Writing biology with mutant mice: the monstrous potential of post genomic life

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum, 2013, Vol. 48, pp. 268 – 278 DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.03.004Social scientific accounts identified in the biological grammars of early genomics a monstrous reductionism, ‘an example of brute life, the minimalist essence of things’ (Rabinow, 1996, p. 89). Concern about this reductionism focused particularly on its links to modernist notions of control; the possibility of calculating, predicting and intervening in the biological futures of individuals and populations. Yet the trajectories of the post genomic sciences have not unfolded in this way, challenging scientists involved in the production and integration of complex biological data and the interpretative strategies of social scientists honed in critiquing this reductionism. The post genomic sciences are now proliferating points from which to understand relations in biology, between genes and environments, as well as between species and spaces, opening up future possibilities and different ways of thinking about life. This paper explores the emerging topologies and temporalities of one form of post genomic research, drawing upon ethnographic research on international efforts in functional genomics, which are using mutant mice to understand mammalian gene function. Using vocabularies on the monstrous from Derrida and Haraway, I suggest an alternative conceptualisation of monstrosity within biology, in which the ascendancy of mice in functional genomics acts as a constant supplement to the reductionist grammars of genomics. Rather than searching for the minimalist essence of things, this form of functional genomics has become an exercise in the production and organisation of biological surplus and excess, which is experimental, corporeal and affective. The uncertain functioning of monsters in this contexts acts as a generative catalyst for scientists and social scientists, proliferating perspectives from which to listen to and engage with the mutating landscapes, forms of life, and languages of a post genomic biology

A geography of monsters?

Copyright © 2003 Elsevier. NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum, 2003, Vol. 34, Issue 4 pp. 409 – 412 DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2003.09.002Editoria

Searching for GloFish™: Aesthetics, Ethics and Encounters with the Neon Baroque

Copyright © 2014 Pion“Davies, G. 2014. The definitive, peer-reviewed and edited version of this article is published in Environment and Planning A: international journal of urban and regional research, Vol. 46, 2014 DOI: 10.1068/a46271.”Fluorescent zebrafish are the first genetically-modified animals globally, if unevenly, circulated outside of laboratory environments. GloFish™ were developed in Singapore. They are widely sold as popular pets in the United States, but their public sale is banned in Europe and elsewhere. On the trail of these animals, I trace a fragmentary biogeography through ethnographic encounters in the spaces of scientific research, animal exhibits, pet stores and art galleries, in Europe, the USA and Singapore. At each site, as the colour, light and intensities of neon flicker with the potential for life, and concern for animal lives move in and out of focus, I ask: what is the proper way of knowing and living with genetically-altered zebrafish? To ask the question is to open up a conversation about the changing constitution of science and space, representation and reproduction in relation to these new forms of life. To try to answer it demands attention to a baroque patterning of scientific practices, aesthetic sensibilities, ethical responsibilities and political spatialities. In a discursive arena typically characterised by narratives of linearity – whether of scientific progress or slippery slopes – I suggest the affective sensibilities, theatrical qualities and unresolved elements of the baroque offer powerful, if ambivalent, resources for reflection on the intersection between the animating aesthetics and turbulent ethics of postgenomic lif

The funny business of biotechnology: better living through (chemistry) comedy

types: Editorial CommentCopyright © 2007 Elsevier. NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Geoforum, 2007, Vol. 38, Issue 2 pp. 221 – 223 DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.09.003Editoria

Science, observation and entertainment: competing visions of postwar British natural history television, 1946-1967

