
Daniel Lee Kleinman and Jo Handelsman first sparred in 1995, when the University of Wisconsin, Madison sociologist spent six months as a guest in Handelsman's plant pathology lab. The sociologist's goal was to find out how financial incentives - say, profits from selling microorganisms as therapeutics - might shape the day-to-day workings of a laboratory.
Immersing himself in lab culture, Kleinman did some experiments of his own, looking for an antibiotic resistance gene in bacterial samples. In his interactions with Handelsman and her research team, he was struck by a disconnect between the work scientists do and its social implications. During lab meetings, for example, he remembers when Handelsman would segue from a discussion on a public scientific debate by asking her group to turn to the science itself. At the same time, he documented his observations on...
Interested in reading more?
