Toward a New Dimension

Anne Marcovich is a historian and sociologist of science and medicine based at the Paris Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. Her research work entails studies of the relations between human body representations and representations of the social body; the history of ideas and theories concerning cancer, the human brain, and the processes and mechanisms of the mental development of children; the diffusion of Chinese medicine in the French medical context; and form and internal structure as invariants in the organisation and evolution of society.Terry Shinn is a historian and sociologist of science based at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. His research covers themes such as relations between social structure and educational hierarchy in the sciences; linkage between the organisation of research work and the structure of scientific disciplines; correlations between research question, reasoning modes, and intra-laboratory hierarchy and research function; the place of "generic instrumentation" in the growth of 20th century scientific knowledge in the physical sciences; and transversality in the circulation of knowledge between scientific fields.

This book is a very good starting point for anyone who wants to comprehend the recent explosion of work at the nano level, appreciate how a new area of science has emerged with its own unique methods and startling new understanding of the atomic world, or glimpse the possibilities of technologies for designing and controlling materials at the atomic level. ... Highly recommended.

• Introduction ; 1. Mainstays of nanoscale research ; 2. Worlds of nanophysics ; 3. The scale of life? ; 4. Epistemological frames and practices ; 5. The role of combinatorials in structuring NSR cognitive trajectories ; 6. Which disciplinarity for nanoscale research? ; General conclusion