Copyright © 2000 SAGE Publications. Author's draft version; post-print. Final version published by Sage available on Sage Journals Online http://online.sagepub.com/Popular culture is not the endpoint for the communication of fully developed scientific discourses; rather it constitutes a set of narratives, values and practices with which scientists have to engage in the heterogeneous processes of scientific work. In this paper I explore how one group of actors, involved in the development of both postwar natural history television and the professionalization of animal behaviour studies, manage this process. I draw inspiration from sociologists and historians of science, examining the boundary work involved in the definition and legitimation of scientific fields. Specifically, I chart the institution of animal ethology and natural history film-making in Britain through developing a relational account of the co-construction of this new science and its public form within the media. Substantively, the paper discusses the relationship between three genres of early natural history television, tracing their different associations with forms of public science, the spaces of the scientific field and the role of the camera as a tool of scientific observation. Through this analysis I account for the patterns of cooperation and divergence in the broadcasting and scientific visions of nature embedded in the first formations of the Natural History Unit of the British Broadcasting Corporation

Networks of Nature: Stories of Natural History Film-making at the BBC

In May 1953 the first natural history television programme was broadcast from Bristol by naturalist Peter Scott and radio producer Desmond Hawkins. By 1997 the BBC's Natural History Unit has established a global reputation for wildlife films, providing a keystone of the BBC's public service broadcasting charter, playing an important strategic role in television scheduling and occupying a prominent position in a competitive world film market. The BBC's blue-chip natural history programmes regularly bring images of wildlife from all over the globe to British audiences of over 10 million. This thesis traces the changing aesthetics, ethics and economics of natural history film-making at the BBC over this period. It uses archive material, interviews and participant observation to look at how shifting relationships between broadcasting values, scientific and film-making practices are negotiated by individuals within the Unit. Engaging with vocabularies from geography, media studies and science studies, the research contextualises these popular representations of nature within a history of post-war British attitudes to nature and explores the importance of technology, animals and conceptions of the public sphere as additional actors influencing the relationships between nature and culture. This history charts the construction of the actor networks of the Natural History Unit by film-makers and broadcasters as they seek to incorporate and exclude certain practices, technologies and discourses of nature. These networks provide the resources, values and constraints which members of the Unit negotiate to seek representation within the Unit, and present challenges as the Unit seeks to preserve its institutional identity as these networks shift. The thesis tells a series of stories of natural history film-making that reflect one institution's contributions and responses to the contemporary formations of nature, science, the media and modernity

Investigating genetic aspects of the variation in the host response to gastrointestinal parasites in sheep

Analysis of data from 6-month old Scottish Blackface lambs exposed to a mixed, natural nematode infection demonstrated that the indicator traits, faecal egg counts (FEC), immunoglobulin A activity, eosinophil count, plasma pepsinogen activity and fructosamine concentration, investigated at 6 months of age were highly heritable and strongly correlated with the worm development traits. Strong negative genetic correlations (<-0.06) were often observed between worm development traits and eosinophil count, IgA activity and pepsinogen activity. A substantial genetic correlation was also observed between fructosamine concentration and worm length (0.67). However when such correlations were investigated across the 6-month time-period, the genetic correlations changed systemically and dramatically over time. These results provide an insight into the evolution of the genetic basis of the host prarasite interaction at a time when the host immune response is developing, and help to define optimal measurement ages for selection purposes. Two quantitative trait loci (QTL) studies were carried out on populations comprising different breeds and population structure; firstly a purebred Scottish Blackface flock and secondly a wide-breed cross flock developed from a resistant breed, Gulf Coast Native, and a susceptible breed, Suffolk. Both studies identified QTL associated with parasitic resistance traits, and although there is no concordance between the results, this is possibly due to the animals being infected with different nematode species. QTL such as those identified in this thesis could be utilised in a marker assisted selection scheme to increase resistance to parasitic infection. In the final study interactions between different parasite specifies within the host animal were investigated. Significant interactions were observed between Cooperia and Teladorsagia circumcincta, and T. circumcinta and Trichostrongylus vitrinus. Additionally Cooperia had a greater effect on FEC than T. circumcincta. The results from this study indicate that complex multi-parasitic relationships exist and hence when developing new control strategies it is essential to consider this background multi-parasitic infection and not simply focus on specific species