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First published in 1985, The Word and the World is a significant, empirically-based contribution to the sociological analysis of scientists' discourse and scientific culture. It also offers a radical departure from established forms of sociological discourse.

M.J. Mulkay traces the development of certain recent versions of functionalism and exchange theory in sociology, with special attention to ''theoretical strategy''. He uses this term to refer to the policies which theorists adopt to ensure that their work contributes to their long range theoretical objectives. Such strategies are important, he believes, because they place limits on the theories with which they are associated. He shows how each of the theorists he studies devised a new strategy to replace the unsuccessful policies of a prior theory in a process of ''strategical dialectic''. Thi

This study uses evidence from the press and from the parliamentary record to examine the extent to which, and the ways in which, people involved in the public debate over laboratory experiments on human embryos in Britain during the 1980s drew on images from science fiction. It is shown that negative images from science fiction were used in the debate, but that these images could be transformed into resources for defending, as well as attacking, this form of scientific endeavor. It is also shown that other fictional structures were present in the debate and that both sides relied heavily on fictional components to justify their competing appraisals of embryo research.

The public debate following the Warnock Report has furnished the interpretative context in which embryo research and the technology of assisted reproduction have begun to be institutionalised in Britain. Social scientists have been quick to examine this debate and to assess how far it has fostered changes in the established patterns of, and ideals of, kinship and family relationships. In the present study documentary evidence is used to argue that the central theme of the public debate was not so much the new forms of social parenthood made possible by assisted reproduction, on which analysts have tended to concentrate, as the supposed threat to the continuation of ordinary family life posed by what many people saw as the creation of real, living persons outside the kinship system. Widespread controversy over this issue was generated by the existence of long-standing and contrasting definitions of family membership. Nevertheless, all the major groupings involved in the controversy justified their views and their practical proposals by linking them to the maintenance of the conventional, small scale, heterosexual family unit. Thus the overall effect of the public debate has not been to promote widespread consideration of new kinship patterns, but to ensure that the research and technology of assisted reproduction have been accepted and bureaucratically organised as social practices consonant with a conservative ideal of normal family life.

Throughout the 1980s, there was considerable public discussion in Britain about the legitimacy of scientific research upon human embryos and about the advisability of seeking to develop new science-based techniques that would further extend medical control over human reproduction. In 1990, legislation was passed permitting such research, but at the same time restricting its scope and specifying how the technologies of assisted reproduction were to be implemented. The present study examines how women contributed to, and were represented in, the final phase of parliamentary debate over the proposed legislation.

Publications in Science, Technology, & Human Values need to have an author. For this reason, I have put my name at the head of this text. I have also provided the title.1 But I must emphasize that the words below are not mine. I have done nothing more, in this case, than transcribe an audio-tape recording2 that has recently come into my possession and submit it to the journal's editor. This latter step seemed to me to be appropriate in view of the tape's unique character. If you choose to read on, it will soon become clear why I came to believe that wider distribution was essential. It is no exaggeration, I believe, to suggest that the publication of this transcript may mark a turning-point in human history. As a result, there are likely to be many enquiries about its authenticity. Let me, therefore, state that I have been given conclusive proof that the tape is genuine. I cannot reveal more in this public forum. However, toward the end of the tape, the speaker throws some light on these matters. The tape seems to have been recorded at some kind of academic confer ence. On the original version, there is background noise and evidence of a live audience. This transcription presents only the words of the main speaker. The speaker is female.

Recent concepts and findings from conversation analysis are used as the point of departure in studying the social structure of Nobel Ceremonies. Six predictions about such ceremonies are derived from prior work on responses to compliments in ordinary conversations. Data obtained from the published texts of Les Prix Nobel confirm these predictions. It is shown that participants use the same forms of discourse to construct informal complimentary exchanges and celebratory rituals, such as the Nobel Ceremonies. It is suggested that the social structure of such ceremonies is indistinguishable from these regular patterns of discourse and that this is one reason why it has proved to be so fruitful to proceed in this analysis from the organisation of ordinary conversations to the structure of complex interactions.