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While cloning, stem cells, and regenerative medicine are often imagined in a futurial idiom--as expectations, hype, hope and promises--this article approaches the remaking of genealogy in such contexts from a historical route. Through a series of somewhat disparate historical connections linking Australian sheep to the development of clinical IVF and the cloning of Dolly at the Roslin Institute in Scotland in 1996, this article explores the linkages through which agriculture, embryology, and reproductive biomedicine are thickly intertwined. Key to this examination is not only the history of experimental sheep breeding, and its somewhat unexpectedly genealogical connections to (Australian) national identity ('wool in the veins'), but also the re-emergence of a distinctive frontier ethos in the context of assisted conception, and later human embryonic stem cell derivation. I have set this scene of genealogical interconnection against the criss-crossing traffic between Britain and Australia, and the wool trade, to emphasise the importance of global, as well as local, connections in the bloodlines of animals such as Dolly. In sum, this article examines the idea of the 'biological frontier' by exploring its histories as a means to offset the assumption that this frequently encountered idiom describes a future that is, or must be, by definition, unknown and unknowable.

In May 1912, reports on successful attempts at artificial insemination hit the German papers. Over the following months, the topic was taken up in medical lectures, in the debates of medical associations, and in medical journals. The technique--which had not much changed since the days of James Marion Sims--apparently triggered the imagination of scientists, medical doctors, journalists and authors. That artificial insemination met such interest, however, was not primarily due to its medical usefulness or proven success. Given that insemination with donor sperm was out of the question for most doctors and that ideas about the fertile period within the menstrual cycle were erroneous, contemporary attempts at insemination in humans hardly ever worked. Public interest in this topic rather reflects the desires and expectations which contemporaries associated with artificial insemination and with modern, scientific medicine. What appears to be a comparatively straight forward, low-tech operation today was imagined as a way or creating life artificially. Thus the topic was able to mobilise fears and expectations. The debate not only reflected contemporary beliefs about the possibilities and dangers of modern medicine, it also addressed the meaning of reproduction and infertility and the future of gender relations.

This paper provides a brief comparative overview of the development of the reproductive sciences especially in agriculture in the UK and the US. It begins with the establishment by F. H. A. Marshall in 1910 of the boundaries that framed the reproductive sciences as distinct from genetics and embryology. It then examines how and where the reproductive sciences were taken up in agricultural research settings, focusing on the differential development of US and UK institutions. The reproductive sciences were also pursued in medical and biological settings, and I discuss how the intersections among all three allowed the circulation of both ideas and scientists' careers. Across the twentieth century, scientific leadership in the reproductive sciences alternated between the UK and US, and these patterns are elucidated. I conclude with thoughts on future research that might emphasize the elaboration of industrialization processes in agriculture and new capacities to transform both reproductive processes and their products--life itself--as biopower comes to be more ambitiously understood as extending across all species.

In medicine the changes in therapies are the evidence of the progress in knowledge. But many examples concerning the treatment of early spontaneous abortion, late abortion, menopause, contraception and infertility show that gynaecologists and obstetricians change their treatments just as fashion designers change their styles. My 'Corner' on this occasion is an appeal for caution and humility.

With Ham, Leeuwenhoek discovered animalcules in human semen in 1677, without theoretical interpretations. Discussions focused on the respective role of ovum and animalcules during two centuries with erroneous doctrines. Modern ideas on status and origin of animalcules are associated with the development of the cell theory. Animalcules became spermatozoa. In 1875, Hertwig observed that the head of spermatozoon becomes a pronucleus and combines with the female pronucleus, thus establishing the concept that fertilization is the conjugation of two cells. During the first half of 20th century, endocrinology and genetics influenced management of infertile couples. Cryopreservation, analyses of ultrastructural morphology improved knowledges of normal and abnormal male gametes. In Vitro Fertilization and more IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection opened new views on the role of spermatozoa in human generation. Genetics and procreation were more and more so linked that each perspective of further advances shocked ethical considerations as transgression of natural biology. The future of spermatozoon in human reproductive programs remains a mystery according to, for example, experimental development using stem cell cultures.

Louise Brown, the first baby conceived after IVF, was born on 25 July 1978 and turned 27 last year. From one perspective, her birth can be seen as the culmination of 300 years of medical and scientific investigation aimed at understanding the fascinating process of reproduction. This essay was written as a tribute to mark the unique contribution to assisted reproductive technology (ART) which resulted from the collaboration of a scientist, Bob Edwards, and a clinician, Patrick Steptoe, who pioneered the successful clinical use of IVF. This article was not intended to be a conventional history of science, but instead has primarily focused on those early discoveries which in the author's opinion were critical to our current understanding of mammalian reproduction. There are some digressions and many omissions necessitated by attempting to cover 300 years in a relatively short essay. In particular, there is no mention of endocrinology because this area has been covered in numerous reviews and books. The main sources of historical information for this article were the authoritative books of Professor Cole (1930), Dr Elizabeth Gasking (1967), Professor John Farley (1982), Dr Fielding H. Garrison (1929) and the Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society or Letters collated from the latter.

