Models: The Third Dimension of Science (review)

When confronted with a virtual 3-D molecular model on a computer screen in 1965, one crystallographer objected that "he had to have his hands on something physical, so that he could understand it" (p. 418). Luddite or not, this reaction takes us to the heart of this collection's focus on three-dimensional models in science. Its introduction, thirteen essays, and two commentaries chart elements of the history of 3-D models in science, both their production and use, assessing their impact on how scientific practice, display, and consumption have developed since the eighteenth century. Though the essays vary in quality, the total package is worth the purchase price. This is true not only because a few of the essays are masterful, especially those by Simon Schaffer, Christoph Meinel, Mary Morgan, and Marcel Boumans. The book also bears an important message, which James Griesemer lucidly discusses in his commentary. It underscores how much we miss by thinking of science as theoretical knowledge and various forms of inscription. The very physicality of 3-D models pushes us to recognize science as a sensibly tangible enterprise, a confluence of processes that take place in real space and time as well as in the mind.

Contributors to this book focus on their own areas of expertise to help flesh out the rich historical presence of 3-D models in a wide range of scientific fields. Three can be said to focus explicitly on topics of interest to historians of technology: Malcolm Baker discusses eighteenth-century models of inventions, Simon Schaffer analyzes ship models, and Eric Francoeur and Jérôme Segal look at the rise of interactive computer graphics. But all the essays have something to do with the techniques that go into constructing physical models, with models as technical artifacts and the way in which their presence mediates between production, deployment, and consumption. Further, they help us consider how we learn to construct things and interpret their active presence once they are in use. Additionally, a number of essays explore the relations between specific models and the culture in which they were produced and consumed. These are important issues for historians of technology.

The palpable presence of 3-D models requires us to define science as practice; theorizing is, then, a form of practice integrated within a larger, practical web. Based on the collective wisdom of the essayists, we can construct a taxonomy of scientific practice that includes (at least) the practices of making, displaying, representing, researching, teaching, and experiencing. The first category requires us to consider the role and heritage of artisanal knowledge and skill, which brings with it a complex history of relationships between producers and those who assert authority over their work. Displaying implicates aesthetics and didactics, but also the complex ways in which social relations and hierarchies are worked out, especially in the historical context of establishing borders around claims of serious science and popularization.

A model can be an original object to be copied or modified. It can also represent something else in any number of ways. It can be larger or smaller (which can bring physical problems of scale with it, as in the case of heat-producing models), mechanical, heuristic, dramatic, or analogical. Further, 3-D models can be represented by two-dimensional portrayals. Each of these possibilities brings with it a host of consequences for the employment of skills as well as what is perceived and learned.

Models can be used to further research or to teach. Their physicality and manipulability open up both the researcher and the student to a more sensate form of cognition. The act of manipulating (the parts of) an object allows for a kind of physical analogizing that brings connections to the fore which might otherwise go undetected. It can engage a number of senses simultaneously and allows for the comparison of various visual perspectives. When used pedagogically, 3-D models not only enable students...