eprintid: 1447059
rev_number: 51
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/01/44/70/59
datestamp: 2014-11-17 13:27:31
lastmod: 2021-10-04 01:05:53
status_changed: 2014-11-17 13:27:30
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
item_issues_count: 0
creators_name: Clarke, B
title: Mapping the methodologies of Burkitt lymphoma
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C06
divisions: F58
keywords: Burkitt lymphoma, big science, cancer viruses, geographical pathology, long safari, maps
note: © 2014 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).
abstract: While recent accounts have emphasised the planned, large-scale and systematic character of cancer virus research in the mid-C20, I argue here that a distinctive kind of small-scale scientific research existed, and made a distinctive contribution to the development of the field as a whole. Using the case of the research carried out to understand the causes of Burkitt lymphoma in Africa during the 1960s, I highlight two distinctive practices – geographical mapping and the re-purposing of existing disease infrastructure – that played a central role in this episode. My intention here is threefold: first, I will argue that this research is unlike the research practices usually identified as typical ‘big science’ research concerning cancer viruses, particularly in the United States. Second, I will argue that this kind of research is also clearly distinct from the kind of research that Derek Price (Price 1963) characterised as ‘little science’. Thirdly, I will sketch a positive characterisation of this kind of research as ‘small science’. I conclude by suggesting that this characterisation may be applied to other kinds of historical biomedical research, and that so doing may offer the pluralist a useful alternative way of understanding medical research in the twentieth century.
date: 2014-12-01
publisher: Elsevier
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.08.005
vfaculties: VMPS
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
article_type_text: Article
verified: verified_manual
elements_source: Manually entered
elements_id: 972778
doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.08.005
lyricists_name: Clarke, Brendan
lyricists_id: BOCLA19
full_text_status: public
publication: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
volume: 48
pagerange: 210-217
issn: 1369-8486
citation:        Clarke, B;      (2014)    Mapping the methodologies of Burkitt lymphoma.                   Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences , 48    pp. 210-217.    10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.08.005 <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.08.005>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1447059/1/1-s2.0-S1369848614001216-main.pdf