ABSTRACT
Scientific models and fiction have one noticeable feature in common. Their representational relation to the physical world is ambiguous. This chapter begins with the problem of representation in the contemporary philosophy of science. After introducing the reasons that prompted a comparison of scientific models with fiction, it argues that the problem of ambiguous inference emerges from two essential features of representations, namely their hybridity and incompleteness. To distinguish between fictional and non-fictional elements in scientific models, the chapter looks at the integrative strategies that link a particular model to other methods in an ongoing research context. It examines protein-modeling through X-ray crystallography as a pivotal method in biochemistry. The essential material precondition for X-ray crystallography is symmetry. The detailed dissection of modeling steps in X-ray crystallography revealed a chain of mediation between the raw materials and the final model.
