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Lists as Research TechnologiesBy Staffan Mü ller-Wille* and Isabelle Charmantier*
ABSTRACTThe Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) is famous for having turned botany into a systematic discipline, through his classification systems-most notably the sexual system-and his nomenclature. Throughout his life, Linnaeus experimented with various paper technologies designed to display information synoptically. The list took pride of place among these and is also the common element of more complex representations he produced, such as genera descriptions and his "natural system." Taking clues from the anthropology of writing, this essay seeks to demonstrate that lists can be considered as genuine research technologies. They possess a potential to generate research problems of their own but also pose limitations to inquiries that can be overcome only by the use of new media.A LIST OF STIMULANTS particular to each continent (tea to Asia, coffee to Africa, chocolate to America, and beer to Europe); a list enumerating "equivocal names for fishes [nomina piscium aequivoca]"-that is, names that designate other animals like birds or reptiles as well; and a list entitled "plants described in Linder's Art of Dyeing [örter i Linders färgakonst beskrifna]": these are just three of the many lists one can find in a notebook that belonged to the naturalist Carl Linnaeus. He began to compile such lists in 1727, when he took up his medical studies at the University of Lund in southern Sweden, and he continued this practice while pursuing his studies at the University of Uppsala. 1 Most of the information digested in these lists was culled from the libraries of professors Linnaeus lodged with-initially, as he later recalled, in secret and at night because he was afraid to ask for permission. 2 As other contributions in this Focus section show, the list was a handy means to present and preserve knowledge in a concise and structured yet