An exercise of applied epistemology: Peirce’s Semiosis implemented in the Representation of Protein Molecules

ABSTRACT In their disciplinary communication chemists use natural, formal and iconographic languages. In this paper, some aspects of the iconographic communication are discussed, with specific reference to the representation of protein molecules in the light of Peirce's and Eco’s semiotics. As far as Pierce’s thought is concerned, I discuss two triads (representamen, interpretant, and object) and (icon, index, symbol). Eco’s distinction between s-codes and codes is equally applied to the analysis of protein icons. The symbolic and iconic aspects of proteins’ representations are discussed, in the light of various conventions that regulate the use of shapes, lines, shadows, colors in the building up of images. The iconic aspect turns out to be the most surprising, not just because it makes 'visible' what is inherently invisible, but also because of its heuristic potential. I argue that the construction of protein images and their use in research qualify their epistemic status as that of conjectures.