This is the first book that addresses the issue of research notes for writing history of science in a comprehensive manner. Its case studies range from the early modern period to present and cover a broad range of different disciplines. The contributions are based on papers presented at the workshop entitled "Reworking the Bench: Laboratory Notebooks in the History of Science", held at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin or written after the workshop.

Inhalt

Editor's Introduction. The Hanging Chain: A Forgotten 'Discovery' Buried in Galileo's Notes on Motion; J. Renn, P. Damerow. The Chymical Laboratory Notebooks of George Starkey; W. Newman, L.M. Principe. Newton's Optical Notebooks: Public Versus Private Data; A.E. Shapiro. At Play with Nature: Luigi Galvani's Experimental Approach to Muscular Physiology; M. Bresadola. The Practice of Studying Practice: Analyzing Laboratory Records of Ampère and Faraday; F. Steinle. From Agents to Cells: Theodor Schwann's Research Notes of the Years 1835-1838; O. Parnes. Narrating by Numbers: Keeping an Account of Early 19th Century Laboratory Experiences; O. Sibum. Exploring Contents and Boundaries of Experimental Practice in Laboratory Notebooks: Samuel Pierpoint Langley and the Mapping of the Infra-red Region of the Solar Spectrum; A. Loettgers. The Pocket Schedule. Note-Taking as a Research Technique: Ernst Mach's Ballistic-Photographic Experiments; C. Hoffmann. From Lone Investigator to Laboratory Chief: Ivan Pavlov's Research Notebooks as a Reflection of His Managerial and Interpretive Style; D.P. Todes. Carl Correns' Experiments with Pisum, 1896-1899; H.-J. Rheinberger. Errors and Insights: Reconstructing the Genesis of General Relativity from Einstein's Zurich Notebook; J. Renn, T. Sauer. Hans Krebs' and Kurt Henseleit's Laboratory Notebooks and Their Discovery of the Urea Cycle: Reconstructed with Computer Models; G. Graßhoff, M. May. Laboratory Notebooks and Investigative Pathways; F.L. Holmes.