Explore the vast range of titles available.

Biology and politics have converged today across much of the industrialized world. Debates about genetically modified organisms, cloning, stem cells, animal patenting, and new reproductive technologies crowd media headlines and policy agendas. Less noticed, but no less important, are the rifts that have appeared among leading Western nations about the right way to govern innovation in genetics and biotechnology. These significant differences in law and policy, and in ethical analysis, may in a globalizing world act as obstacles to free trade, scientific inquiry, and shared understandings of human dignity. In this magisterial look at some twenty-five years of scientific and social development, Sheila Jasanoff compares the politics and policy of the life sciences in Britain, Germany, the United States, and in the European Union as a whole. She shows how public and private actors in each setting evaluated new manifestations of biotechnology and tried to reassure themselves about their safety. Three main themes emerge. First, core concepts of democratic theory, such as citizenship, deliberation, and accountability, cannot be understood satisfactorily without taking on board the politics of science and technology. Second, in all three countries, policies for the life sciences have been incorporated into \"nation-building\" projects that seek to reimagine what the nation stands for. Third, political culture influences democratic politics, and it works through the institutionalized ways in which citizens understand and evaluate public knowledge. These three aspects of contemporary politics, Jasanoff argues, help account not only for policy divergences but also for the perceived legitimacy of state actions.

Techniques of genetic engineering are changing the role of living things in the production process. From rabbits that produce human pharmaceuticals in their milk to plants that produce plastics and other building materials in their leaves, life itself is increasingly harnessed as a force of industry - a living factory. What do these cutting edge developments in biotechnology tell us about our relation to nature? Going beyond the usual focus on the ethics and risks surrounding genetically modified organisms, Kenneth Fish takes the emergence of living factories as an opportunity to revisit fundamental questions concerning the relation between human beings, technology, and the natural world. He examines the coincidence of the living factory metaphor in contemporary accounts of biotechnology and in the work of Karl Marx, who described the machine as \"a mechanical monster whose body fills whole factories, and whose demonic powers ... burst forth in the fast and feverish whirl of its countless working organs.\" Weaving together accounts of biotechnology in the molecular- and cyber-sciences, corporate literature, and environmental sociology, Living Factories casts our contemporary relation to nature in a new light. Fish shows that living factories reveal the unique role of capitalism in infusing the forces of nature with conscious purpose subordinated to processes of commodification and accumulation, and that they give a new meaning, and urgency, to the liberation of the forces of production from the fetters of capital.

For centuries, medicine aimed to treat abnormalities. But today normality itself is open to medical modification. Equipped with a new molecular understanding of bodies and minds, and new techniques for manipulating basic life processes at the level of molecules, cells, and genes, medicine now seeks to manage human vital processes. The Politics of Life Itself offers a much-needed examination of recent developments in the life sciences and biomedicine that have led to the widespread politicization of medicine, human life, and biotechnology. Avoiding the hype of popular science and the pessimism of most social science, Nikolas Rose analyzes contemporary molecular biopolitics, examining developments in genomics, neuroscience, pharmacology, and psychopharmacology and the ways they have affected racial politics, crime control, and psychiatry. Rose analyzes the transformation of biomedicine from the practice of healing to the government of life; the new emphasis on treating disease susceptibilities rather than disease; the shift in our understanding of the patient; the emergence of new forms of medical activism; the rise of biocapital; and the mutations in biopower. He concludes that these developments have profound consequences for who we think we are, and who we want to be.

Sets the stage for large-scale production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals In response to diminishing supplies as well as the environmental hazards posed by fossil fuels and petrochemicals, interest and demand for green, sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals are soaring. Biomass may be the solution. It is an abundant carbon-neutral renewable feedstock that can be used for the production of fuels and chemicals. Currently, biorefineries use corn, soybeans, and sugarcane for bioethanol and biodiesel production; however, there are many challenges facing biorefineries, preventing biomass from reaching its full potential. This book provides a comprehensive review of bioprocessing technologies that use lignocellulosic biomass for the production of biofuels, biochemicals, and biopolymers. It begins with an overview of integrated biorefineries. Next, it covers: - Biomass feedstocks, including sugar, starch, oil, and energy crops as well as microalgae - Pretreatment technologies for lignocellulosic biomass - Hydrolytic enzymes used in biorefineries for the hydrolysis of starch and lignocelluloses - Bioconversion technologies for current and future biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, butanol, hydrogen, and biogas - Specialty chemicals, building block chemicals, and biopolymers produced via fermentation - Phytochemicals and functional food ingredients extracted from plant materials All the chapters have been written and edited by leading experts in bioprocessing and biorefining technologies. Contributions are based on a thorough review of the literature as well as the authors' firsthand experience developing and working with bioprocessing technologies. By setting forth the current state of the technology and pointing to promising new directions in research, Bioprocessing Technologies in Biorefinery for Sustainable Production of Fuels, Chemicals, and Polymers will enable readers to move towards large-scale, sustainable, and economical production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals.

