title: Reflections on the use of interviews in the history of science: who will write the history of science?
abstract: Interviews are an excellent source of information for historians of science. They should be done by historians who understand science in detail and, if possible, better than the scientists they interview. In the case of applied industrial or governmental sciences, historians must have detailed knowledge of economic or historic sources. Again they should know more in these areas than those they interview. If, on the contrary, the interviewers are not scientists at heart who know science, the history they write will become at best literature but at worst pseudoscientific abracadabra.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Genetik, Universität zu Köln, Weyertal 121, D-50931 Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Müller-Hill
mesh_terms: D001690:Biological Science Disciplines / Q000266:history*; D006663:Historiography; D049673:History, 20th Century; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*