Data Sharing in Chemistry: Lessons Learned and a Case for Mandating Structured Reaction Data

The past decade has seen a number of impressive developmentsinpredictive chemistry and reaction informatics driven by machine learningapplications to computer-aided synthesis planning. While many of thesedevelopments have been made even with relatively small, bespoke datasets, in order to advance the role of AI in the field at scale, theremust be significant improvements in the reporting of reaction data.Currently, the majority of publicly available data is reported inan unstructured format and heavily imbalanced toward high-yieldingreactions, which influences the types of models that can be successfullytrained. In this Perspective, we analyze several data curation andsharing initiatives that have seen success in chemistry and molecularbiology. We discuss several factors that have contributed to theirsuccess and how we can take lessons from these case studies and applythem to reaction data. Finally, we spotlight the Open Reaction Databaseand summarize key actions the community can take toward making reactiondata more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR),including the use of mandates from funding agencies and publishers

Why solar radiation management geoengineering and democracy won’t mix

In this paper we argue that recent policy treatments of solar radiation management (SRM) have insufficiently addressed its potential implications for contemporary political systems. Exploring the emerging ‘social constitution’ of SRM, we outline four reasons why this is likely to pose immense challenges to liberal democratic politics: That the unequal distribution of and uncertainties about SRM impacts will cause conflicts within existing institutions; that SRM will act at the planetary level and necessitate autocratic governance; that the motivations for SRM will always be plural and unstable; and that SRM will become conditioned by economic forces

Taking roles in interdisciplinary collaborations: Reflections on working in post-ELSI spaces in the UK synthetic biology community

Based on criticism of the “ethical, legal and social implications” (ELSI) paradigm, researchers in science and technology studies (STS) have begun to create and move into “post-ELSI” spaces. In this paper, we pool our experiences of working towards collaborative practices with colleagues in engineering and science disciplines in the f eld of synthetic biology. We identify a number of dif erent roles that we have taken, been assumed to take, or have had foisted upon us as we have sought to develop postELSI practices. We argue that the post-ELSI situation is characterised by the demands placed on STS researchers and other social scientists to f uctuate between roles as contexts shift in terms of power relations, af ective tenor, and across space and over time. This leads us to posit four orientations for post-ELSI collaborative practices that could help establish more fruitful negotiations around these roles

Five rules of thumb for post-ELSI interdisciplinary collaborations

In this paper we identify five rules of thumb for interdisciplinary collaboration across the natural and social sciences. We link these to efforts to move away from the ‘ethical, legal and social issues’ framework of interdisciplinarity and towards a post-ELSI collaborative space. It is in trying to open up such a space that we identify the need for: collaborative experimentation, taking risks, collaborative reflexivity, opening-up discussions of unshared goals and neighbourliness

Taking Care of the Symbolic Order. How Converging Technologies Challenge our Concepts

In this article we briefly summarize how converging technologies challenge elements of the existing symbolic order, as shown in the contributions to this special issue. We then identify the vision of ‘life as a do it yourself kit’ as a common denominator in the various forms of convergence and proceed to show how this vision provokes unrest and debate about existing moral frameworks and taboos. We conclude that, just as the problems of the industrial revolution sparked off the now broadly established ideal of sustainability the converging technologies should be governed by the ideal of ‘human sustainability’. The essence of this ideal is formed by the ongoing discussion about the extent to which we may, or should want to, ‘make’ our environment and ourselves, and when it is better to simply accept what is given and what happens to us