Summary The purpose of this work is to translate some of Robert Boyle's chemical experiments into the terms of modern chemistry. Most of the reactions involve sensible qualities, since there are on it considerable helpful tracking descriptions like heating, hissing, colour changing, etc. For a long time in the history of science, this procedure was seen as an exercise in anachronism which should be avoided at all costs. Recently many scholars have demonstrated that chemical translation can assist with historical work (...) instead of causing confusion, and it may be very useful as a tool for the history of chemistry and for reproducing past chemical experiments. (shrink)

In recent decades, several authors have claimed that an epoch-making change in the development of science is taking place. A closer examination of this claim shows that these authors take different – and problematic – concepts of an epochal break as their points of departure. In order to facilitate an evaluation of the current development of science, I would like to propose a concept of an epochal change according to which it is not necessarily a discontinuous process that typically begins (...) in a subarea of the sciences, has far-reaching consequences for the entire system of the sciences, and can be observed by contemporaries as early as during its initial phase. Taking this concept as my point of departure, I discuss various candidates for the status of an epochal transformation in the recent development of the sciences. Although there are sound reasons to doubt that an epochal break is currently taking place, one must concede that the sciences are probably in a profound transformation, which could unfold in various directions, perhaps even leading to epoch-making new characterizations of the sciences. (shrink)

Drug development regularly has to deal with complex circumstances on two levels: the local level of pharmacological intervention on specific target proteins, and the systems level of the effects of pharmacological intervention on the organism. Different development strategies in the recent history of early drug development can be understood as competing attempts at coming to grips with these multi-level complexities. Both rational drug design and high-throughput screening concentrate on the local level, while traditional empirical search strategies as well as recent (...) systems biology approaches focus on the systems level. The analysis of these strategies reveals serious obstacles to integrating the study of interventive and systems complexity in a systematic, methodical way. Due to some fairly general properties of biological networks and the available options for pharmaceutical intervention, drug development is captured in an obstinate methodological dilemma. It is argued that at least in typical cases, drug development therefore remains dependent on coincidence, serendipity or plain luck to bridge the gap between development methodology and actual therapeutic success. (shrink)

Science studies scholars of the twenty-first century have been arguing for a reconceptualization of science based on the emergence of new values and practices. Allegedly, these new norms have come from science in the context of application. However, the argument here is that science in the context of application is a phenomenon with as long and rich a history as so-called pure or basic science. Science in the context of application only appears to be new since so little light has (...) been shined on applied science by historians and philosophers of science. This article explores the consequences of reaching back into remote history seeking science in the context of application and finds that doing so helps scholars understand present day developments, as well. Three examples of historical applied science are explored: ancient Roman engineering, Enlightenment-era navigation and surveying, and American early Republic engineering. In addition, the work of I. Bernard Cohen is examined for historiographical evidence of a narrowing account of what counts as science in the post-WWII period. (shrink)

Those with knowledge about scientific instruments come from many different fields. Prominent among them are (1) collectors and dealers, (2) curators, (3) historians, (4) instrument makers, (5) philosophers, and (6) scientists (the order is alphabetical, not value-laden). The annual symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission often brings members of each of these groups together, and they learn from one another. What follows are brief reflections on the activities of each group when its members consider instruments.

Tobacco mosaic virus has served as a model organism for pathbreaking work in plant pathology, virology, biochemistry and applied genetics for more than a century. We were intrigued by a photograph published in Phytopathology in 1934 showing that Tabasco pepper plants responded to TMV infection with localized necrotic lesions, followed by abscission of the inoculated leaves. This dramatic outcome of a biological response to infection observed by Francis O. Holmes, a virologist at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, was used (...) to score plants for resistance to TMV infection. Our objective was to gain a better understanding of early to mid-twentieth century ideas of genetic resistance to viruses in crop plants. We investigated Holmes’ observation as a practical exercise in reworking an experiment, having been inspired by Pamela Smith’s innovative Making and Knowing Project. We had a great deal of difficulty replicating Holmes’ experiment, finding that biological materials and experimental customs change over time, in ways that ideas do not. Using complementary tools plus careful study and interpretation of the original text and figures, we were able to rework, yet only partially replicate, this experiment. Reading peer-reviewed manuscripts that cited Holmes’ 1934 report provided an additional level of insight into the interpretation and replication of this work in the decades that followed. From this, we touch on how experimental reworking can inform our strategies to address the reproducibility “crisis” in twenty-first century science. (shrink)

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse and criticize the argument of the experimenters' regress proposed by Harry Collins in 1985. In order to do that, I begin with an introduction to the experiments that aimed to detect gravity waves performed by Joseph Weber during 1970, then I analyse and discuss both forms of the argument: the epistemological and the ontological. Finally, after giving an outline of a theory of experimental reproduction and an explication of the concept of (...) replication, I propose two ways of avoiding the experimenters' regress. (shrink)

This chapter presents the historical-investigative approach used in science teaching. Both history and philosophy of science have come to a sophisticated understanding of the role that experiments play in the generation and establishment of scientific knowledge. This recent development, called the “experimental turn,” is discussed first. Next, this chapter analyzes how practical work has been discussed among science educators in recent decades. Based on such a broad perspective, the historical-investigative approach is linked to recent advancements in history and philosophy of (...) science and in science education. Several modifications of the historical-investigative approach are outlined in order to illustrate their particular objectives, potential, and richness. (shrink)

I argue in the paper that classical chemistry is a science predominantly concerned with material substances, both useful materials and pure chemical substances restricted to scientific laboratory studies. The central epistemological and methodological status of material substances corresponds with the material productivity of classical chemistry and its way of producing experimental traces. I further argue that chemist’s ‘pure substances’ have a history, conceptually and materially, and I follow their conceptual history from the Paracelsian concept of purity to the modern concept (...) of pure stoichiometric compounds. The history of the concept of ‘pure substances’ shows that modern chemists’ concept of purity abstracted from usefulness rather than being opposed to it. Thus modern chemists’ interest in pure chemical substances does not presuppose a concept of pure science. (shrink)