Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics and the Evolution of Data in Physics

The central component of Peter Galison's work involves the exploration of twentieth century microphysics (atomic, nuclear, particle physics). In particular, he examines physics as a closely interconnected set of scientific subcultures: experimenters, instrument makers, and theorists. For example, in How Experiments End (Chicago, 1987), he examined the ways in which experimenters come to the decision that they have an effect, not an artifact of the apparatus or environment. What role does theory play in the establishment of data reduction strategies, in triggering, or in the experimental set-up itself? How do large groups decide something is real? More recently, he has been interested in the long-standing competition between image-producing instruments such as bubble chambers, cloud chambers, and nuclear emulsions on one side, and the "logic" devices such as counters, spark chambers, and wire chambers on the other. Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics (Chicago, 1997) examines this duality and seeks to locate specific experimental technologies in the wider scientific and nonscientific world. Professor Galison is now turning to a history of postwar quantum field theory, in which he views QFT as a "trading zone" between different domains of physics (e.g. particle cosmology, mathematics, condensed matter physics).

In contrast with the image of scientific change as associated with the emergence of new worldviews or grand new theories, the studies of Klein, Buchwald, Galison, Porter and Kaiser provide a deeper understanding of how scientific traditions of practice are transformed over time, and how new fields of inquiry materialize out of existing ones. Transformations in scientific practice can emerge from attempts to inventively refashion existing tools of inquiry in the pursuit of new goals. It is the capacity of inquirers to see how existing tools and techniques might be put to use, not only in the service of goals they were originally designed for, but in the service of goals they might be redesigned for, that underpins the historicity of scientific practice.

Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics

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