"Legend is overdue for replacement, and an adequate replacement must attend to the process of science as carefully as Hull has done. I share his vision of a serious account of the social and intellectual dynamics of science that will avoid both the rosy blur of Legend and the facile charms of relativism.... Because of [Hull's] deep concern with the ways in which research is actually done, Science as a Process begins an important project in the study of science. It (...) is one of a distinguished series of books, which Hull himself edits."—Philip Kitcher, Nature "In Science as a Process, [David Hull] argues that the tension between cooperation and competition is exactly what makes science so successful.... Hull takes an unusual approach to his subject. He applies the rules of evolution in nature to the evolution of science, arguing that the same kinds of forces responsible for shaping the rise and demise of species also act on the development of scientific ideas."—Natalie Angier, New York Times Book Review "By far the most professional and thorough case in favour of an evolutionary philosophy of science ever to have been made. It contains excellent short histories of evolutionary biology and of systematics (the science of classifying living things); an important and original account of modern systematic controversy; a counter-attack against the philosophical critics of evolutionary philosophy; social-psychological evidence, collected by Hull himself, to show that science does have the character demanded by his philosophy; and a philosophical analysis of evolution which is general enough to apply to both biological and historical change."—Mark Ridley, Times Literary Supplement "Hull is primarily interested in how social interactions within the scientific community can help or hinder the process by which new theories and techniques get accepted.... The claim that science is a process for selecting out the best new ideas is not a new one, but Hull tells us exactly how scientists go about it, and he is prepared to accept that at least to some extent, the social activities of the scientists promoting a new idea can affect its chances of being accepted."—Peter J. Bowler, Archives of Natural History "I have been doing philosophy of science now for twenty-five years, and whilst I would never have claimed that I knew everything, I felt that I had a really good handle on the nature of science, Again and again, Hull was able to show me just how incomplete my understanding was.... Moreover, [Science as a Process] is one of the most compulsively readable books that I have ever encountered."—Michael Ruse, Biology and Philosophy. (shrink)

What is life? A gathering consensus in anthropology, science studies, and philosophy of biology suggests that the theoretical object of biology, “life,” is today in transformation, if not dissolution. Proliferating reproductive technologies, along with genomic reshufflings of biomatter in such practices as cloning, have unwound the facts of life.

Almost 250 years after the publication of the taxonomy-founding work Systema Naturae, by Carl Linnaeus, the inventory and catalogue of the planet's biodiversity is still far from complete: only ca 1.5 to 1.8 million of an estimated 10+ million species are so far described. Notwithstanding the remarkable merits of the Linnean system, the task is too vast ever to be completed using current conventional approaches. Such a staggering reality, and the customary difficulty that the scientific community and society in general (...) experience to access taxonomic knowledge, has prompted the search for novel tools or approaches for species identification. Such a tool has been recently proposed in the form of a standardised short DNA sequence from an agreedupon region of the genome, which is expected to ultimately provide a means of fast and robust identification of any species on the planet: the DNA barcode. Received with as much enthusiasm by some as skepticism by others, this novel tool was set in motion on a worldwide scale by means of an international consortium of organisations (the Consortium for the Barcoding of Life), thus becoming a large-scale horizontal genomics project. While anchored within the knowledge and principles of taxonomy, DNA barcoding possesses unique characteristics which anticipate a diverse scope of new applications and benefits for society. Notably, it places the completion of the biodiversity catalogue within the reach of a single generation, with the promise to assist greatly in the discovery of new species. Alongside long-term, ultimate goals, such as democratisation of access to taxonomic knowledge and assistance in writing the encyclopaedia of life, there are several more prosaic applications that may also impact society, not only in certain scientific fields, but also in a range of social and economic activities. Here, we will use DNA barcoding of fish as an example to illustrate foreseen applications, and as a basis to stimulate reflection on potential societal impacts of this horizontal genomics project. (shrink)