Brian S. Baigrie

Picturing knowledge : historical and philosophical problems concerning the use of art in science

The traditional concept of scientific knowledge places a premium on thinking, not visualizing. Scientific illustrations are still generally regarded as devices that serve as heuristic aids when reasoning breaks down. When scientific illustration is not used in this disparaging sense as a linguistic aid, it is most often employed as a metaphor with no special visual content. What distinguishes pictorial devices as resources for doing science, and the special problems that are raised by the mere presence of visual elements in scientific treatises, tends to be overlooked. The contributors to this volume examine the historical and philosophical issues concerning the role that scientific illustration plays in the creation of scientific knowledge. They regard both text and picture as resources that scientists employ in their practical activities, their value as scientific resources deriving from their ability to convey information.

The Chemistry of the Stars

The view that stars were solely objects of mathematical analysis that would forever lie beyond the realm of physics was dispelled by Gustav Robert Kirchhoff in 1860. Kirchhoffs science of spectroscopy revealed that distant stars are composed of the chemical elements found in earthly bodies. His revelations transformed the astronomer into something of a chemist, and the chemist into something of an astronomer.

Making the Invisible Visible: Röntgen's Mysterious X Rays

Amateur scientists who traveled from town to town in the mid-nineteenth century delighted audiences by showing them the ancestor of the neon sign: the air was pumped out of a glass tube with platinum wires embedded in opposite ends, and the interior was made to glow in lively patterns when a high voltage was run across the wires. Transfixed by the fluorescence, the lecturers had however absolutely no idea what caused the electrical excitation in the vacuum tube.

Galileo's Lunar Landscape

Galileos use of mathematics to predict experimental results is considered a cornerstone of modern science. He made significant contributions to the physical sciences, and his defense of the Copernican system brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church, which found him guilty of heresy, banned his works in 1633 and placed him under house arrest.