A summation of the work of one of the most influential and provocative interpreters of science, it aims at saving what is good and valuable in modernity and ...

"What is a military aircraft? John Law shows in his beautiful analysis that it is a constant oscillation between multiplicity and singularity.

The Body Multiple is an extraordinary ethnography of an ordinary disease. Drawing on fieldwork in a Dutch university hospital, Annemarie Mol looks at the day-to-day diagnosis and treatment of atherosclerosis. A patient information leaflet might describe atherosclerosis as the gradual obstruction of the arteries, but in hospital practice this one medical condition appears to be many other things. From one moment, place, apparatus, specialty, or treatment, to the next, a slightly different “atherosclerosis” is being discussed, measured, observed, or stripped away. (...) This multiplicity does not imply fragmentation; instead, the disease is made to cohere through a range of tactics including transporting forms and files, making images, holding case conferences, and conducting doctor-patient conversations. The Body Multiple juxtaposes two distinct texts. Alongside Mol’s analysis of her ethnographic material—interviews with doctors and patients and observations of medical examinations, consultations, and operations—runs a parallel text in which she reflects on the relevant literature. Mol draws on medical anthropology, sociology, feminist theory, philosophy, and science and technology studies to reframe such issues as the disease-illness distinction, subject-object relations, boundaries, difference, situatedness, and ontology. In dialogue with one another, Mol’s two texts meditate on the multiplicity of reality-in-practice. Presenting philosophical reflections on the body and medical practice through vivid storytelling, The Body Multiple will be important to those in medical anthropology, philosophy, and the social study of science, technology, and medicine. (shrink)

In this captivating book, Helen Verran addresses precisely that question by looking at how science, mathematics, and logic come to life in Yoruba primary schools.

This book documents and evaluates the dramatic expansion of intellectual property law to accommodate various forms of biotechnology from micro-organisms, plants, and animals to human genes and stem cells. It makes a unique theoretical contribution to the controversial public debate over the commercialisation of biological inventions.The author also considers the contradictions between the Supreme Court of Canada rulings in respect of the Harvard Oncomouse, and genetically modified canola. He explores law, policy, and practice in both Australia and New Zealand in (...) respect to gene patents and non-coding DNA. This study charts the rebellion against the European Union Biotechnology Directive - particularly in respect of Myriad Genetics' BRCA1 and BRCA2 patents, and stem cell patent applications. The book also considers whether patent law will accommodate frontier technologies - such as bioinformatics, haplotype mapping, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, and nanotechnology. Intellectual Property and Biotechnology will be of prime interest to lawyers and patent attorneys, scientists and researchers, business managers and technology transfer specialists. Introduction 1. Anything Under the Sun: Patent Law and Micro-Organisms 2. Franklin Barley: Patent Law and Plant Breeder's Rights 3. The Human Chimera Patent Initiative: Patent Law and Animals 4. The Storehouse of Knowledge: Patent Law, Scientific Discoveries, and Products of Nature 5. The Book of Life: Patent Law and the Human Genome Project 6. The Dilettante's Defence: Patent Law, Research Tools, and Experimental Use 7. The Utah Saints: Patent Law and Genetic Testing 8. The Alchemy of Junk: Patent Law and Non-Coding DNA 9. Still Life with Stem Cells: Patent Law and Human Embryos Conclusion. Blue Sky Research: Patent Law and Frontier Technologies. (shrink)