Dr. Kohler is examining the history of Drosophila and Drosophila geneticists as an example of the history of experimental practice. He is exploring four key ideas. First, "standard" experimental organisms can be understood as constructed technological artifacts. Second, experimental practices are shaped by tacit moral rules that govern the ownership and sharing of tools, resources, ideas and credit. Third, these "moral economies" of practice are embodied in institutionalized career patterns. Fourth, experimental practice in biology often involves a dynamic interaction between laboratory and field, domesticated and wild organisms and work styles. Dr. Kohler is using these four themes to explore five closely related topics: the initial construction of Drosophila as a genetic instrument by the Morgan school; the operations and tacit rules of the mutant exchange network which defined Drosophilists as a community of practitioners; the diversification of Drosophila from an instrument for chromosome mapping into a multi-purpose instrument; and the invention by George W. Beadle and Theodosius Dobzhansky of new modes of practice in developmental and evolutionary genetics. These case studies are being used to develop concepts and methods that may be applied to experimental practice in any discipline of natural science. The aim is an empirically based, integrated account of experimental practice: one that may make science understandable to non-specialists not as a finished product but as a dynamic and evolving process of production.
