For Christiane, curatress, amongst many other things, of specimens.
Abstract
This paper proposes an outline for a typology of the different forms that scientific objects can take in the life sciences. The first section discusses preparations (or specimens)—a form of scientific object that accompanied the development of modern biology in different guises from the seventeenth century to the present: as anatomical–morphological specimens, as microscopic cuts, and as biochemical preparations. In the second section, the characteristics of models in biology are discussed. They became prominent from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. Some remarks on the role of simulations—characterising the life sciences of the turn from the twentieth to the twenty-first century—conclude the paper.
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Notes
For a German version of this paper see Rheinberger (in press).
In a recent research note, Hoffmann (2012) has argued that models should be regarded as the overarching genus. Preparations would therefore be “models in one’s own material”, classical models, accordingly, “models in another material.”
I here stick to the triadic distinction of “index”, “icon”, and “symbol” made by Charles Sanders Peirce (1955).
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Rheinberger, HJ. Preparations, models, and simulations. HPLS 36, 321–334 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0049-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-014-0049-3