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Scientific instrument
Equipment specifically designed to facilitate the acquisition of scientific data

A scientific instrument is a device or tool used for scientific purposes, including the study of both natural phenomena and theoretical research.

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History

Historically, the definition of a scientific instrument has varied, based on usage, laws, and historical time period.234 Before the mid-nineteenth century such tools were referred to as "natural philosophical" or "philosophical" apparatus and instruments, and older tools from antiquity to the Middle Ages (such as the astrolabe and pendulum clock) defy a more modern definition of "a tool developed to investigate nature qualitatively or quantitatively."56 Scientific instruments were made by instrument makers living near a center of learning or research, such as a university or research laboratory. Instrument makers designed, constructed, and refined instruments for purposes, but if demand was sufficient, an instrument would go into production as a commercial product.78

In a description of the use of the eudiometer by Jan Ingenhousz to show photosynthesis, a biographer observed, "The history of the use and evolution of this instrument helps to show that science is not just a theoretical endeavor but equally an activity grounded on an instrumental basis, which is a cocktail of instruments and techniques wrapped in a social setting within a community of practitioners. The eudiometer has been shown to be one of the elements in this mix that kept a whole community of researchers together, even while they were at odds about the significance and the proper use of the thing."9

By World War II, the demand for improved analyses of wartime products such as medicines, fuels, and weaponized agents pushed instrumentation to new heights.10 Today, changes to instruments used in scientific endeavors — particularly analytical instruments — are occurring rapidly, with interconnections to computers and data management systems becoming increasingly necessary.1112

Scope

Scientific instruments vary greatly in size, shape, purpose, complication and complexity. They include relatively simple laboratory equipment like scales, rulers, chronometers, thermometers, etc. Other simple tools developed in the late 20th century or early 21st century are the Foldscope (an optical microscope), the SCALE(KAS Periodic Table),13 the MasSpec Pen (a pen that detects cancer), the glucose meter, etc. However, some scientific instruments can be quite large in size and significant in complexity, like particle colliders or radio-telescope antennas. Conversely, microscale and nanoscale technologies are advancing to the point where instrument sizes are shifting towards the tiny, including nanoscale surgical instruments, biological nanobots, and bioelectronics.1415

The digital era

Instruments are increasingly based upon integration with computers to improve and simplify control; enhance and extend instrumental functions, conditions, and parameter adjustments; and streamline data sampling, collection, resolution, analysis (both during and post-process), and storage and retrieval. Advanced instruments can be connected as a local area network (LAN) directly or via middleware and can be further integrated as part of an information management application such as a laboratory information management system (LIMS).1617 Instrument connectivity can be furthered even more using internet of things (IoT) technologies, allowing for example laboratories separated by great distances to connect their instruments to a network that can be monitored from a workstation or mobile device elsewhere.18

Examples of scientific instruments

For lists of astronomical instruments, see List of telescope types and List of astronomical interferometers at visible and infrared wavelengths.

List of scientific instruments manufacturers

List of scientific instruments designers

See also: List of astronomical instrument makers, Category:Scientific instrument makers, and Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers

History of scientific instruments

Museums

Historiography

Types of scientific instruments

See also

References

  1. Hessenbruch, Arne (2013). Reader's Guide to the History of Science. Taylor & Francis. pp. 675–77. ISBN 9781134263011. 9781134263011 ↩

  2. Hessenbruch, Arne (2013). Reader's Guide to the History of Science. Taylor & Francis. pp. 675–77. ISBN 9781134263011. 9781134263011 ↩

  3. Warner, Deborah Jean (March 1990). "What Is a Scientific Instrument, When Did It Become One, and Why?". The British Journal for the History of Science. 23 (1): 83–93. doi:10.1017/S0007087400044460. JSTOR 4026803. S2CID 145517920. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

  4. "United States v. Presbyterian Hospital". The Federal Reporter. 71: 866–868. 1896. ↩

  5. Hessenbruch, Arne (2013). Reader's Guide to the History of Science. Taylor & Francis. pp. 675–77. ISBN 9781134263011. 9781134263011 ↩

  6. "United States v. Presbyterian Hospital". The Federal Reporter. 71: 866–868. 1896. ↩

  7. Turner, A.J. (1987). Early Scientific Instruments: Europe, 1400-1800. Phillip Wilson Publishers. ↩

  8. Bedini, S.A. (1964). Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 18 January 2017. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39141 ↩

  9. Geerdt Magiels (2009) From Sunlight to Insight. Jan IngenHousz, the discovery of photosynthesis & science in the light of ecology, page 231, VUB Press ISBN 978-90-5487-645-8 /wiki/ISBN_(identifier) ↩

  10. Mukhopadhyay, R. (2008). "The Rise of Instruments during World War II". Analytical Chemistry. 80 (15): 5684–5691. doi:10.1021/ac801205u. PMID 18671339. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

  11. McMahon, G. (2007). Analytical Instrumentation: A Guide to Laboratory, Portable and Miniaturized Instruments. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1–6. ISBN 9780470518557. 9780470518557 ↩

  12. Khandpur, R.S. (2016). Handbook of Analytical Instruments. McGraw Hill Education. ISBN 9789339221362. 9789339221362 ↩

  13. Shadab, K.A. (2017). "KAS PERIODIC TABLE". International Research Journal of Natural and Applied Sciences. 4 (7): 221–261. ↩

  14. Osiander, R. (2016). Darrin, M.A.G.; Barth, J.L. (eds.). Systems Engineering for Microscale and Nanoscale Technologies. CRC Press. pp. 137–172. ISBN 9781439837351. 9781439837351 ↩

  15. James, W.S.; Lemole Jr, G.M. (2015). Latifi, R.; Rhee, P.; Gruessner, R.W.G. (eds.). Technological Advances in Surgery, Trauma and Critical Care. Springer. pp. 221–230. ISBN 9781493926718. 9781493926718 ↩

  16. Wilkes, R.; Megargle, R. (1994). "Integration of instruments and a laboratory information management system at the information level: An inductively coupled plasma spectrometer". Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems. 26 (1): 47–54. doi:10.1016/0169-7439(94)90018-3. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩

  17. Carvalho, M.C. (2013). "Integration of Analytical Instruments with Computer Scripting". Journal of Laboratory Automation. 18 (4): 328–33. doi:10.1177/2211068213476288. PMID 23413273. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2211068213476288 ↩

  18. Perkel, J.M. (2017). "The Internet of Things comes to the lab". Nature. 542 (7639): 125–126. Bibcode:2017Natur.542..125P. doi:10.1038/542125a. PMID 28150787. https://doi.org/10.1038%2F542125a ↩

  19. Charlotte Bigg & Christoph Meinel (eds.), Paul Bunge Prize: History of Scientific Instruments, 1993-2023 (Frankfurt/Main: GDCh & DBG, 2023), 96 pp. https://en.gdch.de/fileadmin/downloads/GDCh/Stiftungen/Jenemann/Bunge_Prize_Jubilee_Volume_2023.pdf ↩