Bio Objects

Download or read book Bio-Objects written by Niki Vermeulen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing knowledge of the biological is fundamentally transforming what life itself means and where its boundaries lie. New developments in the biosciences - especially through the molecularisation of life - are (re)shaping healthcare and other aspects of our society. This cutting edge volume studies contemporary bio-objects, or the categories, materialities and processes that are central to the configuring of 'life' today, as they emerge, stabilize and circulate through society. Examining a variety of bio-objects in contexts beyond the laboratory, Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century explores new ways of thinking about how novel bio-objects enter contemporary life, analysing the manner in which, among others, the boundaries between human and animal, organic and non-organic, and being 'alive' and the suspension of living, are questioned, destabilised and in some cases re-established. Thematically organised around questions of changing boundaries; the governance and regulation of bio-objects; and changing social, economic and political relations, this book presents rich new case studies from Europe that will be of interest to scholars of science and technology studies, social theory, sociology and law.

Download or read book Canguilhem and Continental Philosophy of Biology written by Giuseppe Bianco and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-02-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume presents papers on this alternative philosophy of biology that could be called “continental philosophy of biology,” and the variety of positions and solutions that it has spawned. In doing so, it contributes to debates in the history and philosophy of science and the history of philosophy of science, as well as to the craving for ‘history’ and/or ‘theory’ in the theoretical biological disciplines. In addition, however, it also provides inspiration for a broader image of philosophy of biology, in which these traditional issues may have a place. The volume devotes specific attention to the work of Georges Canguilhem, which is central to this alternative tradition of “continental philosophy of biology”. This is the first collection on Georges Canguilhem and the Continental tradition in philosophy of biology. The book should be of interest to philosophers of biology, continental philosophers, historians of biology and those interested in broader traditions in philosophy of science.

Download or read book Synthetic Biology written by A. Balmer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the emergence of a new scientific field, synthetic biology, and the many bold promises its proponents have made to change the future of science, industry, humanity and the global environment. It explores how people, including academics, students, industrialists and governance actors, tried to change their practices to bring engineering and biology together, and to realise such promises from within their everyday lives. It focuses on an ethnographic case study of an academic project that aimed to demonstrate the field's promise for solving water industry problems, from leaky pipes to climate change. In doing so, the book weaves together stories of barriers, bacteria and bodies, examining how they were entangled as people tried to make connections between academia and industry. It also reflects on the authors' attempts to work collaboratively with natural scientists and engineers, reflecting on current debates about the role of sociology in such interdisciplinary projects. The book contributes to contemporary studies of science and technology by highlighting issues such as ontology, practices, failure and time.

Download or read book Proceedings of the First Workshop on Biological Physics 2000 written by Virulh Sa-yakanit and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2001 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is devoted to the broad subject of flavor physics, embracing the question of what distinguishes one type of elementary particles from another. The articles range from the forefront of formal theory (treating the physics of extra dimensions) to details of particle detectors. Although special emphasis is placed on the physics of kaons, charmed and beauty particles, top quarks, and neutrinos, the articles also dealing with electroweak physics, quantum chromodynamics, supersymmetry, and dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. Violations of fundamental symmetries such as time reversal invariance are discussed in the context of neutral kaons, beauty particles, electric dipole moments, and parity violation in atoms. The physics of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and of quark masses are described in some detail, both from the standpoint of present and future experimental knowledge and from a more fundamental viewpoint, where physicists are still searching for the correct theory

Download or read book Bioeconomies written by Vincenzo Pavone and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-09-18 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the promissory discourses and practices associated with the bioeconomy, focusing especially on the transformation of institutions; the creation, appropriation, and distribution of value; the struggle over resources, power, and meaning; and the role of altruism, kinship, and care practices. Governments and science enthusiasts worldwide are embracing the bioeconomy, championing it as the key to health, wealth, and sustainability, while citing it as justification to transform research and regulatory institutions, health and agricultural practices, ethics of privacy and ownership, and conceptions of self and kin. Drawing together studies from Asia, Australia, the Americas, and Europe, this volume encompasses subjects as diverse as regenerative medicine, population health research, agricultural finance, biobanking, assisted reproduction, immigration, breastfeeding, self-help groups, GM fish, and mining sewage.

