Making science of things: Objects and knowledge in, between, and beyond the sciences
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: , obvious to the mind or eye - into the physical realm. Things also tend to stick around; that which was acquired for research purposes is eventually transferred to storage, where it either disintegrates, or ages and accumulates. This obduracy of being renders things subject to almost infinite afterlives. Centuries-old evidence can always spark new research questions, perspectives, and methods, therewith exciting the perpetual evolution, branching, and convergence of knowledge and ways of knowing. The process of making things work as scientific evidence is inevitably inexact and messy and requires drawing on ways of working and thinking in and beyond other scientific disciplines. This notwithstanding, conversations about the relationship between objects and scientific knowledge are still largely preoccupied with the epistemic bounds of present-day disciplines and European or Euro-American ways of knowing. The aim of this special issue is to lean into that messiness and think beyond those preoccupations, drawing on new insights from environmental, Indigenous, social, and labor history, among other fields. Contributions foreground how physical objects have been used as evidence to undergird scientific enterprises rather than the disciplines into which those efforts are or have been organized. What emerges are rich histories of how evidence-based ideas and practices have intertwined different fields of knowledge in and far beyond the history of science.
Source: History of Science
Authors: Tamara Fernando, Brooke Penaloza-Patzak
Institutions: Stony Brook University, University of Vienna
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,650
OpenAlex ID: W7204868100
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