But a single thread ran through all of his work: the notion that facts do not exist outside of society, but rather are generated and advanced within dense networks of people, ideas and objects. Scientific facts, they concluded, do not spring fully formed from the skulls of researchers. Rather, they said, they emerge out of the push-and-pull of lengthy laboratory debates and incomplete results, and become established — or don’t — amid particular social and political ecosystems.
Know Thyself 