Short abstract:

This paper delves into interdisciplinary chemical research, examining the mediation process for integrating and conceptually 'sealing off' water. The resulting 'sealed' water concept shapes societal norms through nomological and material sealing, impacting nature-society relations.

Long abstract:

In the context of our own research on interdisciplinary, predominantly chemical research projects, this paper focusses on the mediation process through which water is integrated into the research while concurrently ‘sealed of’ from its specific materiality. The resulting 'sealed' conceptualization of water subsequently assumes social significance as a pivotal reference point for transforming water sites, a process examined in three distinct steps.

Firstly, the nomological sealing of water within the research process unifies the socio-material hybridity and diversity of empirical water realities through their specific abstractions. Findings from diverse research projects are compared, and related to the contexts and goals of each project, presupposing pragmatic decisions about which abstraction gains validity.

Secondly, the fabrication of 'model water' (as opposed to 'real water') for chemical investigations in the laboratory is explored alongside the guidelines for proper sampling and sample transport from sources such as a river, lake, or the sea to the laboratory. This analysis illustrates that scientific reference to water necessitates not only nomological sealing but also ongoing material sealing practices to maintain the modern, sealed concept of water in contact with empirical reality.

Subsequently, through observations at a wastewater treatment plant where clarified water is described as 'optically pure,' the practice of norming the boundaries of water sealing against 'contaminations' outside the laboratory is examined. The ongoing European debate on establishing a fourth purification stage for trace substances further underscores the role of scientific knowledge in societal negotiation processes, highlighting conflicts of interest surrounding the definition of 'water.'