%0 Journal Article
%T Trust in Technicians in Paleontology Laboratories
%A Caitlin Donahue Wylie
%J Science, Technology, & Human Values
%@ 1552-8251
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0162243917722844
%X New technologies can upset scientific workplaces¡¯ established practices and social order. Scientists may therefore prefer preserving skilled manual work and the social status quo to revolutionary technological change. For example, digital imaging of rock-encased fossils is a valuable way for scientists to ¡°see¡± a specimen without traditional rock removal. However, interviews in vertebrate paleontology laboratories reveal workers¡¯ skepticism toward computed tomography (CT) imaging. Scientists criticize replacing physical fossils with digital images because, they say, images are more subjective than the ¡°real thing.¡± I argue that these scientists are also implicitly supporting rock-removal technicians, who are skilled and trusted experts whose work would be made obsolete by widespread implementation of CT scanning. Scientists¡¯ view of CT as a sometimes useful tool rather than a universal new approach to accessing fossils preserves the laboratory community¡¯s social structure. Specifically, by privileging ¡°real¡± specimens and trusted specimen-processing technicians over images and imaging experts, scientists preserve the lab community¡¯s division of labor and skill, hierarchy between scientists and technicians, and these groups¡¯ identity and mutual trust
%K archiving and collecting practices
%K academic disciplines and traditions
%K expertise
%K labor
%K representation
%K trust
%K arts and aesthetics
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0162243917722844