Download or read book Bio and Nano Packaging Techniques for Electron Devices written by Gerald Gerlach and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-07-16 with total page 619 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses future trends and developments in electron device packaging and the opportunities of nano and bio techniques as future solutions. It describes the effect of nano-sized particles and cell-based approaches for packaging solutions with their diverse requirements. It offers a comprehensive overview of nano particles and nano composites and their application as packaging functions in electron devices. The importance and challenges of three-dimensional design and computer modeling in nano packaging is discussed; also ways for implementation are described. Solutions for unconventional packaging solutions for metallizations and functionalized surfaces as well as new packaging technologies with high potential for industrial applications are discussed. The book brings together a comprehensive overview of nano scale components and systems comprising electronic, mechanical and optical structures and serves as important reference for industrial and academic researchers.

Download or read book Systems Science and Cybernetics - Volume III written by Francisco Parra-Luna and published by EOLSS Publications. This book was released on with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject “Systems sciences and cybernetics” is the outcome of the convergence of a number of trends in a larger current of thought devoted to the growing complexity of (primarily social) objects and arising in response to the need for globalized treatment of such objects. This has been magnified by the proliferation and publication of all manner of quantitative scientific data on such objects, advances in the theories on their inter-relations, the enormous computational capacity provided by IT hardware and software and the critical revisiting of subject-object interaction, not to mention the urgent need to control the efficiency of complex systems, where “efficiency” is understood to mean the ability to find a solution to many social problems, including those posed on a planetary scale. The result has been the forging of a new, academically consolidated scientific trend going by the name of Systems Theory and Cybernetics, with a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary focus and therefore apt for understanding realities still regarded to be inescapably chaotic. This subject entry is subdivided into four sections. The first, an introduction to systemic theories, addresses the historic development of the most commonly used systemic approaches, from new concepts such as the so-called “geometry of thinking” or the systemic treatment of “non-systemic identities” to the taxonomic, entropic, axiological and ethical problems deriving from a general “systemic-cybernetic” conceit. Hence, the focus in this section is on the historic and philosophical aspects of the subject. Moreover, it may be asserted today that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, problems, in particular problems deriving from human interaction but in general any problem regardless of its nature, must be posed from a systemic perspective, for otherwise the obstacles to their solution are insurmountable. Reaching such a perspective requires taking at least the following well-known steps: a) statement of the problem from the determinant variables or phenomena; b) adoption of theoretical models showing the interrelationships among such variables; c) use of the maximum amount of – wherever possible quantitative – information available on each; d) placement of the set of variables in an environment that inevitably pre-determines the problem. That epistemology would explain the substantial development of the systemic-cybernetic approach in recent decades. The articles in the second section deal in particular with the different methodological approaches developed when confronting real problems, from issues that affect humanity as a whole to minor but specific questions arising in human organizations. Certain sub-themes are discussed by the various authors – always from a didactic vantage –, including: problem discovery and diagnosis and development of the respective critical theory; the design of ad hoc strategies and methodologies; the implementation of both qualitative (soft system methodologies) and formal and quantitative (such as the “General System Problem Solver” or the “axiological-operational” perspective) approaches; cross-disciplinary integration; and suitable methods for broaching psychological, cultural and socio-political dynamisms. The third section is devoted to cybernetics in the present dual meaning of the term: on the one hand, control of the effectiveness of communication and actions, and on the other, the processes of self-production of knowledge through reflection and the relationship between the observing subject and the observed object when the latter is also observer and the former observed. Known as “second order cybernetics”, this provides an avenue for rethinking the validity of knowledge, such as for instance when viewed through what is known as “bipolar feedback”: processes through which interactions create novelty, complexity and diversity. Finally, the fourth section centres around artificial and computational intelligence, addressing sub-themes such as “neural networks”, the “simulated annealing” that ranges from statistical thermodynamics to combinatory problem-solving, such as in the explanation of the role of adaptive systems, or when discussing the relationship between biological and computational intelligence.