Research Objects in their Technological Setting: (History and Philosophy of Technoscience)

By examining objects that hold a prominent place in contemporary science and technology, contributors to this collection present a new direction in the philosophy of technoscience. Core concepts from research in emerging disciplines such as nanotechnology, molecular medicine and the environmental sciences are explored via a diverse range of object-based case studies. Objects are wide-ranging and include Arctic ice cores, stem cells, heroin and nuclear waste, but all testify to technological innovation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Genesis and Ontology of Technoscientific Objects – Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Sacha Loeve, Alfred Nordmann and Astrid Schwarz Part I: Horizon of Possibilities 1 The Pyramid and the Ring: Physics without Ontology – Peter Galison 2 Cancer Stem Cells: Ontology Matters – Lucie Laplane 3 Robots Behaving Badly – Christopher Kelty 4 Beyond Friction: The Inverted Platonism of Technoscience – Alfred Nordmann 5 From the Birth of Fuel Cells to the Utopia of the Hydrogen World – Pierre Teissier Part II: Arenas of Contestation 6 The Playstation Network and Technogenic Life – Colin Milburn 7 Heroin: Taming a Drug and Losing Control – Jens Soentgen 8 The Life and Times of Transgenics – Hugh Lacey 9 The Plasticity and Recalcitrance of Wetlands – Kevin C Elliot 10 Biography of a Disorder – Simone van den Burg 11 Cardboard: Thinking the Box – Cheryce von Xylander Part III: Multiple Temporalities 12 The Multiple Signatures of Carbon – Sacha Loeve and Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent 13 Polar Ice Cores: Climate Change Messengers – Aant Elzinga 14 Monitoring and Remediating a Garbage Patch – Jennifer Gabrys 15 Nuclear Waste: An Untreatable Product – Sophie Poirot-Delpech 16 Narrating the Drama of an Emerging Ecosystem – Astrid Schwarz Notes Index

About the Author :
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent researches on the history and philosophy of chemistry. In her co-edited book Chemistry – The Impure Science (2008) she emphasizes the dual nature of chemistry as an academic science and in the production of manufactured objects. She has also explored the hybridization of natural structures, technological functions, and societal aspects in the design of new materials and conducted a critical analysis of the `dematerialization’. She is based at the University of Paris. Sacha Loeve trained in the philosophy of science and technology, earning his Ph.D. in epistemology, history of science and technology. He teaches a cross-disciplinary seminar course on `technology, arts and sciences’ at the engineering school Ecole des Ponts-et-Chaussées ParisTech and is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Paris Sorbonne with the DFG/ANR project on technoscientific objects. Alfred Nordmann is Professor of Philosophy and History of Science and Technoscience at Darmstadt Technical University and visiting professor at the University of South Carolina. His research interests focus on the philosophy of science and technoscience, epistemology and the philosophical dimensions of nanotechnology, synthetic biology and climate engineering. Recent publications include 'Object Lessons – Towards an Epistemology of Technoscience', Scientia Studiae (2012). Astrid Shwarz’s main research area concerns the status and power of concepts and images in the process of generating, stabilizing and demarcating scientific knowledge. In particular, she focuses on concepts and metaphors, scientific models, the constitution of the research objects, the influence of images and diagrams as well as popular societal visions. She is based at ETH Zurich.