1. Latour, Bruno, and Woolgar, Steve
Latour, Bruno, and Woolgar, Steve. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1986 [1979]
anthropology of science; what goes on daily in the lab vs. what sociologists, philosophers, historians, journalists, talk about when they talk about science
La Jolla, CA biochemical lab
an anthropologist in the lab: participant observation vs, “going native” or naïve observation
scientists as tribes with their own “mythologies”
materiality of the lab: architecture; instruments
maniac writers or “inscripters

2. Machines that transform matter between one state and another
Inscription devices that transform matter into written documents
The material elements of the lab are based upon the reified outcomes of past outcomes summarized in the literature. These same material elements allow more papers to be written. Papers are the final products of the lab.
Facts in the lab are constructed by recourse to mythologies, material elements, and persuasion

3. Return to Summary of Brown Bag Discussion