life. Since the year 1949 is the centenary of I. P. Pavlovs birth, I felt that for me it was a duty as well as a privilege to com municate to those interested in his life and work all that I know about him. There was another consideration which influenced me in my decision to write this biography. It seemed to me that an account of Pavlovs life by one of his contemporaries who was closely associated with him might be of some value to future students of the cultural development of Russia. Pavlov belonged to the younger generation of those remarkable men who made possible the astounding cultural development of vii FOREWORD nineteenth-century Russia. Less than one generation separated Pa vlov from such men asPirogov anatomist and surgeon, Mendeleev and Butlerov chemists, Sechenov physiologist, Botkin phy sician, Soloviev historian, Chicherin political economist, Tur genev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevski novelists, Tchaikovsky, Mus sorgsky, and Rimski-Korsakov composers, and many others. Pavlov and his contemporaries continued this brilliant tradition. The mental development of Pavlov and his attitude toward life in general were formed during the sixties and seventies of the past century. Profound political and social changes were taking place in Russia during the reign of Alexander II 1855-81. The youth of the period was full of idealism and of a sincere desire to serve its country and humanity. Pavlov retained these high ideals all through his life, steadfastly believing in truth, justice, and liberalism and the all-important role of science. In 1917 this astounding cul tural development of Russia was suddenly disrupted, and new political and social ideas were forcibly imposed on the country. This book consists of four parts. Part I comprises the biography proper and my reminiscences of Pavlov. Parts II, III, and IV deal with his scientific achievements in the physiology of the cardio vascular, digestive, and central nervous systems. As far as possible, the scientific material has been presented in a form comprehensible to any intelligent lay reader. I hope, however, that specialists in these fields will also find there certain things which may interest them. I have been sparing in the use of quotations from the scien tific literature, referring the reader whenever possible to mono graphs rather than to individual articles. In the preparation of the manuscript I have had the help of a number of persons, to whom I should like here to express my sin cere thanks... ... Read more

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A summation of all the experimental data relating to the patho-physiology of the higher nervous activity which had been obtained by the laboratories and clinics of Pavlov during his lifetime and up to twenty years after his death.Includes an extensive bibliography.

This is a translation of the book which won the Stalin prize in 1949. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1489 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from UXL Encyclopedia of Science, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 776 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.This collection of entries covers major areas of science including: biology, genetics, microbiology, astronomy, chemistry, physics, engineering, technology, geology, weather, archaeology, psychology, mathematics, and medicine, and provides readers with a wide range of up-to-date, relevant, and accurate information. ... Read more