The construction of a scientific model: Otto Warburg and the building block strategy

In the years 1919 to 1923, Otto Warburg published four papers that were to revolutionise the field of photosynthesis. In these articles, he introduced a number of new techniques to measure the rate of photosynthesis, put forward a new model of the mechanism and added a completely new perspective to the topic by attempting to establish the process's efficiency in terms of the light quantum requirement. In this paper I trace the roots of Warburg's series of contributions to photosynthesis research by exploring three different contexts of inspiration: Warburg's own research into cell respiration, his father's work on the quantum yield of photochemical reactions in general and the photosynthesis work carried out by Richard Willstatter and Arthur Stoll. When these influences are considered together, it becomes clear that Warburg implemented a Building Block Strategy in his research: rather than inventing his photosynthesis model from scratch, he availed himself of fragments from other contexts, which he then recombined in a new and innovative way. This way of working is considered to be standard practice in scientific research. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.