  In this paper, we discuss the role of Mathematics in articulating reality in
theoretical Physics. We propose a parallel between empirical and theoretical
work and investigate how scientists can also speak about reality without
performing any laboratory trial, a key explanation element of STS. To do so, we
examine Einsteins 1905 paper on the nature of light for which he received the
Nobel Prize of Physics in 1922 and which is deemed as revolutionary by
contemporary textbooks. Using Bakhtins Philosophy of Language, we analyze
Einsteins narrative to trace the mechanisms he has used to articulate a new
entity, the quantum without performing any experiment or empirical observation.
We dialogue with classical results obtained by STS in the context of empirical
sciences, drawing in particular on Bruno Latours concept of chain of reference.
We have also used Bakhtins metalinguistic analysis to highlight Einsteins
rhetoric strategies. Our results indicate that the concept of chain of
reference can be applied to theoretical physics and that it is possible to
trace a parallel between laboratory trials and mathematical trials, in which
mathematic operators play the role of laboratory equipment. We show that the
main features of the laboratory trials are also present in the mathematical
ones. Moreover, our analysis challenges the common representation of Einsteins
paper as a moment of epistemological rupture and highlights, on the contrary,
its translation efforts to articulate new ideas with the dominant paradigm of
the time.
