John Bickle (Mississippi State University)
Tool development in contemporary neurobiology exemplifies Hacking's insistence that experiment has a "life of its own" independent of theory. Previously Bickle argued for this using the development of gene targeting techniques and optogenetics/DREADDs. Here I extend Bickle's conclusions with another case of tool development that revolutionized neurobiology, David Hubel's metal microelectrode. Hubel's writings reveal an experiment-first attitude about science; but this case illustrates how engineering concerns drive experiment tool development in neurobiology, and how theory tags behind. The metascientific study of tool development in neurobiology provides a useful contrast to the theory-centrism still prominent in philosophy of science.
