Absence In Science Security And Policy

This book explores the absent and missing in debates about science and security. Through varied case studies, including biological and chemical weapons control, science journalism, nanotechnology research and neuroethics, the contributors explore how matters become absent, ignored or forgotten and the implications for ethics, policy and society.The chapter 'Sensing Absence: How to See What Isn't There in the Study of Science and Security' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

Chapter 1 of this book is open access under a CC BY license. This is a chapter from Absence in Science, Security and Policy edited by Brian Rappert and Brian Balmer. This chapter is available open access under a CC BY license. Part reflection on the forthcoming chapters, part analysis of academic literature, and part programmatic agenda setting, this introduction chapter forwards the importance of questioning taken for granted assumptions in sensing what is absent as a concern. It undertakes this through initially examining what it means to characterize concern as absent or present in the first place. While absence and presence are often treated as binary opposites, it will be argued this distinction is difficult to sustain and unhelp for analysis. On the back of an appreciation of the inter-relation of absence and presence, this chapter then reviews the literature in sociology, ethics, STS and elsewhere relevant to the themes of the volume. A goal is to outline the methodological and epistemological possibilities and problematics of studying what is missing. By way of then proposing what is required, and to set the stage for the other chapters in Part 1, this chapter ends by asking how autostereograms provide a metaphor for viewing that can guide the study of absence.

This book explores the absent and missing in debates about science and security. Through varied case studies, including biological and chemical weapons control, science journalism, nanotechnology research and neuroethics, the contributors explore how matters become absent, ignored or forgotten and the implications for ethics, policy and society.The chapter 'Sensing Absence: How to See What Isn't There in the Study of Science and Security' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

It’s Silence, Soundly, It’s Nothing, Seriously and It’s Absence, Presently, continue The ‘It’ Series published by Matador since The Book of It (2010). They constitute another stage in an artistic journey exploring the visual and audial dialectic of mark, word and image that began over 25 years ago. In their aesthetic form the books are a decentred trilogy united together in a new concept of The Bibliograph. All three present this new aesthetic object, which transcends the narrow limits of the academic bibliography. The alphabetical works also share a tripartite structure and identical length. The Bibliograph itself is characterised by its strategic place within each book as a whole as well as by the complex variations in meaning of the dominant motifs – nothing/ness, absence and silence – which recur throughout the alphabetical entries that constitute the elements of each text. It’s Nothing, Seriously, for example, addresses the amusing paradox that so much continues to be written today about – nothing! The aleatory character of the entries in the texts encourage the modern reader to reflect on each theme and to read them in a new way. The reader is invited as well to examine their various inter-textual relations across given conventional boundaries in the arts and sciences at several levels of physical, psychical & social reproduction.

With its focus on concrete methods and recent advances in applying nanotechnology to develop new drug therapies and medical diagnostics, this book provides an overall picture of the field, from the fundamentals of nanopharmacy with the characterisation and manufacturing methods to the role of nanoparticles and substances. Actual examples of utilization include drug development issues, translation to the clinic, market prospects, and industrial commercialization aspects. The applications described are taken from cancer treatment as well as other major therapeutic areas, such as infectious diseases and dermatology. An in-depth discussion on safety, regulatory, and societal aspects rounds off the book. Written by a top team of editors and authors composed of the leading experts in Europe and the USA who have pioneered the field of nanopharmacy!

Over the last two decades, digital access to data has revolutionized research methods and ways of doing science in the biological and biomedical fields. Prominent scientists have characterized this shift as leading to a new, "data-intensive" paradigm for research, encompassing innovative ways to produce, store, disseminate, and interpret huge masses of data. In this book Sabina Leonelli explores the epistemological challenges this poses to how life is researched and understood. By following how data travels across research contexts, and the role played by standards, theories, models, and human agency in shaping their evidential value, she shows the conditions under which digitally available data further our understanding of life. Turning to how the characteristics of data-intensive science bear on philosophical debates, Leonelli explores the shifting criteria for what counts as scientific evidence and how data are transformed into new knowledge. In short, she argues that a philosophical characterization of how data and knowledge move from one context to another is of fundamental importance to a productive philosophical understanding of contemporary scientific practices.

Attention and Responsibility in Global Health shows the construction of health through what is neglected and how the label of neglect is used to make the case that a shift in attitudes towards tropical diseases is based on changing policy practices of health and disease. Tropical diseases have moved from being of high importance for European empires to being neglected and unknown, and then returning to the spotlight once again. During this process, the understanding, framing, and overall character of the disease grouping has changed through a rediscovery of a health issue once rendered neglectable. The book depicts this change in relevance of tropical diseases from colonial history to the present day diseases across political, cultural, and socio- economic contexts. It shows the transformation of tropical diseases as a grouping that uncovers the changing strategies, tactics, and unintended consequences of advocacy campaigning by scientists, NGOs, and policymakers to drive disease issues up the policy agenda. Drawing on the emergent field of ignorance studies, the book explores ideas about the uses and deployment of both strategic and unintentional "not knowing". It is aimed at academics and students in science and technology studies, the sociology of health and medicine, environmental sociology, public policy, and the history of science.