Understanding Agents of Scientific Change: the Case of Embryo Research

对于HSD计划，胚胎研究提供了一个在激烈竞争的背景下快速变化的科学的案例研究。就像任何科学一样，胚胎研究被嵌入了悬而未决的伦理、法律、政治、宗教、文化和社会谈判的网络中，这些谈判塑造了科学的行为、科学的多种含义，以及建立在这些理解基础上的一系列决策。胚胎研究始于理解个体有机体发育的科学驱动力，并由三组因素形成：(1)技术，包括实验技术、设备和结果呈现（在出版物和演示中）和表现（在图像和模型中）的方式；(2)科学技术工作的参与者、实验室环境、机构和当地环境；(3)工作所处的社会/文化/知识/经济环境。这些技术集群、行动者/地点集群和社会/文化集群都影响着科学，也受到科学的影响。理解相互作用需要不同的学科研究方法，理解相互作用需要多学科研究策略和方法。这些因素结合在一起，成为塑造社会科学的“变革推动者”。这个项目在一个动态的、互动的、综合的、跨学科的、国际化的研究环境中探索科学变革的动因。在智力方面，我们将实现两个主要的智力目标。首先是对胚胎研究的历史和现状，所涉及的因素以及研究的多种背景有丰富的了解。由于胚胎研究的重要性，这本身就具有强大的知识价值。此外，通过将与这一特定案例相关的多个不同领域的研究结合在一起，我们将对影响每一个科学变化案例的变化动因有更丰富的理解。我们的假设集中在选择的事件中，其中不同的因素具有不同的相对重要性，我们试图随着时间的推移分析和理解变化的动因。所有结果都将成为虚拟实验室（VL）与柏林马克斯普朗克科学史研究所合作的数字工作环境的一部分。除了传统的学术出版物外，我们还将存档研究材料，供不同的工作团队共享，并将增加学术解释性的论文和文章，这些文章和文章将构成一个可供多个用户访问的在线资源集。就更广泛的影响而言，该项目有以下几个方面：(1)与6个国家和多个学科的近24名合作者合作，我们将建立一个真正的“合作实验室”。通过分享材料和研究问题，我们将在每个学科中提出新的问题，并学习跨学科的研究材料，问题和解释。(2) VL测试的数字工作环境使所有用户在任何时候都可以获得所有研究材料和学术解释，从而使研究成为可能。(3)这项研究将使我们能够展示在社会背景下，变化的动因是如何影响胚胎研究的，包括对塑造科学和社会决策的新兴模式的解释。这也应该为今后的决策、进程和决策提供信息。(4)在最后阶段，我们将为多个用户群体开发教材。博士后研究员、研究生和本科生都将成为研究团队的成员，每个人都将接受单独的培训，同时帮助增加积累的社区成果。

For the HSD initiative, Embryo research provides a case study of rapidly changing science within radically contested contexts. As with any science, embryo research is embedded in webs of unsettled ethical, legal, political, religious, cultural, and social negotiations that shape the conduct of science, its diverse meanings, and the spectrum of decisions built upon such understandings. Embryo research starts with a scientific drive to understand development of the individual organism and is shaped by three clusters of factors: (1) technical, including experimental techniques, equipment, and the way results are presented (in publications and presentations) and represented (in images and models); (2) actors, laboratory settings, institutions, and local contexts of scientific and technical work; and (3) social/cultural/ intellectual/economic environments in which the work is done. These clusters of Technical, Actors/Places, and Social/Cultural all impact and are impacted by the science. Understanding each requires different disciplinary research approaches, and understanding interactions requires multi-disciplinary research strategies and methods. The factors combine to serve as "Agents of Change" shaping science in society. This project explores those agents of scientific change in a dynamic, interactive, integrative, interdisciplinary, international research environment. With regards to Intellectual Merit, we will accomplish two major intellectual goals. First is a rich understanding of the history and current state of embryo research, the factors involved, and the multiple contexts in which research is done. Because of the importance of embryo research, this is of powerful intellectual value itself. Furthermore, in bringing together multiple otherwise disparate areas of study related to this particular case, we will achieve a much richer understanding of the Agents of Change influencing each case of scientific change. Our hypotheses focus on selected episodes in which different factors had different relative importance, and we seek to analyze and understand the Agents of Change over time. All results will be part of the digital working environment of the Virtual Laboratory (VL) in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. We will archive research materials to be shared among different working teams, and will add scholarly interpretive essays and articles that will make up an on-line Resource Collection accessible to multiple users, in addition to traditional scholarly publications. With regards to Broader Impacts, this project has a several: (1) Working with a network of nearly 2 dozen collaborators in 6 countries and multiple disciplines, we will develop a true "collaboratory." By sharing materials and research questions, we will ask new questions within each discipline and learn of research materials, questions, and interpretations across disciplines. (2) The VL tested digital working environment makes that research possible by making all research materials and scholarly interpretations available to all users at all times. (3) The research will allow us to demonstrating how Agents of Change affect this case of Embryo Research in its societal contexts, including interpretations of the emerging patterns shaping science and societal decisions. This should also inform future decisions processes and policy-making. (4) In the final stages, we will develop Educational Materials for multiple user groups. A Postdoctoral Fellow, Graduate Student, and Undergraduates will all be members of the research team, and each will be trained individually while helping to add to the accumulating community results.