All Topics  
Virtual Laboratory

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Virtual Laboratory
 
 
  Topics Virtual Laboratory Topic Home

The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was established in March 1994. Its research is primarily devoted to a theoretically oriented history of science, principally of the natural sciences, but with methodological perspectives drawn from the cognitive sciences and from cultural history....
, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. The term experimentalization describes the interaction between the life sciences, the arts
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, media
Mass media

Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a mainstream such as the population of a nation state....
 and technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
 within the experimental paradigm, ca. 1830 to 1930. The Virtual Laboratory is a platform that not only presents work on this topic but also acts as an research environment for new studies.

997, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory was presented, titled Virtual Laboratory of Physiology.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Virtual Laboratory'
Start a new discussion about 'Virtual Laboratory'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was established in March 1994. Its research is primarily devoted to a theoretically oriented history of science, principally of the natural sciences, but with methodological perspectives drawn from the cognitive sciences and from cultural history....
, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. The term experimentalization describes the interaction between the life sciences, the arts
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
, architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, media
Mass media

Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a mainstream such as the population of a nation state....
 and technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
 within the experimental paradigm, ca. 1830 to 1930. The Virtual Laboratory is a platform that not only presents work on this topic but also acts as an research environment for new studies.

History

In 1997, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory was presented, titled Virtual Laboratory of Physiology. At this time, the main focus lay on the development of technological preconditions of physiological research in the 19th century. Therefore, a database with relevant texts and images was created. In 1998, the concept still used today was created after a series of modifications, followed by the publication of a cd-rom in 1999. At this time, the focus had been expanded from physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
 to the life sciences in general, as well as the arts and literature
Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
. As the project had been extended from a sole database to a platform for historiographical research, it was presented at the conference Using the World Wide Web for Historical Research in Science and Technology organized by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropy non-profit organization in the United States. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan, then-President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors....
 at Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
. In 2000, the project was incorporated into the research project The Experimentalization of Life, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. This was followed by another presentation at the conference Virtual Research? The impact of new technologies on scientific practices at the ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich

ETH Z?rich or Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Z?rich is a science and technology university in the Z?rich, Switzerland. Locals sometimes refer to it by the name Poly, derived from the original name Eidgen?ssisches Polytechnikum or Federal Polytechnic Institute....
. In 2002, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory went online. Since 2008, the Virtual Laboratory is listed as a journal under the ISSN number 1866-4784.

Structure

The Virtual Laboratory consists of two sections. The archive holds a large number of digitized texts and images as well as data sheets compiled from these resources. The laboratory holds historiographical work on the experimentalization of life as well as an working environment to enable new ways of writing history. The Virtual Laboratory is composed of 8 sections:
  • Essays: this section holds the historiographical papers that are in turn linked to the source material of the archive.
  • Experiments: contains data sheets on classical experiments from 19th century life sciences, e.g. on blood circulation, muscle contraction, verve conduction and reaction time.
  • Technology: deals with the technological aspects of experimentalization, hence the instruments.
  • Objects: this section is still under construction. It will contain the actual objects of the experiments, hence organisms.
  • Sites: contains data sheets on institutions at which experimental work was conducted.
  • People: this sections holds short biographies of the protagonists of experimentalization.
  • Concepts: is dedicated to central concepts like reflex, function and consciousness and their respective histories.
  • Library: this is the core section of the Virtual Laboratory. Besides digitized texts, journals and trade catalogues, it holds manuscripts, audio files and excepts of movies. The printed texts are in the process of being ocr-ed and are already partly accessible via fulltext search.
All materials are available as pdf downloads.

Apart from these thematical sections, tools and myLab offer the possibility to use the Virtual Laboratory as a research environment. It is possible to create specific collections from the available materials, work on them and share them with other users.

Literature

  • Schmidgen, Henning; Evans, Rand B.: The Virtual Laboratory: A New On-Line Resource for the History of Psychology. History of Psychology, 6 (2), S. 208-213, 2003
  • Dierig, Sven; Kantel, Jörg; Schmidgen, Henning: (pdf)


External links