UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies

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The Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL is an interdisciplinary centre for the integrated study of science's history, philosophy, sociology, communication and policy, located in the heart of London. Founded in 1921. Award winning for teaching and research, plus for our public engagement programme. Rated as outstanding by students at every level.

At UCL, the academic mission is paramount. Our ambition is to achieve the highest standards in our teaching and research.

Join us for BSc, MSc, and PhD study.

Staff books include:

Serpente, Norberto

STS Honorary Research Associate (email)

Thesis

Serpente, Norberto. 2011. Cells from Icons to Symbols: Molecularising Cell Biology in the 1980s. PhD thesis. University College London.

Abstract to come

Research interests

My interest resides in cultures of image creation for the production of knowledge in the biosciences, with special emphasis on the visual embodiment of the process of molecularisation of biology. I completed a PhD dissertation (October 2011) on the changing visualities of cell biology during the ‘molecular revolution’ of the 1970s 1980s . My studies are framed by current debates about the historical dimension of objectivity and representation in science as well as the specificity of scientific selves for the existence of different epistemic cultures in cell biology such as the microscopical and the molecular. I engaged my findings on cell biology textbooks imagery with semiotics and simulation theory to propose a change of modality from iconic to symbolic and the existence of a self-referencial system in the discipline. I am interested in deepening my studies on the different visual forms of molecular imagery as the visual embodiment of the process of molecularisation, more specifically at its conditions of emergence and sustainability. I am also interested on the tensions between the ‘intelligible’ and the ‘practical’ for the production of images in biology, especially during its making and in their relation with the philosophical distinction between discovery and justification. I am keen in developing a visual catalogue from ‘sketch to final form’ of the pictorial work of two key figures of the process of visual molecularisation of cell biology Keith Roberts and David Goodsell. 

UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS)
0207 679 1328 office | +44 207 679 1328 international
sts@ucl.ac.uk | www.ucl.ac.uk/sts | @stsucl
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