How to do things with metaphors: engineering life as hodgepodge

This paper presents a collaboration between social scientists and a chemist exploring the promises for new therapy development at the intersection between synthetic biology and nanotechnology. Drawing from ethnographic studies of laboratories and a recorded discussion between the three authors, we i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Life sciences, society and policy society and policy, 2018-09, Vol.14 (1), p.22-17, Article 22
Main Authors: Kearnes, Matthew, Kuch, Declan, Johnston, Angus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological evolution
Biological Science Disciplines
Biology
Cutting
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Engineering
Engineering Ethics
Ethics
Gene Editing
Genetic modification
Genome editing
Humans
Laboratories
Metaphor
Nanotechnology
Organic chemistry
Philosophy of Science
policy and responsible research
Proteins
Science and Technology Studies
Social Sciences
Synthetic biology
Synthetic biology: How the use of metaphors impacts on science
Theory of Medicine/Bioethics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper presents a collaboration between social scientists and a chemist exploring the promises for new therapy development at the intersection between synthetic biology and nanotechnology. Drawing from ethnographic studies of laboratories and a recorded discussion between the three authors, we interrogate the metaphors that underpin what Mackenzie (Futures 48:5-12 2013 ) has identified as a recursive relationship in the iconography of the life sciences and its infrastructure. Focusing specifically on the use of gene editing techniques in synthetic biology and bio-nanotechnology, we focus our analysis on the key metaphors of ‘evolutionary life as hodge-podge’ within which ‘cutting’ of DNA and the ‘sticking’ and ‘binding’ of engineered particles to proteins can be performed by researchers in laboratory settings. Taken together, we argue that these metaphors are consequential for understanding metaphors of life-as-machine and the prevalence of notions of ‘engineering life’. Exploring the ways in which notions of cutting, targeting and life as an evolutionary hodgepodge prefigure a more contingent notion of engineering and synthesis we close by considering the interpretive implications for ethnomethodological approaches to contemporary life science research.
ISSN:2195-7819
2195-7819
DOI:10.1186/s40504-018-0084-z