IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB712914671

Chemists without Borders (2018)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 109
Issue: 3
Pages: 597-607

DOI: 10.1086/699999

URI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/699999

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Science and society Engineering, nuclear Nanotechnology Synthetic biology; bioengineering Chemistry 21st century 20th century

While chemists today work in a variety of professional domains—ranging from medicine and pharmaceutical companies to nuclear technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology—students are taught chemistry as if it were a unified discipline with a specific territory and a common language shared by all chemists. The chemists’ imaginary is shaped around the image of a diaspora: a scattered population of former inhabitants of a homeland immersed in foreign countries and yet retaining their cultural identity. This essay suggests an alternative perspective on the basis of four different case studies of engagement of chemists beyond the traditional turf of chemistry: nuclear technology, materials science and engineering, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology. Instead of assuming that there is a predetermined territory of chemistry, it argues that the epistemic profile of chemistry is shaped by the various “terrains” (or fields) where chemists are working. The image of a family tree deeply rooted in soil should be replaced by that of a large and loose rhizome network.

...More

Included in

Article Carsten Reinhardt (2018) Introduction: What’s in a Name? Chemistry as a Nonclassical Approach to the World. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 559-564). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB712914671/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Bueno, Otávio; (2011)
When Physics and Biology Meet: The Nanoscale Case (/isis/citation/CBB001024003/)

Article Bernadette Bensaude Vincent; (2016)
From Self-Organization to Self-Assembly: A New Materialism? (/isis/citation/CBB472551413/)

Chapter Luigi Cerruti; Emilio Marco Pellegrino; Elena Ghibaudi; (2016)
At the origins of nanotechnology. Discoveries and tough competition in the field of the carbon nanotubes (/isis/citation/CBB766130737/)

Article Galymzhan Usenov; Pirimbek Suleimenov; Peeter Müürsepp; (2022)
History of the Scientific School of Z. A. Mansurov at the Institute of Combustion Problems in Almaty (/isis/citation/CBB734028846/)

Book Pankaj Sekhsaria; (2020)
Nanoscale: Society's deep impact on science, technology and innovation in India (/isis/citation/CBB408415437/)

Article Poonam Pandey; Aviram Sharma; (2017)
NGOs, Controversies, and “Opening Up” of Regulatory Governance of Science in India (/isis/citation/CBB915250388/)

Article McEuen, Paul L.; (2012)
Small Machines (/isis/citation/CBB001320103/)

Article W. McGuinness; (2015)
The Future of Scientific Thought (/isis/citation/CBB776993390/)

Book Arie Rip; (2021)
Nanotechnology and Its Governance (/isis/citation/CBB218689563/)

Book Oliveira, Jaime da Costa; (2013)
Memórias para a História de um Laboratório do Estad (/isis/citation/CBB001551932/)

Book Philippe Saint-Raymond; (2012)
Une longue marche vers l'indépendance et la transparence l'histoire de l'Autorité de sûreté nucléaire française (A long march towards independence and transparency the history of the French Nuclear Safety Authority) (/isis/citation/CBB553727094/)

Article Hannah Landecker; (2016)
It is what it eats: Chemically defined media and the history of surrounds (/isis/citation/CBB598422047/)

Article Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette; (2009)
Biomimetic Chemistry and Synthetic Biology: A Two-way Traffic across the Borders (/isis/citation/CBB001021317/)

Article Deichmann, Ute; (2009)
Chemistry and the Engineering of Life around 1900: Research and Reflections by Jacques Loeb (/isis/citation/CBB001230120/)

Book John Whysner; (2020)
The Alchemy of Disease: How Chemicals and Toxins Cause Cancer and Other Illnesses (/isis/citation/CBB902343921/)

Book Giovanni Palumbo; Michelangelo Parrilli; (2024)
L'esclusione dal Nobel di candidati che hanno dato impulso alla chimica moderna. Storiche controversie (/isis/citation/CBB891001994/)

Book Leonardo Anatrini; (2024)
Bevitori di mercurio. Storie di alchimia da Lavoisier a oggi (/isis/citation/CBB183262378/)

Book Michel Morange; (2020)
The Black Box of Biology: A History of the Molecular Revolution (/isis/citation/CBB035364586/)

Article McCray, W. Patrick; (2010)
“Globalization with Hardware”: ITER's Fusion of Technology, Policy, and Politics (/isis/citation/CBB001033657/)

Article Kealoho; (Winter 2016)
An Interview with...Kealoha (/isis/citation/CBB028307103/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}