Split and Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 26 May 2023
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

The experiment has long been regarded as a testing ground for theory, but in Split and Splice, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger argues that it should be seen as a creative practice. His most recent book offers a fresh perspective on the experimental protocols and connections that have made the life sciences so productive. Rheinberger delves into the materiality of the experiment, examining traces, models, grafting, and note-taking—the conditions that give experiments structure and enable discovery. The second section broadens its focus from micro-level laboratory processes to the temporal, spatial, and narrative links between experimental systems. Rheinberger narrates with accessible examples, most of which are drawn from molecular biology, including from his laboratory notebooks from his years researching ribosomes.

A critical success when it was published in Germany, Split and Splice describes a method that involves irregular results and hit-or-miss connections—not analysis, not synthesis, but the splitting and splicing that form a scientific experiment. Building on Rheinbergers earlier writing about science and epistemology, this book is a major achievement by one of todays most influential theorists of scientific practice.

Weight: 476g
Dimension: 237 x 160 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226825304