A COLLECTIVE INTERPRETATION OF EXPERIMENT AL RESULTS - COMPARISONS BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS

During an international meeting, a half-dozen European research teams with the assignment of measuring air pollution were observed. The meet ing had the objective of comparing the performance of each team's scie ntific instruments. By following up on meetings and discussions among researchers, light was shed on the way these scientists created relati onships among themselves and also between their instruments for measur ing pollution and ''reality''. These scientists used causal relationsh ips in a pragmatic, informal way so as to both manage the uncertainty of measurements and adjust results to conditions at the sites of exper iments. interactions among scientists help construct a common frame of reference without the experimental process being overly determined by the interplay between strictly rational causes or, at the other extre me, by purely social interests.