Howshouldsciencebewritten?Itisaquestionthatpiquednaturalphilosophersoftheseventeenthcenturyastheyexperimentedwiththerhetoricalfigures,neologisms,verse-forms,andgenericvarietythatcharacterisetheliterarytextureoftheirwork.Inspiredlaymenwerequicktoborrowfromthenewphilosophyandfrompractisingscientistsinordertodeployideasandimagesfromastronomy,optics,chemistry,biology,andmedicine.Betweenthem,scientists,naturalhistorians,poets,dramatists,andessayistsproducednew,adjusted,orhybridliteraryforms.ThePoeticsofScientificInvestigationinSeventeenth-CenturyEnglandexaminesthoseformsandthatliterary-scientifictexture,aswellasrepresentationsofthescientific--thelaboratory,collaborativeexperimentalretirement,andthecanonsofscientificconversation--andproposesthatthewritingofseventeenth-centurysciencemirrorstheintellectualandinvestigativeprocessesofearlymodernscienceitself.
adjusted VERSE FORMS chemistry biology poets POETICS
