Most of us think scientists are people – really smart people – who conduct experiments and then analyze the results. But for Daniel Lee Kleinman, scientists are the experiment.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of rural sociology, Kleinman spent months back in the 1990s studying a group of biologists in a plant pathology laboratory. He investigated their motivations and observed their interactions. Eventually, he published a book about his discoveries titled Impure Cultures: University Biology and the World of Commerce (UW Press, 2004). Now Kleinman and the lead subject from that study, UW microbiologist Jo Handelsman, have collaborated to launch a series of books about controversial scientific topics.