ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the process of abstracting in protein research, through a systematic historical and philosophical investigation of the ribbon drawings of proteins produced by Jane Richardson in the early 1980s. Richardson’s system of drawings was aimed at making proteins comparable for the purpose of classification: her goal was to devise a system that would allow her to group proteins according to their evolutionary relationships. We argue that in pursuing this goal Richardson approached abstracting as manipulating “aspectual structure” (Lopes, D. (1996). Understanding Pictures. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Fisher, G. (2017). “Content, Design and Representation in Chemistry”, Foundations of Chemistry vol. 19, pp. 17–28.), and that design choices about how to present the content of the drawings allowed her to represent proteins dynamically and selectively, in line with her central insight that drawing can change one’s understanding of protein structure. For Richardson, we claim, the practice of abstracting fulfilled a twofold purpose: to make protein structures comparable for the purpose of classification, and to provide a visual method that would make judgements about selecting and emphasizing salient features evident, communicable, and ultimately usable by the scientific community.
