Dear Birck Students,

We would like to notify you of a seminar by Professor Bursten on "Boundary Work: Nanoscience Meets Philosophy" scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5:30pm in MRGN 121. Please see the details below.

Title: Boundary Work: Nanoscience Meets Philosophy
Date/Time: March 23 at 5:30pm
Location: MRGN 121

ABSTRACT:
Nanoscience is an inherently interdisciplinary field of study. Because it developed around a scale of investigation, rather than a set of laws or phenomena, it invites research programs from fields as diverse as materials science, biology, physics, chemistry, engineering, and design. For instance, gold nano-cubes are synthesized and characterized by chemists and physicists; modeled on computers by mechanical engineers; studied for their color-changing properties in stained glass by art historians, designers, and materials scientists; and manipulated for smarter drug delivery by chemists and biologists. 
 
This scale-centric character of nanoscience means that knowledge in nanoscience is often grouped not along disciplinary lines, but rather around instrumentation techniques, around individual materials, as described above, or around particular applications. Consequently, the structure of knowledge in nanoscience is better understood as clusters of what Peter Galison has termed “trading zones,” rather than a taxonomy of laws, theories, models, and heuristics. These trading zones permit contributions from diverse research perspectives—including those from history and philosophy of science.
 
I have spent 4 years working with a nanoscience laboratory with the aim of understanding the structure of knowledge in nanoscience. Through this work I have become convinced that philosophers and historians of science can impact the development of new knowledge in nanoscience alongside practitioners in STEM fields. In this talk, I show how contributions from philosophy of science can influence research in nanoscience by describing how philosophical reflection on the concept “surface” led to reforms in experiment design in my lab. I discuss how these reforms, in conjunction with regulations on the toxicity and environmental impact of nanomaterials, can influence the development of classification systems in nanoscience.
 
Facebook Event Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/193480361024630/

Sincerely,
NSAC Officers