Description
Book SynopsisMetaphors of inscription and writing figure prominently in all levels of discourse in and about science. This volume of 16 essays examines the subject by juxtaposing work from historically focused science and literature studies with work inspired by poststructuralist philosophy and semiotics.
Table of Contents1. Inscription practices and materialities of communication Timothy Lenoir; 2. The language of strange facts in early modern science Lorraine Daston; 3. Shaping information: mathematics, computing and typography Robin Rider; 4. The technology of mathematical persuasion Brian Rotman; 5. On the take-off of operators Friedrich Kittler; 6. Switchboards and sex: the nut(t) case Bernhard Siegert; 7. Politics on the topographer's table: the helvetic triangulation of cartography, politics, and representation David Gugerli; 8. Writing Darwin's islands: England and the insular condition Gillian Beer; 9. Illustrations as strategy in Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals Phillip Prodger; 10. The Leviathan of Parsontown: literary technology and scientific representation Simon Schaffer; 11. Technology, aesthetics and the development of astrophotography at the Lick Observatory Alex Pang; 12. Standards and semiotics Robert Brain; 123. Experimental systems, graphematic spaces; Hans-Jong Rheinberger; 14. Emergent power: vitality and theology in artificial life Richard M. Doyle; 15. Science and writing: two national narratives of failure Lisa Bloom; 16. Perception versus experience: moving pictures and their resistance to interpretation Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht; Notes; Index.
