Resources on biological visualisation in history, philosophy and social studies of biology

Compiled by Sabina Leonelli, University of Exeter, s.leonelli@exeter.ac.uk with help from Dan Nicholson, Nadine Levin, Staffan Mueller-Wille (University of Exeter), Gregory Radick (University of Leeds) and Maureen O’Malley (University of Sydney). This is by no means a complete listing and we welcome suggestions for further materials.

Online Repositories

• The Embryo Project Encyclopaedia (excellent and well-curated resource on visualisations in biology): http://embryo.asu.edu/
• Bill Bechtel’s Working Group on Diagrams in Science: http://mechanism.ucsd.edu/WORGODS/publications.html
• Darwin Online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/
• Online manuscripts of Linnaeus: http://linnean-online.org/linnaean_mss.html
• The Francis Crick Papers: http://wellcomelibrary.org/using-the-library/subject-guides/genetics/makers-of-modern-genetics/digitised-archives/francis-crick/
• History of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL): http://history.archives.mbl.edu/

Special Issues

• “Simulation, Visualisation and Scientific Understanding”, Perspectives on Science http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/POSC_e_00135#.VCvNOkhFHkc
• Sabine Brauckmann’s works, particularly a special issue (no. 4, vol. 42) of Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences: Part C on the history and philosophy of embryo visualization: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13698486/42/4

Books

• James McAllister “Beauty and Revolution in Science” http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100942700&fa=author&person_id=671
• Annamaria Carusi, Aud Sissel Hoel, Timothy Webmoor and Steve Woolgar (eds) Visualisation in the Age of Computerisation (2014) Routledge.
• Michael Lynch and Steve Woolgar, "Representation in Scientific Practice" (1990) http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/representation-scientific-practice and follow-up edited volume "Representation in Scientific Practice Revisited" (2014) http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/representation-scientific-practice-revisited
• Jeannette Edwards et al (2010) "Technologized images" http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KeDg77S28LwC&dq=joseph+dumit&source=gbs_navlinks_s
• Lorraine Daston, Peter Galison (2007) "Images of Objectivity" http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tkSmSAAACAAJ&dq=daston+galison+objectivity&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CvwnVND_DY7earClgUA&redir_esc=y
• Julia Voss (2010) “Darwin’s Pictures: Views of Evolutionary Theory, 1837-1874” http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300141740
• Theodore W. Pietsch “Trees of Life: A Visual History of Evolution” http://books.google.com.au/books?id=mmwcAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=tree+life+visualization&hl=en&sa=X&ei=APckVMvCDoH3igLgmoHoCg&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Sturken, Marita & Lisa Cartwright (2001) Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
• Mark Pallen, “The Rough Guide to Evolution: Lamarck, Darwin and the Tree of Life”

Individual Papers

• Bruno Latour “Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together” http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1270717.files/Visualization%20and%20Cognition.pdf
• Laura Perini “Explanation in Two Dimensions: Diagrams and Biological Models,” Biology & Philosophy, (2005) pp. 257-269.
• Laura Perini “The Truth in Pictures,” Philosophy of Science, Vol. 72 (2005) pp. 262-285.
• James R. Griesemer and W.C.Wimsatt "Picturing Weismannism: A Case Study in Conceptual Evolution" in Michael Ruse, ed., WHAT THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY IS: ESSAYS DEDICATED TO DAVID HULL (Kluwer, 1989), pp. 75-137.
• Michael Ruse “Are Pictures Really Necessary?  The Case of Sewall Wright's 'Adaptive Landscapes', PSA PROCEEDINGS 1990 : 63-77.
• Cambrosio, Alberto, Daniel Jacobi, & Peter Keating (1993) “Ehrlich’s ‘Beautiful Pictures’ and the Controversial Beginnings of Immunological Imagery,” Isis 84(4): 662–99.
• Isabelle Charmantier. 'Carl Linnaeus and the Visual Representation of Nature', Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences 41 (2011), 365-404.
• Ruse, Michael & Peter Taylor (eds) (1991) “Pictorial Representation in Biology,” Biology and Philosophy 6(2): 125–294.
• Mark A. Ragan “Trees and networks before and after Darwin” (pdf)

Material Culture of Visualisation

• X-ray camera in Leeds, used in the 1930s by Astbury and Bell to produce the first X-ray photos of DNA: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/heritage/Astbury/Astbury_X_ray_camera/index.html