Laboratory Cultures Reading Response

 This week’s readings focused on laboratories: how they are constructed, the nature of the scientists who work in them, and their relation to the greater society.

Duana Fullwiley’s “The Biologistical Construction of Race” focused on a research laboratory attempting to find a direct relation between race and disease. I thought this was an interesting field of study because it has long been common knowledge that there is no biological basis for race—it is merely a social construction. I found it intriguing that the lead scientist was a “minority” individual as well and was in a sense going back in time in terms of the social progress we’ve made to relate disease to race, even if it is in the name of medicine. Although I am very skeptical of this laboratory’s work, I think it shows how the events within a lab and what scientists decide to explore within that lab have very much to do with cultural and social aspects of society.

“Epistemic Cultures” by Karin Knorr Cetina and Bruno Latour’s “Give Me a Laboratory and I will Raise the World” both talk about the relation laboratories have with society and its ability to shape or transform the existing natural and social orders. Latour begins by arguing that the inside of laboratories are worthy of scientific inquiry. He talks about how laboratories have the strength to “transform or displace societies” (162) through the dissolution of boundaries between the outside world and the inside world of laboratories. Upon reading this piece, I realized that laboratories do hold a great amount of power. Not many people are aware of the events that go on inside the laboratory, yet whatever goes on inside the walls of that room has the potential to dramatically alter society. Knorr-Centina also states that laboratories are based on the “malleability” (26) of its objects that are under study. As the author puts it, this “enculturation” (28) of objects within a laboratory allows this to be a powerful place in which social realities can be altered. I have never thought about laboratories in this way, but upon further reflection, I realized that most of modern day society (infrastructure, medicine, technology, etc.) are due to the works of laboratories and it was then that I understood its importance in shaping society.

I am interested to see how laboratories will evolve in the future with changing modern technologies and evolving societies.