The ‘new’ systems biology is generally defined with reference to historical developments like the emergence of high throughput –omics data technologies as well as prominent historical antecedents, like Ludwig von Bertalanffy or Norbert Wiener, as proponents of an ‘old’ systems biology. It seems almost impossible to understand current systems biology approaches without these explanatory allusions. In therefore seems worthwhile to ask inhowfar the ‘new’ and ‘old’ approaches are actually linked beyond an (exoteric) explanatory function for the new field.

Based upon in-depth interviews with Austria-based scientists of different generations and documentary material covering the period in question, links between the Vienna-based work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy and the currently establishing field of systems biology in Vienna are delineated. The focus of this analysis lies on the epistemic culture of systems biology and its institutionalisation in Austria. (As for detailed analyses of Bertalanffy’s work, it is based upon the existing analyses by Drack and Pouvreau). It addresses rhetorical configurations as well as research practices and there interrelation. Moreover, it hints at more general shifts in the broader field of biology during the past century, especially the changing character of interdisciplinary configurations and the (diminishing) importance of local scientific traditions.