How well do facts travel? : the dissemination of reliable knowledge

Bibliographic Information

How well do facts travel? : the dissemination of reliable knowledge

edited by Peter Howlett, Mary S. Morgan

Cambridge University Press, 2011

  • : pbk
  • : hardback

Available at  / 7 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This book discusses how facts travel, and when and why they sometimes travel well enough to acquire a life of their own. Whether or not facts travel in this manner depends not only on their character and ability to play useful roles elsewhere, but also on the labels, packaging, vehicles and company that take them across difficult terrains and over disciplinary boundaries. These diverse stories of travelling facts, ranging from architecture to nanotechnology and from romance fiction to climate science, change the way we see the nature of facts. Facts are far from the bland and rather boring but useful objects that scientists and humanists produce and fit together to make narratives, arguments and evidence. Rather, their extraordinary abilities to travel well shows when, how and why facts can be used to build further knowledge beyond and away from their sites of original production and intended use.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Travelling facts Mary S. Morgan
  • Part I. Matters of Fact: 2. Facts and building artefacts: what travels in material objects? Simona Valeriani
  • 3. A journey through times and cultures? Ancient Greek forms in American nineteenth-century architecture: an archaeological view Lambert Schneider
  • 4. Manning's N: putting roughness to work Sarah J. Whatmore and Catharina Landstroem
  • 5. My facts are better than your facts: spreading good news about global warming Naomi Oreskes
  • 6. Real problems with fictional cases Jon Adams
  • Part II. Integrity and Fruitfulness: 7. Ethology's travelling facts Richard Burkhardt
  • 8. Travelling facts about crowded rats: rodent experimentation and the human sciences Ed Ramsden
  • 9. Using cases to establish novel diagnoses: creating generic facts by making particular facts travel together Rachel Ankeny
  • 10. Technology transfer and travelling facts: a perspective from Indian agriculture Peter Howlett and Aashish Velkar
  • 11. Archaeological facts in transit: the eminent mounds of central North America Alison Wylie
  • Part III. Companionship and Character: 12. Packaging small facts for re-use: databases in model organism biology Sabina Leonelli
  • 13. Designed for travel: communicating facts through images Martina Merz
  • 14. Using models to keep us healthy: the productive journeys of facts across public health research networks Erika Mansnerus
  • 15. The facts of life and death: a case of exceptional longevity David Haycock
  • 16. Love life of a fact Heather Schell.

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Details

  • NCID
    BB04057190
  • ISBN
    • 9780521159586
    • 9780521196543
  • LCCN
    2010031326
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge ; New York ; Tokyo
  • Pages/Volumes
    xviii, 465 p.
  • Size
    23-24 cm
  • Classification
  • Subject Headings
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