Neutron Therapy: An Experimental System in Radiooncology. The history of the use of neutrons in radiotherapy will be revisited by focusing on the ideas, theories and experiments that led to first clinical studies. For addressing epistemological questions regarding biological effects of fast neutrons, the notion of an “experimental system” is employed and its evolution over time discussed. Taking up the analytical framework of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, biological effects and the physical instrument “cyclotron” are conceptualized in terms of epistemic and technical objects. (...) It is shown that the epistemic object “biological effects of neutrons” could never reach the status of a technical object and – more strikingly – that the cyclotron itself returned to being an epistemic object in the context of medicine. So there is a misunderstanding of the different roles epistemic and technical objects have to play in the framework of an experimental system. This misunderstanding led to today's highly controversial discussions about the application of neutrons in radiotherapy. (shrink)

The institutionalization of cancer research in the German context was initiated by formation of the “Comité für Krebsforschung” (Committee for Cancer Research) in February 1900. One of the main actors in this connection was Ernst von Leyden (1832–1910), physician, clinician and head of the First Clinic of the Berliner Charité. This article investigates the essential conditions for the process of institutionalization and its further development in time. For this purpose, the concept of “resources” and a multi-level model of the public (...) are applied. It becomes apparent that bacteriology as well as statistics and tuberculosis research were not deployed as scientific resources, but rather as instruments of science policy. The period of investigation comprises the later publications of Leyden, concerning the etiology of cancer, the foundation of the “Comité” and its expansion right up to the participation of its members in exhibitions, namely the “Internationale Hygiene-Ausstellung” (International Hygiene Exhibition) in Dresden 1911. (shrink)

Following Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s epistemological concept we show how a generic element of synthetic biology, the “biological switch”, can be integrated into an experimental system. Here synthetic biology is assumed to be a technoscience. Hence, the biological switch becomes a technoscientific research object. Consequently, the experimental system has to be analyzed in a technoscientific experimental setting, showing differences in comparison with the former. To work out the specific properties of the technoscientific experimental system, biological switching behavior is compared with the scientific (...) research object laser light in its classical setting. For the analyses, both the laser light and bistability, enabling a biological switch, are considered as epistemic things connected by the same theoretical concept of phase transitions. The so-called Schlögl model is used to model both biological switching behavior and induced emission of radiation and becomes an epistemic thing in itself. It becomes clear that the answer, whether one is dealing with the emission of laser light or with bistable switching behavior, is linked to the perspective taken. The technoscientific orientation towards applications and the development of basic scientific theories require different perspectives on one and the same epistemic thing, here also represented by the model. The research objects of synthetic biology as a technoscience thus also enter into the corresponding experimental systems as techno-epistemic objects. Their analysis leads to a more complete understanding of what constitutes synthetic biology. (shrink)

The institutionalization of cancer research in the German context was initiated by formation of the “Comité für Krebsforschung” (Committee for Cancer Research) in February 1900. One of the main actors in this connection was Ernst von Leyden (1832–1910), physician, clinician and head of the First Clinic of the Berliner Charité. This article investigates the essential conditions for the process of institutionalization and its further development in time. For this purpose, the concept of “resources” and a multi-level model of the public (...) are applied. It becomes apparent that bacteriology as well as statistics and tuberculosis research were not deployed as scientific resources, but rather as instruments of science policy. The period of investigation comprises the later publications of Leyden, concerning the etiology of cancer, the foundation of the “Comité” and its expansion right up to the participation of its members in exhibitions, namely the “Internationale Hygiene-Ausstellung” (International Hygiene Exhibition) in Dresden 1911. (shrink)

Göttingen: Wallstein 2013. 604 S., 35 Abb., € 39,90. ISBN 978‐3‐8353‐1206‐7.