Research-Technology and Cultural Change : Instrumentation ...

Research-Technology and Cultural Change : Instrumentation, Genericity, Transversality
Terry SHINN
foreword by Paul Forman
Oxford, The Bardwell Press, 2007
This book outlines a new perspective on the history and sociology of science that places the devices and instruments
of scientific measurement, and the people who design and develop them, at the centre of study. Terry Shinn
identifies a hitherto unexplored domain of scientific development that he calls research-technology, and
demonstrates its centrality for understanding scientific change and development. Through case studies of
electromagnetism, the German and American scientific instrument makers, computer programming and simulation,
and spectroscopy, Terry Shinn makes a strong argument for the transversality of instrumentation in the face of
scientific specialization and fragmentation. He shows how established scientific boundaries are often broken down by
instrumental technologies, and how the development of science often proceeds via innovation and genericity in
instrument design.
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