Article ID: CBB712914671

Chemists without Borders (2018)

unapi

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.

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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

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Authors & Contributors
Mody, Cyrus C. M.
Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette
Philippe Saint-Raymond
Pellegrino, Emilio Marco
Pandey, Poonam
Usenov, Galymzhan
Concepts
Nanotechnology
Chemistry
Science and society
Synthetic biology; bioengineering
Physics
Biology
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
United States
India
Lisbon (Portugal)
Portugal
France
Kazakhstan
Institutions
Autorité de sûreté nucléaire
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