Myers

“Molecular Embodiments”

Theme of the reading

This is a really incredible paper, especially given that it is written by a graduate student. I think of it as a demonstration that Chuck Goodwin got it right about professional vision, except that there is much more to professional vision than “seeing” the phenomenal objects of interest. Myers shows how protein crystallographers not only see but feel the structure of the molecules they study. Like Goodwin’s analysis, Myers shows how this seeing and feeling is accomplished through discursive practices (she does not use that phrase), that it must be learned, and that professional competence is demonstrated by being able to feel the structure of the molecules. Like Hutchins (1995) analysis of ship navigation, Myer’s combines the study of the history of the practice of inferring molecular structure with contemporary ethnographic activities (interviewing scientists, taking courses, hanging out in the lab). She then focuses on particular events (interview excerpts, moments of insight) and interprets them in terms of the wider ethnography. That’s how we do it in cognitive ethnography.

Getting ready to read

Questions to keep in mind while reading

How do the properties of inscriptions affect what is known and not known by the scientific community (page 22)?

Can you find a description of an activity/setting dialectic. There’s a beauty on page 16. Any others?

Notice the way the scientists use the cultural model of knowledge residing in the brain (page 19) even while they are demonstrating that this cultural model does not really capture the nature of their own knowledge. Why would scientists use a false cultural model?