scientific research The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...

, an experimental system is the physical, technical and procedural basis for an

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

or series of experiments. Historian of science Hans-Jörg Rheinberger defines an experimental system as: "A basic unit of experimental activity combining local, technical, instrumental, institutional, social, and

epistemic Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

aspects."

Scientists A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophi ...

(particularly laboratory biologists) and

historians A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

philosophers A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

have pointed to the development and spread of successful experimental systems, such as those based on popular

model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...

or scientific apparatus, as key elements in the history of science, particularly since the early 20th century. The choice of an appropriate experimental system is often seen as critical for a scientist's long-term success, as experimental systems can be very productive for some kinds of questions and less productive for others, acquiring a sort of momentum that takes research in unpredicted directions. A successful experimental system must be stable and reproducible enough for scientists to make sense of the system's behavior, but variable and unpredictable enough that it can produce useful results. In many cases, a well-understood experimental system can be " black-boxed" as a standard technique, which can then be a component of other experimental systems. Rheinberger divides experimental systems into two parts: the part under investigation ("epistemic things") and the well-understood part that provides a stable context for experimentation ("technical objects"). The development of experimental systems in biology often requires the "

domestication Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. ...

" of a particular organism for the laboratory environment, including the creation of relatively homogeneous lines or strains and the tailoring of conditions to highlight the variable aspects that scientists are interested in. Scientific technologies, similarly, often require the development of a full experimental system to go from a viable concept to a technique that works in practice on a usefully consistent basis. For example, the invention of the

polymerase chain reaction The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies (complete or partial) of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it (or a part of it) ...

(PCR) is generally attributed to Kary Mullis, who came up with the concept in 1983, but the process of development of PCR into the revolutionary technology it became by the early 1990s took years of work by others at Cetus Corporation—and the basic components of the system had been known since the 1960s DNA synthesis work of Har Gobind Khorana—making "who invented PCR?" a complicated question.Rabinow, ''Making PCR'', pp. 7-9

Notes

References

* Robert E. Kohler. ''Lords of the Fly: ''Drosophila'' Genetics and the Experimental Life''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. *

Paul Rabinow Paul M. Rabinow (June 21, 1944 – April 6, 2021) was professor of anthropology at the University of California (Berkeley), director of the Anthropology of the Contemporary Research Collaboratory (ARC), and former director of human practices ...

. ''Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. * Hans-Jörg Rheinberger. ''Toward a History of Epistemic Things: Synthesizing Proteins in the Test Tube''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. Philosophy of science Historiography of science Systems theory Systems science Conceptual systems {{science-philo-stub