Abstract
The combination of the words ‘science’ and ‘essay’ may seem to create an oxymoron. Science strives for strict objectivity, the exclusion of any subjective influence, the pure factuality of the observation and the subsequent results, and a bland rhetoric, all of which are in contrast to the commonly assumed features of the essay, i.e. self-reflection, subjective experience, and eloquence. However, the history of science shows that essayistic writing played a momentous role in the transmission of knowledge and the reflection of the processes of knowledge production. The term ‘essay’ was originally used for various kinds of scientific writing, but later it often marked a departure from the usually rigid format of the scientific paper towards a more open and also more accessible communication. The scientific essay supplemented the scientific paper, addressing larger scientific, philosophical, political, or personal concerns, and there was hardly a scientist of renown in the 20th century who did not write such essayistic texts in addition to their scientific books and papers. The style of such science essays can be quite diverse. This contribution outlines the history and developments of the scientific essay and discuss some particularly interesting examples from physics and biology.
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