Research Publications and Outputs: Recent submissions
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The 'absolute existence' of phlogiston: the losing party's point of view.
Published 2011-01-01Long after its alleged demise, phlogiston was still presented, discussed and defended by leading chemists. Even some of the leading proponents of the new chemistry admitted its ‘absolute existence’. We demonstrate that ...Open AccessArticle -
Baroque Optics and the Disappearance of the Observer: From Kepler’s Optics to Descartes’ Doubt
Published 2010-04-01In the seventeenth century the human observer gradually disappeared from optical treatises. It was a paradoxical process: the naturalization of the eye estranged the mind from its objects. Turned into a material optical ...Open AccessArticle -
The Body as Object and Instrument of Knowledge:Embodied Empiricism in Early Modern Science
Published 2010-01-01It was in 1660s England, according to the received view, in the Royal Society of London, that science acquired the form of empirical enquiry we recognize as our own: an open, collaborative experimental practice, mediated ...Open AccessBook -
The Return of Vitalism:
Published 2011-03-04The eminent French biologist and historian of biology, François Jacob, once notoriously declared "On n‘interroge plus la vie dans les laboratoires": laboratory research no longer inquires into the notion of Life‘. Nowadays, ...Open AccessConference paper