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Microbiomes : a very short introduction
Humans and other organisms harbour microbiomes, communities of microorganisms which are mostly beneficial but can sometimes cause disease. This book explains how and why our health and wellbeing depend on our resident microbiomes, providing readers with the knowledge to judge claims about microbiome-based applications.
BOOK
Designs on Nature
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.
eBook
The Politics of Life Itself
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.
eBook
Living Factories
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.
eBook
The first shots : the epic rivalries and heroic science behind the race to the coronavirus vaccine
The First Shots weaves together the vaccine-race conflicts among scientists and the rivalries among Washington power players that shaped 18 months of fear, resolve, and triumph. It traces the vaccine-race from infectious disease expert Michael Callahan, an American doctor secretly on the ground in Wuhan in January 2020 to gauge Disease X; to Robert (Dr. Bob) Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed's architects to Stephane Bancel of Moderna Therapeutics going toe-to-toe with Pfizer.-- Source other than the Library of Congress.
Book
Bioprocessing technologies in biorefinery for sustainable production of fuels, chemicals, and polymers
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.
eBook
Biopolitics and utopia : an interdisciplinary reader
\"Biopolitics and Utopia explores the intersection of biopolitics and utopian thought. As an interdisciplinary work, it addresses many salient biopolitical issues (state and medical interventions in the body, fears over scientific progress, resistance to state biopower, and ethical concerns), while also engaging in the utopian drive behind biopolitical efforts. The book is structured into four main sections: Actions, Speculations, Reactions, and Reflections. The chapters in Actions examine the practices of direct, medical intervention to 'normalize' citizens' bodies. The next section, Speculations, approaches the intersection of utopia and biopolitics through a literary lens, reviewing science fiction texts as expressions of cultural and social fears about scientific progress. Reactions outlines potential acts of resistance in the face of biopower. Finally, Reflections offers a more philosophical essay, which engages the reader in the potential for creating an ethics for scientific standards \"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Biocatalysis for green chemistry and chemical process development
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.
eBook