Advancements in computing, instrumentation, robotics, digital imaging, and simulation modelling have changed science into a technology driven institution. Government, industry, and society increasingly exert their influence over science, raising questions of values and objectivity. This presents an in-depth examination of these issues from philosophical, historical, social, and cultural perspectives. It offers arguments both for and against the epochal break thesis.

Alfred Nordmann (Editor)
Alfred Nordmann is professor of philosophy at Darmstadt Technical University and Visiting Centenary Professor at the University of South Carolina. He is author of Wittgenstein's Tractatus: An Introduction, and coeditor of Discovering the Nanoscale, The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth Century Science, and Science in the Context of Application.

Hans Radder (Editor)
Hans Radder is professor emeritus in philosophy of science and technology at the Department of Philosophy of VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is the author of many articles and several books, including The World Observed/The World Conceived and The Material Realization of Science: From Habermas to Experimentation and Referential Realism, and editor of The Commodification of Academic Research: Science and the Modern University.

Gregor Schiemann (Editor)
Gregor Schiemann is professor of philosophy and history of science at Bergische Universität in Wuppertal. He is the author of Hermann von Helmholtz' Mechanism: The Loss of Certainty and Werner Heisenberg, and coeditor of The Significance of the Hypothetical in the Natural Sciences.