Experiment is widely regarded as the most distinctive feature of
natural science and essential to the way scientists find out about
the world. Yet there has been little study of the way scientists
actually make and use experiments. The Uses of Experiment fills
this gap in our knowledge about how science is practised.
Presenting 14 original case studies of important and often famous
experiments, the book asks the questions: What tools do
experimenters use? How do scientists argue from experiments? What
happens when an experiment is challenged? How do scientists check
that their experiments are working? Are there differences between
experiments in the physical sciences and technology? Leading
scholars in the fields of history, sociology and philosophy of
science consider topics such as the interaction of experiment;
instruments and theory; accuracy and reliability as hallmarks of
experiment in science and technology; realising new phenomena; the
believability of experiments and the sort of knowledge they
produce; and the wider contexts on which experimentalists draw to
develop and win support for their work. Drawing on examples as
diverse as Galilean mechanics, Victorian experiments on
electricity, experiments on cloud formation, and testing of nuclear
missiles, a new view of experiment emerges. This view emphasises
that experiments always involve choice, tactics and strategy in
persuading audiences that Nature resembles the picture
experimenters create.
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