Split and Splice

"Esteemed historian and philosopher of science Hans-Jèorg Rheinberger explores the incredible diversity of scientific experimentation in his new book, which extends his ground-breaking epistemological studies of the life sciences and the experimental practices that have made them so productive. Rheinberger explores the materiality of experiment, of its objects and instruments, the construction of models, and myriad ways of making things visible. The first part of the book is devoted to the circumstances and conditions that give the process of experimentation its structural cachet and make it a device from which novelty can emerge. Then, in the second part, Rheinberger focuses on the relations that experimental systems develop among each other, specifically their characteristic temporal, spatial, and narrative dimensions. The concepts that guide his investigation emerge through accessible examples, most of which are drawn from molecular biology, including from the author's own laboratory notebooks from his years researching ribosomes. This is a tour de force by one of today's most influential theorists of scientific practice"--