Schaxel: /* History */
==History==
In 1997, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory was presented, titled ”’Virtual Laboratory of Physiology”’. At this time, the main focus lay on the development of technological preconditions of physiological research in the 19th century. Therefore, a database with relevant texts and images was created. In 1998, the concept still used today was created after a series of modifications, followed by the publication of a cd-rom in 1999. At this time, the focus had been expanded from [[physiology]] to the [[life sciences]] in general, as well as the arts and [[literature]]. As the project had been extended from a sole database to a platform for historiographical research, it was presented at the conference ”Using the World Wide Web for Historical Research in Science and Technology” organized by the [[Alfred P. Sloan Foundation]] at [[Stanford University]]. In 2000, the project was incorporated into the research project ”The Experimentalization of Life”, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation. This was followed by another presentation at the conference ”Virtual Research? The impact of new technologies on scientific practices” at the [[ETH Zurich]]. In 2002, the first version of the Virtual Laboratory went online. Since 2008, the Virtual Laboratory is listed as a journal under the [[ISSN]] number 1866-4784.
==Structure==
The Virtual Laboratory consists of two sections. The archive holds a large number of [[digitized]] texts and images as well as data sheets compiled from these resources. The laboratory holds historiographical work on the experimentalization of life as well as an working environment to enable new ways of writing history.
The Virtual Laboratory is composed of 8 sections:
*”’Essays”’: this section holds the historiographical papers that are in turn linked to the source material of the archive.
*”’Experiments”’: contains data sheets on classical experiments from 19th century life sciences, e.g. on blood circulation, muscle contraction, verve conduction and reaction time.
*”’Technology”’: deals with the technological aspects of experimentalization, hence the instruments.
*”’Objects”’: this section is still under construction. It will contain the actual objects of the experiments, hence organisms.
*”’Sites”’: contains data sheets on institutions at which experimental work was conducted.
*”’People”’: this sections holds short biographies of the protagonists of experimentalization.
*”’Concepts”’: is dedicated to central concepts like reflex, function and consciousness and their respective histories.
*”’Library”’: this is the core section of the Virtual Laboratory. Besides digitized texts, journals and trade catalogues, it holds manuscripts, audio files and excepts of movies. The printed texts are in the process of being ocr-ed and are already partly accessible via fulltext search.
All materials are available as pdf downloads.
Apart from these thematical sections, ”tools” and ”myLab” offer the possibility to use the Virtual Laboratory as a research environment. It is possible to create specific collections from the available materials, work on them and share them with other users.
==Literature==
* Schmidgen, Henning; Evans, Rand B.: ”The Virtual Laboratory: A New On-Line Resource for the History of Psychology.” ”History of Psychology”, 6 (2), S. 208-213, 2003
* Dierig, Sven; Kantel, Jörg; Schmidgen, Henning: [http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/Preprints/P140.PDF ”The Virtual Laboratory for Physiology.” Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Preprint 140, 2000] (pdf)
==Weblinks==
* [http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/index_html Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930]
* {{ISSN|1866-4784}}
* [http://dispatch.opac.ddb.de/DB=1.1/SET=1/TTL=11/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=8509&SRT=LST_ty&TRM=virtual+laboratory list of journals available in fulltext at the Virtual Laboratory.]
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(Via Wikipedia – New pages [en].)