Out Of Sight: Problem Sequences And Epistemic Boundaries Of Medical Know-How On Glaucoma

This paper analyses the process of knowledge growth in a branch of medical science. The study of scientific advances in glaucoma research is organized in two parts. In the first the authors present a qualitative overview of the problem sequences that have characterized 150 years of medical research in ophthalmology. This is complemented in the second part by a network analysis of scientific publications and collaborations of the last 50 years. Medical knowledge, they surmise, is punctuated by patterns of specialization, diversification and coordination that emerge both within and among scientific, technical, institutional and organizational realms.