Trust in Technicians in Paleontology Laboratories
Trust in Technicians in Paleontology Laboratories
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对古生物学实验室技术人员的信任
DOI：
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
C. Wylie
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Wylie
新技术可能会扰乱科学工作场所的既定做法和社会秩序。因此，科学家们可能更愿意保留熟练的手工工作和社会现状，而不是革命性的技术变革。例如，对岩石包裹的化石进行数字成像是科学家在没有传统岩石去除的情况下“看到”标本的有价值的方式。然而，在脊椎动物古生物实验室的采访揭示了工作人员对计算机断层扫描（CT）成像的怀疑。科学家们批评用数字图像取代物理化石，因为他们说，图像比“真实的东西”更主观。我认为，这些科学家也含蓄地支持岩石清除技术人员，他们是熟练和值得信赖的专家，他们的工作将被CT扫描的广泛实施所淘汰。科学家认为CT是一种有时有用的工具，而不是一种普遍的获取化石的新方法，这保留了实验室社区的社会结构。具体来说，通过将“真实的”标本和可信的图像处理技术人员置于图像和成像专家之上，科学家们保留了实验室社区的劳动和技能分工，科学家和技术人员之间的等级制度，以及这些群体的身份和相互信任。
New technologies can upset scientific workplaces’ established practices and social order. Scientists may therefore prefer preserving skilled manual work and the social status quo to revolutionary technological change. For example, digital imaging of rock-encased fossils is a valuable way for scientists to “see” a specimen without traditional rock removal. However, interviews in vertebrate paleontology laboratories reveal workers’ skepticism toward computed tomography (CT) imaging. Scientists criticize replacing physical fossils with digital images because, they say, images are more subjective than the “real thing.” I argue that these scientists are also implicitly supporting rock-removal technicians, who are skilled and trusted experts whose work would be made obsolete by widespread implementation of CT scanning. Scientists’ view of CT as a sometimes useful tool rather than a universal new approach to accessing fossils preserves the laboratory community’s social structure. Specifically, by privileging “real” specimens and trusted specimen-processing technicians over images and imaging experts, scientists preserve the lab community’s division of labor and skill, hierarchy between scientists and technicians, and these groups’ identity and mutual trust.