SOCI 325: Sociology of Science

Agenda

Tacit knowledge
and experimental reproduction

  1. Administrative
  2. Studying laboratories
  3. Negotiation of scientific phenomena
  4. Reading discussion

Studying laboratories

Studying laboratories

Scientific lab as ethnographic site

In the 1970s and 1980s, STS scholars began conducting ethnographies in scientific labs.

If scientific knowledge has a social component, scholars should focus on the process of knowledge creation.
(Consider Bloor's causal tenet)

Study the formulation of facts in a lab just as you would study any social process—field work, ethnography, conversation analysis, interviews, …

Four people dressed in late 1970s / early 1980s business casual clothes look at a transparent sheet with markings on it

Themes of laboratory studies

Tacit knowledge

  • A big part of scientific knowledge cannot be written down, but is embodied in skills, ‘tinkering’ (Knorr Cetina), and tacit knowledge (Collins)
  • “… experiments do not work; the numbers have to be cooked, the reaction doesn't react, the phage does not grow.” (Hacking 1983, 229)

Negotiation

  • Scientific observations, findings, and facts are not apparent, but must be actively constructed

Translation

  • Particular findings are susceptible to varied narratives
  • Scientists must engage in translation of facts and data for different audiences (Latour, Callon)

Negotiation of scientific phenomena

Negotiating phenomena

Transferring knowledge (Collins 1975)

Replication in science involves transmitting knowledge about a phenomenon of interest

How should we understand this process?

  • Algorithmical model:
    “a finite series of unambiguous instructions which can be formulated [and] transferred” (206)
  • Enculturational model:
    Reproduction relies on shared assumptions, categories, skills, and baseline knowledge

The only way to tell whether knowledge has been transferred is to see if the recipient’s experiment ‘works’

two panels from animated series "Rick and Morty". Both panels show an older white man with wild hair talking and a child with brown hair looking horrified. They are in some sort of glass-domed vehicle. In the top panel, the old man is saying "Sometimes science is more art than science, Morty." In the bottom panel the old man is saying "a lot of people dont get that"

Negotiating phenomena

Gravitational waves

In the 1970s, scientists had not yet settled on what a credible experiment to detect gravitational waves should look like. There was no agreement on what would qualify as “working”

Detecting gravitational waves was part of the normal science of confirming Einstein’s general relativity.

In negotiating what constituted a “competent” experiment in gravitational waves, the scientists were actually negotiating the relevant characteristics of gravitational waves.

If gravitational waves were purely theoretical (in 1975), then to negotiate their characteristics was to negotiate gravitational waves themselves

A black and white photo of a grey-haired scientist with sleeves rolled up leaning over a large metalic cylendar with complicating-looking electrical elements attached to it.

Joseph Weber (“O”) working on a resonant-mass gravitational wave antenna, or “Weber bar” (c. 1965)

Negotiating phenomena

It may not be long before the scientific community decides that the claims of the originator are completely spurious, or on the other hand, revolutionary. When that happens, and a new natural element in the scientific world has been constructed, the following section of my paper will look quaint. That is what is particularly interesting about writing it now before the solid existence of the facts clouds the look of contingency about their origins. (Collins 1975, 209)

  • International network of large interferometers

  • Agreement on “What counts as a ‘working gravity wave detector’” (Collins 1975, 211)

  • Agreement on relevant properties of gravitational waves

aerial photo of one site of a gravitational wave detector. There is a central hub building, from which extend two very long (3 km) arms at near-right angle from each other. The building is surrouned by what looks like farm land.

Next class

Representing reality

  • Amann and Cetina (1988)
    The Fixation of (Visual) Evidence

Image credit

Four people dressed in late 1970s / early 1980s business casual clothes look at a transparent sheet with markings on it

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

two panels from animated series "Rick and Morty". Both panels show an older white man with wild hair talking and a child with brown hair looking horrified. They are in some sort of glass-domed vehicle. In the top panel, the old man is saying "Sometimes science is more art than science, Morty." In the bottom panel the old man is saying "a lot of people dont get that"

Screen captures from Rick and Morty (2013)

A black and white photo of a grey-haired scientist with sleeves rolled up leaning over a large metalic cylendar with complicating-looking electrical elements attached to it.

Photo from University of Maryland libraries via Forbes

aerial photo of one site of a gravitational wave detector. There is a central hub building, from which extend two very long (3 km) arms at near-right angle from each other. The building is surrouned by what looks like farm land.

Photo via APS physics

Collins is porting ideas from sociology of culture to sociology of science e.g. cultural categories used to explain the world: race, political roles, family roles, etc

Why pseudonyms in article? - heat - We know what a ‘competent’ measurement in heat is because we know what characteristics heat has. -Collins is flipping that by showing that negotiations of the characteristics of gravitational waves are reducible to negotiations of what constitutes a competent measurement

40 years later… Beams are 3km long “650 members, representing 119 institutions in 14 different countries” 14 August 2017 detected two black holes colliding “The design of detectors like Virgo and LIGO thus requires a detailed inventory of all noise sources which could impact the measurement, allowing a strong and continuing effort to reduce them as much as possible”