The literature on infant mortality has remained largely detached from the burgeoning literature on the body and embodiment. This paper reconsiders these two literatures in relation to the dynamics of industrialisation, social reform, and struggles over women's bodies in late 19th and early 20th century Dundee. During this period, Dundee was dominated by the jute industry which employed a largely female workforce. This industrial nexus was articulated within a broader environment of social improvement that was preoccupied with population growth and national power. As the need for healthy 'future citizens' became imperative, Dundee's infant mortality rate became a crucial marker in assessing working women's role and care of self. This paper pays specific attention to the strategies of reform that tracked, monitored and disciplined these working women and their 'reproductive' bodies. It focuses on the forms of knowledge and systems of knowledge production that characterised these projects, and how the conjunctures between power and knowledge were grounded in material spatial practices, transforming women's social and physical place in Dundee, and forming an urban geography of 'health reform'.

Rihachi Iizuka has contributed strong leadership for the remarkable development of reproductive medicine which has undergone a complete transformation in the previous half century. The Keio University Hospital introduced artificial insemination as the first assisted reproductive technology in Japan. As it follows, lizuka and his colleagues first reported the live birth of a female infant in August 1949 after heterologous insemination: AID. Iizuka and his colleagues were also among the first to successfully inseminate a woman with sperm that had been frozen. He developed the new cryopreservation medium for human semen called "KS Cryo-medium". He also developed semen preparation methods of washing and concentrating sperm counts by centrifugation with Percoll (colloidal silica derivative) solution for oligozoospermic patients. These methods are broadly used in the clinical field. Furthermore, he developed the X-, Y-bearing sperm preseparation method using Percoll which is the so-called "gender selection" procedure for preventing X-linked genetic disorders. The most striking assisted reproductive technology was in vitro fertilization first carried out in Britain. Prior to the clinical application in Japan, the Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation was established as the main organ for the exchange of official scientific information by lizuka in 1982. As rapid development and spreading of in vitro fertilization and its implicated technologies, lizuka and his colleague of the department had the first success of offspring following embryo freezing and thawing in Japan which was performed at the Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital. Already the numbers of offspring following in vitro fertilization treatment has risen to approximately 1% of births in Japan. Rihachi lizuka still undertakes the responsibility for reproductive medicine as he has done so far.

The National Advisory Board on Ethics in Reproduction (NABER) was an independent, private, not-for-profit board created in 1991 by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Fertility Society (AFS) to review and comment on ethical issues related to the use of new reproductive technologies. This paper reviews NABER's mission and accomplishments, and attempts to make sense of why this vibrant, important organization closed its doors in 1998.

The discovery of uteroglobin resulted from investigations on the biochemical composition of oviductal and uterine secretions of the rabbit and other mammals. These determinations about physiological composition were urgently requested to prepare culture media for research on early mammalian development in vitro. Discovery of significant proteins during the sixties reflected the laboratory skills of that time. Protein characterization was achieved by isolation via Sephadex gels, electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gels, and finally immunoprecipitation using classical polyclonal antibodies. The molecular biology was not yet established. Uteroglobin could be found as the major protein component of rabbit uterine secretion. From the beginning, it was already identified as an unusually small, spheric uterine secretory molecule without any carbohydrates--hence its name. Uteroglobin was the first mammalian protein that turned out to be progesterone-regulated and, at the same time, released in mg amounts actually in one organ compartment. Moreover, uteroglobin and its gene proved to be a reliable model for the description of progesterone/progesterone receptor complex action at the DNA level. After its original observation in the uterus, however, uteroglobin was detected also in several other organs, for example, the epididymis, the seminal vesicle, and the lung. Initially, it could not be found in the blood, which challenged the hypothesis that uteroglobin specifically should operate by local activation rather than by a humoral or endocrine effect. Later, though, the human uteroglobin molecule, isolated from blood filtrate, was used for detailed structural analyses. The rabbit uteroglobin model certainly was beneficial for reproductive biological research. Experimental interference with steroid hormone regulation during preimplantation presented surprising effects, which led to the discovery of the transposition of the implantation window. The uterine secretion protein patterns, in particular the uteroglobin fraction and the beta-glycoprotein fraction, served as decisive marker profiles to identify the biological stage of the intrauterine microenvironment during preimplantation. This diagnostic procedure, using only protein parameters, enabled us to precisely predict the receptive stage of the endometrium for donated blastocysts to achieve implantation successfully.

The author has seen more progress in science and technology than all scientists of all preceding periods together since the dawn of history and has witnessed a number of powerful revolutions (e.g. scientific, information, postindustrial, globalization, environmental, contraceptive, reproductive health, gender equity and demographic) that have profoundly changed the world and our perception of it. The contraceptive revolution started off this irreversible process with spectacular results. By 1990, contraception had become a global lifestyle for more than 900 million couples. It also resulted in subsequent revolutions in reproductive health and gender equity in a new world with a dramatically changed population structure with fewer and fewer children and more and more elderly. These revolutions will assist humankind in the 21st century in deconstructing the deterministic world view of past centuries and replacing it with a science-driven anthropocentric world view.