In silico experiments in scientific papers on molecual biology

This article explores the role of the so-called in silico experiments used in molecular biology. My work is intended to help in understanding how the in silico experiment is regarded in the scientific literature of the field of molecular biology . It is based on the analysis of some papers that present scientific applications which rely on in silico experiments. By means of this study I found two basic ways of viewing them. According to the first view,the in silico experiment is a computer program that realizes some specific operations: it constitutes some particular experimental conditions,which allow us to investigate biological phenomena,and which complement those present in in vivo and in vitro experiments. According to the second view,in silico experimentation has a different meaning,which corresponds more closely to the meaning of “simulation”: its identity is linked to that of the “model” used to construct such simulation. The authors of the analysed papers never express an intention to standardize a model,so its meaning remains contingent,and cannot be turned into a technical object. In silico experiments allow scientists to work on particular “disposable” arrangements of epistemic things that are used locally to generate new theoretical reflections considered as useful in a specific context. We thus see a continuous de-contextualization and re-conceptualization of epistemic things that generate a multiplicity of new and provisional epistemic formations.