Abstract
Drawing on professional contacts that my supervisor happened to have, I began extending my fieldwork to a second research group—a research laboratory in the field of molecular biology that differs from the planetary science group in its mono-disciplinary orientation, its hierarchical structure and its size. The molecular biology laboratory is led by Johan, an internationally accomplished expert in the field; and it comprises about 35 people, most of whom are graduate students and post-graduate researchers who have spent only a couple of years in the group, collaborating with fellow group members, broadening their knowledge of experimental techniques and trying to make a name for themselves with high-ranking publications. Many of them see the laboratory, and the research collaboration it facilitates, as a springboard to an academic career.
They all came to my lab, because they sort of respect what we do and what we can do for them. Johan, group leader, interview, group2
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Notes
- 1.
For an empirical study on the balance between collaboration and competition in the Danish life sciences see Poulsen (2001).
References
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Wagenknecht, S. (2016). The Molecular Biology Laboratory. In: A Social Epistemology of Research Groups. New Directions in the Philosophy of Science. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52410-2_5
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