This book describes recent progress in enzyme-driven green syntheses of industrially important molecules. The first three introductory chapters overview recent technological advances in enzymes and cell-based transformations, and green chemistry metrics for synthetic efficiency. The remaining chapters are directed to case studies in biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals (small molecules, natural products and biologics), flavors, fragrance and cosmetics, fine chemicals, value-added chemicals from glucose and biomass, and polymeric materials. The book is aimed to facilitate the industrial applications of this powerful and emerging green technology, and catalyze the advancement of the technology itself.

Cyclodextrins in Pharmaceutics, Cosmetics, and Biomedicine covers a wide range of knowledge on cyclodextrins, from an overview of molecular and supramolecular aspects of cyclodextrin physicochemistry, to the latest outcomes in cyclodextrin use and future possibilities in the employment of these systems. This book focuses on the derivatives and physicochemical and biological properties of cyclodextrins, and considers drug delivery through topical, mucosal, and oral via cyclodextrin complexes.

One of the key challenges current biomaterials researchers face is identifying which of the dizzying number of highly specialized characterization tools can be gainfully applied to different materials and biomedical devices. Since this diverse marketplace of tools and techniques can be used for numerous applications, choosing the proper characterization tool is highly important, saving both time and resources. Characterization of Biomaterials is a detailed and multidisciplinary discussion of the physical, chemical, mechanical, surface, in vitro and in vivo characterization tools and techniques of increasing importance to fundamental biomaterials research. Characterization of Biomaterials will serve as a comprehensive resource for biomaterials researchers requiring detailed information on physical, chemical, mechanical, surface, and in vitro or in vivo characterization. The book is designed for materials scientists, bioengineers, biologists, clinicians and biomedical device researchers seeking input on planning on how to test their novel materials, structures or biomedical devices to a specific application. Chapters are developed considering the need for industrial researchers as well as academics. Biomaterials researchers come from a wide variety of disciplines: this book will help them to analyze their materials and devices taking advantage of the multiple experiences on offer. Coverage encompasses a cross-section of the physical sciences, biological sciences, engineering and applied sciences characterization community, providing gainful and cross-cutting insight into this highly multi-disciplinary field. Detailed coverage of important test protocols presents specific examples and standards for applied characterization

In a very structured way this book begins by describing the modern technologies that form the basis for creating a bio-based industry. Next it lists the various organisms that are suitable for bioprocessing -from bacteria to algae- and it gives their unique characteristics. These first two parts set the stage for a variety of novel, experimental bioprocesses, such as the production of medicinal chemicals, the production of chiral compounds and the design of biofuel cells. Concludes with examples where biological, renewable resources become an important feedstock for large-scale industrial production. Bioprocessing for Value-Added Products from Renewable Resources provides a unique perspective of the industry and the field and serves as an important guide towards the future. The book is suitable for researchers, practitioners, students, and consultants in the bioprocess and biotechnology fields.

This book provides the vision of a successful biorefinery the lignocelluloic biomass needs to be efficiently converted to its constituent monomers, comprising mainly of sugars such as glucose, xylose, mannose and arabinose.

Research on brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) has become more democratic in recent decades, and experiments using electroencephalography (EEG)-based BCIs has dramatically increased. The variety of protocol designs and the growing interest in physiological computing require parallel improvements in processing and classification of both EEG signals and bio signals, such as electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR) or breathing. If some EEG-based analysis tools are already available for online BCIs with a number of online BCI platforms (e.g., BCI2000 or OpenViBE), it remains crucial to perform offline analyses in order to design, select, tune, validate and test algorithms before using them online. Moreover, studying and comparing those algorithms usually requires expertise in programming, signal processing and machine learning, whereas numerous BCI researchers come from other backgrounds with limited or no training in such skills. Finally, existing BCI toolboxes are focused on EEG and other brain signals but usually do not include processing tools for other bio signals. Therefore, in this paper, we describe BioPyC, a free, open-source and easy-to-use Python platform for offline EEG and biosignal processing and classification. Based on an intuitive and well-guided graphical interface, four main modules allow the user to follow the standard steps of the BCI process without any programming skills: (1) reading different neurophysiological signal data formats, (2) filtering and representing EEG and bio signals, (3) classifying them, and (4) visualizing and performing statistical tests on the results. We illustrate BioPyC use on four studies, namely classifying mental tasks, the cognitive workload, emotions and attention states from EEG signals.