Today was my first day in harness on the CONSCICOM project. There’s a buzz around the project’s new offices at the Gibson Building. My arrival has been organised with such proficiency that by lunchtime it’s down to business. And what an exciting set of ideas on which to be working. The project’s citizen science themes speak to a broad church of science. I’m keen to begin exploring this theme in my own area of interest, botany, a discipline historically co-inhabited by amateurs and professionals. I’m also excited to be looking beyond botany. It’s been fascinating to hear more about team-member Sally Frampton’s work on these themes in the history of medicine. The project’s simultaneous concern with publishing and modes of exchange between the many groups who consider themselves to belong to a scientific community promises to be an equally fascinating way of studying the creation of scientific communities. It’s going to be an exciting few years and I can’t wait to start putting some historical flesh on these ideas.
