Reading Reflections, Feb 2

In “Give Me a Laboratory and I will Raise the World,” the author Bruno Latour attempted to bridge the gap between macroscopic/external and microscopic/internal perspectives in studying the sociology of laboratories, and argued that laboratories can produce a significant force in shaping the society. He used Pasteur’s work in microbiology to illustrate his point. To study and conquer the anthrax disease, Pasteur’s group first went to the farm to learn about the conditions and from veterinarians. Then they came back to his lab with the extracted microorganism and discovered the anthrax bacillus as the cause of the disease after cultivating the microorganism in the lab. Finally, after creating the vaccines, they went back to the field to distribute the vaccines, which enabled people to get anthrax under control. According to Latour, in these three steps of translation/displacement, Pasteur made microbiology a subject of public interest and a political force that was able to shape the society. Latour used this example show that there is no wall that separates laboratories from the society. On one hand, spatially, Pasteur’s work was done not only at Ecole Normale Superieure but also at the farm and the Pouilly le Fort. On the other hand, the inside and the outside of his laboratory were interconnected because of the “destabilizing role of the laboratory,” which transformed “the complex relations between microbes and cattle, the farmers and their cattle, the veterinarians and the farmers, the veterinarians and the biological sciences”.  I mostly agree with Latour’s characterization of Pasteur’s work, but wonder what he would say about other scientific research projects that are curiosity-driven and have less direct real-world impact.

Knorr-Cetina’s chapter “What Is a Laboratory?” also addresses the relationship between a laboratory and the world. Different from Latour, she emphasizes the social features of laboratories and scientists, such as by arguing that “[scientists] are part of a field’s research strategy and a technical device in the production of knowledge”. In the example of medical science developing into a laboratory science after clinics were adopted, she pointed out that this transition transformed the social dynamics between doctors and patients as well as the types of skills doctors are expected to master, thereby arguing that when the processes of doing scientific research is changed, scientists themselves are transformed, too.