Her interpretation of such tools has been widely applied by historians, philosophers and sociologists of science and technology, and is seen as marking a foundational change in scientific reasoning and practice in the history of chemistry in the early 19th century.
She holds that there is no clear dividing line between science and technology, oftentimes using the term "technoscience" to represent the historical interface between scientific reasoning and the material forms of knowledge produced within specialised industrial or medical settings.
[7] In addition to being named a member of Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher/Leopoldina as of 2008, Ursula Klein also serves on the Human Rights Committee (HRC) of the Leopoldina.
[8][3] Over her career Klein has mentored a number of historians whose work now engages with the broader historical ontology developed in her research on the experimental sciences.
[26] Materials and expertise in early modern Europe (2010)[27] presents a nuanced understanding of the relationships between academic science and industrial technology in the late eighteenth century, examining the work of both artisans and scholars.
[28] Throughout her career, Klein has promoted the notion that theories and practices of science and technology overlap, creating what she and others such as Bruno Latour and Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent called "technoscience".
Though she has explored meaning and materials of technoscience in reference to numerous European settings, her most influential work relates to experimentalists, industrialists and savants in Germany.
Wissenschaft und Technik im Aufbruch (2015), discusses Alexander von Humboldt and his contemporaries in the context of the early development of Prussian science and technology.
Other figures discussed include Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, Franz Karl Achard, Martin Heinrich Klaproth and Carl Abraham Gerhard.