• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.67-96
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• 2011

Studies in scientific visualization have disclosed a visual chain among many scientific visualizations, which starts from the photographs that have many details to diagrams that enable scientists to make specific claims due to their abstract characters. Located at both ends of the visual chain, photographs and diagrams are regarded as being different kinds and having different characteristics. The photographs - or microphotographs to be precise - that this paper discusses, however, had been removed of unnecessary details and were prepared with carful attention to illustrative functions that diagrams usually perform. Following microphotographic changes in a Korean laboratory, this article shows that the knowledge of specimen preparation was transmitted from an American leading group to the Korean laboratory through a direct contact, and that with this, the technique of taking microphotographs of the laboratory was much improved. The specimen preparation method is, however, a tacit knowledge that is invisible in both group's papers. This article argues that the method of specimen preparation is the driving force that made the microphotographs act like carefully prepared diagrams and acquire objectivity.