This collection focuses on different expeditions and their role in the process of knowledge
acquisition from the eighteenth century onwards. It investigates various forms of scientific
practice conducted during after and before expeditions and it places this discussion into the
scientific context of experiments. In treating expeditions as experiments in a heuristic sense
we also propose that the expedition is a variation on the laboratory in which different
practices can be conducted and where the transformation of uncertain into certain knowledge is
tested. The experimental positioning of the expedition brings together an ensemble of
techniques strategies material agents and social actors and illuminates the steps leading
from observation to facts and documentation. The chapters show the variety of scientific
interests that motivated expeditions with their focus on natural history geology ichthyology
botany zoology helminthology speleology physical anthropology oceanography meteorology
and magnetism.
