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  • 13 - Thick and Thin Chemical Narratives

  • from V - Research Narratives
  • Edited by Mary S. Morgan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Kim M. Hajek, London School of Economics and Political Science, Dominic J. Berry, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Book:
    Narrative Science
    Published online:
    16 September 2022
    Print publication:
    06 October 2022, pp 267-286
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  • Summary

    This chapter introduces a distinction between two sorts of scientific narrative, modelled on Ted Porter’s discussion of thick and thin description. In thin narratives, sequences of processes and experimental interventions are presented in a highly conventionalized form, their notation often assembled from a stock of familiar elements. Thick narratives, by contrast, offer a greater degree of context and contingency and may be attentive to social, environmental and other considerations. The distinction is discussed with examples from chemistry; I suggest that chemical reaction schemes, written to describe organic syntheses, are examples of thin narratives. But some chemists, as well as historians, geographers and sociologists who study chemistry, have expressed reservations about what such accounts leave out, and seek to develop modes for narrating chemical processes, experiments and impacts which can provide a thicker account.