Bruno Latour & Steve Woolgar - Laboratory Life ... - Pedro P. Ferreira

look at the papers shows that the figures and diagrams which they contain are the very samedocuments produced in section B a few days or weeks previously.It occurs to our observer that he might be able to make sense of laboratory activity accordingto one very simple principle. For him, the scene shown in Photograph 13, 3 represents theprototype of scientific work in the laboratory: a desk belonging to one of the inhabitants of theoffice space (referred to as the doctors) is covered with paperwork. On the left is an openedissue of Science. To the right is a diagram which represents a tidied or summarised version ofdata sheets lying further to the right. It is as if two types of literature are being juxtaposed:one type is printed and published outside the laboratory; the other type comprises documentsproduced within the laboratory, such as hastily drawn diagrams and files containing pages offigures. Beneath the documents at the centre of the desk lies a draft. Just like the drafts of anovel or a report, this draft is scribbled, its pages heavy with corrections, question marks, andalterations. Unlike most novels however, the text of the draft is peppered with references,either to other papers, or to diagrams, tables or documents ("as shown in figure . . . ," "in table. . . we can see that . . . "). Closer inspection of((48))the material lying on the desk (Photograph 13) reveals, for example, that the opened issue ofScience is cited in the draft. Part of the argument contained in a Science article is said in thedraft to be unrepeatable by virtue of what is contained in documents lying to the right of thedesk. These documents are also cited in the draft. The desk thus appears to be the hub of ourproductive unit. For it is here that new drafts are constructed by the juxtaposition of twosources of literature, one originating outside and the other being generated within thelaboratory.It is no surprise to our observer to learn that scientists read published material. What surpriseshim more is that a vast body of literature emanates from within the laboratory. How is it thatthe costly apparatus, animals, chemicals, and activities of the bench space combine to producea written document, and why are these documents so highly valued by participants?After several further excursions into the bench space, it strikes our observer that its membersare compulsive and almost manic writers. Every bench has a large leatherbound book inwhich members meticulously record what they have just done against a certain code number.This appears strange because our observer has only witnessed such diffidence in memory inthe work of a few particularly scrupulous novelists. It seems that whenever technicians are notactually handling complicated pieces of apparatus, they are filling in blank sheets with longlists of figures; when they are not writing on pieces of paper, they spend considerable timewriting numbers on the sides of hundreds of tubes, or pencilling large numbers on the fur of