Both the press of the time and the subsequent history of the 1918 University Reform do not record the calls of the student movement for a transformation of scientific practice in universities, especially in its experimental dimension. Guided by an agenda specific to the social history of science, technology and medicine, we explore in the student and scientific press of the period to which this student rebellion should be supplemented by the recovery and analysis of the claims and proposals – precursor in Argentina and Latin America – for the transformation of experimental life. We also intend to show that these proposals converged into the concept of ‘free studios’ as a channel for their implementation.