This roundtable is based on the contention that the history of biology stands to benefit from active collaborations with life scientists. Historians of chemistry and molecular biology have advanced similar views in recent years, incorporating both experimental reconstructions and ethnographies into their research programs. Our presentations, in turn, will demonstrate how working with biologists has granted us access to key dynamics of scientific knowledge-making that are neither recorded in archival materials and publications, nor accessible via standard historical methods such as primary and secondary literature searches. Kate MacCord will discuss her experiences as a former member of a dental EvoDevo laboratory, alongside her current research collaborations with scientists focused on regeneration and the germ line. Kathryn Maxson Jones will discuss her participation in a laboratory studying lampreys and neurodegenerative diseases, focusing on how this collaboration promotes her sensitivity to long- and short-term changes over time in the technical and extrapolative practices of working life scientists. Lucie Laplane will discuss how her research alongside biologists, which includes experimental investigations, informs her historical and philosophical understandings of cancer stem cells. Finally, S. Andrew Inkpen will address his research in microbiology, in which he investigates the ethical, theoretical, and historical foundations of biodiversity and ecosystem function alongside biologists. Together, these papers will open discussions about ongoing and tangible benefits for historiographic practice of interfacing with life scientists, incorporating insights from philosophy of science.

Co-organized by Kate MacCord (Marine Biological Laboratory) and Kathryn Maxson Jones (University of Princeton)