Ekin
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Slayton <rslayton@stanford.edu>
Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Subject: Friday (4/24): Michael Lynch, "Test Objects and Other Epistemic Things: A History of a Nanoscale Object"
To: sts-seminar@lists.stanford.edu
--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==
sts-seminar mailing list
sts-seminar@lists.stanford.edu
https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/sts-seminar
From: Rebecca Slayton <rslayton@stanford.edu>
Date: Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 9:56 AM
Subject: Friday (4/24): Michael Lynch, "Test Objects and Other Epistemic Things: A History of a Nanoscale Object"
To: sts-seminar@lists.stanford.edu
THIS FRIDAY (4/24) IN STANFORD'S SEMINAR ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Speaker: Michael Lynch, Cornell University
Title: "Test Objects and Other Epistemic Things: A History of a Nanoscale Object"
When: Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:30 PM
Where: Encina Hall, 2nd Floor, East Conference Room, E207 http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=06-030
Discussant: Karin Knorr Cetina, Universität Konstanz and University of Chicago
Abstract: This paper follows the history of an object. The purpose of doing so is to come to terms with a distinctive kind of research object, as well as to chronicle a significant line of research and technology-development associated with the broader nanoscience/nanotechnology movement. We are calling this kind of object a 'test object': one of a family of epistemic things that make up the material culture of laboratory science. Depending upon the case, a test object can have variable shadings of practical, mathematical, and epistemic significance. Clear cases of test object have highly regular and reproducible visible properties that can be used for testing instruments and training novices. The test object featured in this paper is the Silicon (111) 7x7, a particular surface configuration (or, as it is often called, a 'reconstruction') of silicon atoms. Research on this object over a period of several decades was closely bound up with the development of novel instruments for visualizing atomic structures. Despite having no obvious commercial value, the Si(111) 7x7 was a focal object for the formation of research networks in industry and academia. It also exhibited a complex structure that offered a sustained challenge for structural theorists. The study follows shifts in the epistemic status of the Si(111) 7x7, and uses it to re-examine familiar conceptions of representation and observation in the history, philosophy, and social study of science.
Michael Lynch is a Professor in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. His research is on discourse, visual representation, and practical action in research laboratories, clinical settings, and legal tribunals. His most recent book, Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting (University of Chicago Press, co-authored with Simon Cole, Ruth McNally & Kathleen Jordan) examines the interplay between law and science in criminal cases involving DNA evidence. He is Editor of the journal Social Studies of Science, and current President of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
Karin Knorr Cetina is professor of the Theory of Sociology at the Universität Konstanz, and the George Wells Beadle Distinguished Service professor of Anthropology, Sociology and of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. She specializes in economic anthropology/sociology, the anthropology of science, knowledge and technology, globalization, contemporary social theory, and qualitative methods. She is author of numerous books, chapters, and articles, including Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge (1999). She recently co-edited The Sociology of Financial Markets (2004), with Alex Preda. Currently, she focuses on the study of global microstructures and social studies of finance.
This talk is sponsored by Stanford's Science, Technology, and Society Program. For a full schedule see http://www.stanford.edu/group/STS/SSSTS%20Spring%2009.pdf
Speaker: Michael Lynch, Cornell University
Title: "Test Objects and Other Epistemic Things: A History of a Nanoscale Object"
When: Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:30 PM
Where: Encina Hall, 2nd Floor, East Conference Room, E207 http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=06-030
Discussant: Karin Knorr Cetina, Universität Konstanz and University of Chicago
Abstract: This paper follows the history of an object. The purpose of doing so is to come to terms with a distinctive kind of research object, as well as to chronicle a significant line of research and technology-development associated with the broader nanoscience/nanotechnology movement. We are calling this kind of object a 'test object': one of a family of epistemic things that make up the material culture of laboratory science. Depending upon the case, a test object can have variable shadings of practical, mathematical, and epistemic significance. Clear cases of test object have highly regular and reproducible visible properties that can be used for testing instruments and training novices. The test object featured in this paper is the Silicon (111) 7x7, a particular surface configuration (or, as it is often called, a 'reconstruction') of silicon atoms. Research on this object over a period of several decades was closely bound up with the development of novel instruments for visualizing atomic structures. Despite having no obvious commercial value, the Si(111) 7x7 was a focal object for the formation of research networks in industry and academia. It also exhibited a complex structure that offered a sustained challenge for structural theorists. The study follows shifts in the epistemic status of the Si(111) 7x7, and uses it to re-examine familiar conceptions of representation and observation in the history, philosophy, and social study of science.
Michael Lynch is a Professor in the Department of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. His research is on discourse, visual representation, and practical action in research laboratories, clinical settings, and legal tribunals. His most recent book, Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting (University of Chicago Press, co-authored with Simon Cole, Ruth McNally & Kathleen Jordan) examines the interplay between law and science in criminal cases involving DNA evidence. He is Editor of the journal Social Studies of Science, and current President of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
Karin Knorr Cetina is professor of the Theory of Sociology at the Universität Konstanz, and the George Wells Beadle Distinguished Service professor of Anthropology, Sociology and of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. She specializes in economic anthropology/sociology, the anthropology of science, knowledge and technology, globalization, contemporary social theory, and qualitative methods. She is author of numerous books, chapters, and articles, including Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge (1999). She recently co-edited The Sociology of Financial Markets (2004), with Alex Preda. Currently, she focuses on the study of global microstructures and social studies of finance.
This talk is sponsored by Stanford's Science, Technology, and Society Program. For a full schedule see http://www.stanford.edu/group/STS/SSSTS%20Spring%2009.pdf
--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==--++**==
sts-seminar mailing list
sts-seminar@lists.stanford.edu
https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/sts-seminar
No comments:
Post a Comment