Abstract

Critical Interventions in the Life Sciences – not a Task for the History of Science? This brief paper asks whether historians of science – along with scholars from Science and Technology Studies – should intervene if, in their research, they come across ethically and societally problematic behavior of scientists. I discuss whether and how interventions can be made in such a case that go beyond publishing scholarly articles. In contrast to Nicholas Rose, who claims that determinism and reductionism are no longer driving forces in the life sciences and that scholars from history of science and STS should hence form new relationships with life scientists, I hold that such a general understanding of ‘life scientists’ is at odds with the reality of scientific communities. The challenge is rather to find those colleagues in the life sciences who agree with our criticism. At the same time, such discipline‐crossing collaborative interventions need to carefully watch out for responsible communication in all directions.