Nobel Laureates: Study of Narratives of Discovery from the Science and Technology Interface

The knowledge making process in science is influenced by the character of the interfaces between science, technology and society. This study is specifically focused on skills and new knowledge related to the mobility of researchers (“the history of going abroad”), enabling access to specific research facilities and equipment. Skills and technical understanding of new instruments and methods can be of key importance in contributing to scientific advances. In contrast to other (more linear) perceptions of the relationship between science and technology and innovation, this study focuses on roles of scientific instruments in inventing new methods to invent. One example is Montalcini, an Italian scientist awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1986 for discoveries of nerve growth factors. In her work, she worked with exotic materials like snake venom (that had a high level of growth factors), creating a growth of synapses in cells treated with it, instead of the opposite effect that was initially expected (using the snake venom initially to suppress this growth in cancer cells since it also contained a nucleic acid degrading enzyme). These unexpected but much welcome results were described by Montalcini herself (in her Nobel lecture), “Chance, rather than calculated search, signed a new, most fortunate turn of events,” taking place during a research visit to Brazil. This visit was motivated by access to laboratory equipment. This is contrasted with other narratives from Nobel Laureates in early career laboratory work discussing categories of discovery in the knowledge making process and different functions of researcher mobility for access to technical skills necessary for scientific breakthroughs in the science - technology interface.