Laboratories and Texts

What is so special about a laboratory? Why is it the laboratory rather than the boardroom that counts as Touraine’s strategic locus for the twentieth century? Why is the laboratory the most important centre of translation? What goes on behind its doors that gives it the power to influence events far beyond its walls? For certainly, if you stand outside those doors, it does not seem very remarkable. The laboratory that this author knows best is up six flights of stairs in some temporary rooms that appear to have been added as an afterthought to a more permanent structure.1 The whole is in need of a new coat of paint. At the top of those stairs you come to a double door. Until recently this door stood open during working hours. Now there are anxieties about the activities of the animal liberation front, so it is necessary to be inspected by a technician inside. You enter the hallway, pass down a corridor and walk into the main laboratory. Here there are five or six benches, and a clutter of sinks and cupboards. One or two young people are working. They are shaking test tubes, or pouring out solutions of chemicals. There is occasional talk: when are the new copolymers expected? Will the water supply be cut off before midday? Who won the game of bridge last night?