"Going Monoclonal": Art, Science, and Magic in the Day-to-Day Use of Hybridoma Technology
Alberto Cambrosio, Peter J. Keating · Social Problems · 1988
Recent work in the sociology of science has highlighted the local and tacit dimensions of scientific work. Against the widely held assumption that we are here dealing with a form of knowledge largely beyond the control and manipulation of scientists, we will argue that the unsaid is indeed a part of conscious scientific practice—and hence subject to negotiation, discussion, and construction. Based on a study of the transmission of hybridoma technology, this paper will show that questions of local knowledge, tacit knowledge, and “magic,” far from being ignored by scientific researchers, are explicitly a part of their daily practice. It will be seen that these questions give rise to a series of social and technical distinctions which are constitutive of scientific work.