Introduction to 'picturing eggs, embryos and cells'

Some twenty years ago, the historian of technology Henri Michel, who studied the history of instruments, wanted to draw our attention to the images des sciences (Michel 1977). Obviously, an instrument historian is well trained in dealing with pictorial matter, whether it may be blueprints of instruments, or detailed instructions about how to use and improve them. Further, instruments are extremely well suited media to demonstrate that theoretical knowledge has to be practically acquired, whether by making instruments, or by hand drawings. Also, historians of art have extensively worked, published and communicated on the issue of 'science and art' or 'science in art', and how their relationship shaped intellectual and technical history for several decades. As visualization denotes our ability to perceive, and to conceptualize, philosophy in general, and philosophy of science, in particular reflected about it and tried to grasp the scientists' epistemology. Over the last 25 years, an exceptional body of work was published on pictorial representation, either from a socio-cultural perspective, with an emphasis on the technology, or from the epistemic issue of how to conceptualize an eidon.