Synthetic: How Life Got Made by Sophia Roosth (English) Paperback Book

Description: Synthetic by Sophia Roosth In the final years of the twentieth century, émigrés from engineering and computer science devoted themselves to biology and resolved that if the aim of biology is to understand life, then making life would yield better theories than experimentation. Armed with the latest biotechnology techniques, these scientists treated biological media as elements for design and manufacture: viruses named for computers, bacterial genomes encoding passages from James Joyce, chimeric yeast buckling under the metabolic strain of genes harvested from wormwood, petunias, and microbes from Icelandic thermal pools. In Synthetic: How Life Got Made, cultural anthropologist Sophia Roosth reveals how synthetic biologists make new living things in order to understand better how life works. The first book-length ethnographic study of this discipline, Synthetic documents the social, cultural, rhetorical, economic, and imaginative transformations biology has undergone in the post-genomic age. Roosth traces this new science from its origins at MIT to start-ups, laboratories, conferences, and hackers garages across the United States—even to contemporary efforts to resurrect extinct species. Her careful research reveals that rather than opening up a limitless new field, these biologists own experimental tactics circularly determine the biological features, theories, and limits they fasten upon. Exploring the life sciences emblematic of our time, Synthetic tells the origin story of the astonishing claim that biological making fosters biological knowing. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Sophia Roosth is the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor for history of science at Harvard University. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Analysis: Synthesis Interlude 1: Plastic Fantastic Chapter 1: Life by Design: Evolution and Creation Tales in Synthetic Biology Interlude 2: From Still Life to More Intense Life Chapter 2: The Synthetic Kingdom: Transgenic Kinship in the Postgenomic Era Interlude 3: "To Make an Eye, a Hair, a Leaf" Chapter 3: The Rebirth of the Author: New Life in Legal and Economic Circuits Interlude 4: Much More than Human Chapter 4: Biotechnical Agnosticism: Fragmented Life and Labor among the Machines Interlude 5: What Comes Before Chapter 5: Life Makes Itself at Home: The Rise of Biohacking as Political Action Interlude 6: Life Embryonic and Prophetic Chapter 6: Latter-Day Lazarus: Biological Salvage and Species Revival Conclusion Appendix: A Note on Method Bibliography Index Review "Synthetic is essential reading for anyone wanting to know whats been going on in the exciting and disturbing world of synthetic biology. But its much more than that. It addresses the current state of a long-standing cultural argument about the conditions in which you can know the world. Does the artificial belong to a different order from the natural, or, as synthetic biologists now maintain, can you only know what you can make? The result is both brilliant anthropology and vivid reporting from the research front."-- "Steven Shapin, author of The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation""The whole book, though ambitious, reads extremely well. . . . Synthetic both provides a stimulating and entertaining read. It should be of interest to anyone curious about the latest developments in contemporary biology."-- "History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences""Synthetic examines the multiple manifestations of the emerging field of synthetic biology, whose practitioners engineer, study, and utilize genetically modified organisms. Roosth views the field through an anthropological lens as she interviews leading synthetic biologists, investigates how they are trained, and probes the shifting definitions of a very young discipline. Roosth examines the corporate cultures of two radically different companies engaged in commercial synthetic biology. Other chapters cover do-it-yourself synthetic biology "biohackers," labor relations in industrial synthetic biology, and the promise of reviving extinct organisms. The book repeatedly returns to modern and archaic definitions of the word synthetic as a unifying theme. This trope is interesting, but its relevance to the practice of synthetic biology is tenuous; most practitioners do not know the definitions discussed. Roosth is best when describing the people who engineer organisms. Her writing is clean and lively, and she avoids overanalysis.... Synthetic offers an excellent window on one of biologys newest, most provocative disciplines. Recommended."-- "Choice""Synthetic offers a writerly assemblage of our synthetic moment, where densely evocative analytical contributions and cognitive fireworks are juxtaposed with intimate confessions, all in the poetry of contemporary ethnography."-- "Science""[A] close-up, wide-angle study of synthetic biologists that tries to understand their perspective on both life and the act of creating it... Roosth is after the meaning of life in synthetic biology."--Daniel Liu "Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences""In Synthetic, talented science historian Roosth describes her observations of the fields early evolution. . . . Roosths approach sparks deep questions about the nature of life." -- "Nature" Review Quote "This is stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing reading, which combines ethnographic richness with sophisticated theoretical reflection. Every chapter of Roosths book will challenge you to think about the topic of synthetic biology in new and refreshing ways." Details ISBN022644046X Year 2017 ISBN-10 022644046X ISBN-13 9780226440460 Format Paperback Author Sophia Roosth Pages 256 Media Book Imprint University of Chicago Press Subtitle How Life Got Made Place of Publication Chicago, IL Country of Publication United States Illustrations 16 halftones DEWEY 660.6 Short Title Synthetic Language English Publication Date 2017-03-01 UK Release Date 2017-03-01 AU Release Date 2017-03-01 NZ Release Date 2017-03-01 US Release Date 2017-03-01 Publisher The University of Chicago Press Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161778288;

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