ABSTRACT
T he life sciences are usually defined with concepts such as cell metabolism, genes, or macromolecules that are characteristics of three specialties which have emerged in the twentieth century: biochemistry, genetics and molecular bio1ogy.l Notwithstanding the richness of these cognitive changes, studies of contemporary biology have recently focused on materials, techniques, and work arrangements. One motive for this interest may be that the accumulation of biological knowledge has been nurtured and constrained by the interaction between laboratories, industrial settings, hospitals, farms, and administrative bodies. The question of how biologists work has become an important topic and historians have turned their attention to aspects of biological research which were once viewed as mundane: the collection of research materials, the production of instruments, the purification of biological agents, the definition of standards, or the circulation of organisms.
