Bioinformation Worlds and Futures

Bioinformation Worlds and Futures PDF Author: EJ Gonzalez-Polledo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000486222
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This book sets out to define and consolidate the field of bioinformation studies in its transnational and global dimensions, drawing on debates in science and technology studies, anthropology and sociology. It provides situated analyses of bioinformation journeys across domains and spheres of interpretation. As unprecedented amounts of data relating to biological processes and lives are collected, aggregated, traded and exchanged, infrastructural systems and machine learners produce real consequences as they turn indeterminate data into actionable decisions for states, companies, scientific researchers and consumers. Bioinformation accrues multiple values as it transverses multiple registers and domains, and as it is transformed from bodies to becoming a subject of analysis tied to particular social relations, promises, desires and futures. The volume harnesses the anthropological sensibility for situated, fine-grained, ethnographically grounded analysis to develop an interdisciplinary dialogue on the conceptual, political, social and ethical dimensions posed by bioinformation.

Bioinformation Worlds and Futures

Bioinformation Worlds and Futures PDF Author: EJ Gonzalez-Polledo
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000486222
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book sets out to define and consolidate the field of bioinformation studies in its transnational and global dimensions, drawing on debates in science and technology studies, anthropology and sociology. It provides situated analyses of bioinformation journeys across domains and spheres of interpretation. As unprecedented amounts of data relating to biological processes and lives are collected, aggregated, traded and exchanged, infrastructural systems and machine learners produce real consequences as they turn indeterminate data into actionable decisions for states, companies, scientific researchers and consumers. Bioinformation accrues multiple values as it transverses multiple registers and domains, and as it is transformed from bodies to becoming a subject of analysis tied to particular social relations, promises, desires and futures. The volume harnesses the anthropological sensibility for situated, fine-grained, ethnographically grounded analysis to develop an interdisciplinary dialogue on the conceptual, political, social and ethical dimensions posed by bioinformation.

Bioinformation

Bioinformation PDF Author: Bronwyn Parry
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509505490
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
From DNA sequences stored on computer databases to archived forensic samples and biomedical records, bioinformation comes in many forms. Its unique provenance – the fact that it is 'mined' from the very fabric of the human body – makes it a mercurial resource; one that no one seemingly owns, but in which many have deeply vested interests. Who has the right to exploit and benefit from bioinformation? The individual or community from whom it was derived? The scientists and technicians who make its extraction both possible and meaningful or the commercial and political interests which fund this work? Who is excluded or even at risk from its commercialisation? And what threats and opportunities might the generation of 'Big Bioinformational Data' raise? In this groundbreaking book, authors Bronwyn Parry and Beth Greenhough explore the complex economic, social and political questions arising from the creation and use of bioinformation. Drawing on a range of highly topical cases, including the commercialization of human sequence data; the forensic use of retained bioinformation; biobanking and genealogical research, they show how demand for this resource has grown significantly driving a burgeoning but often highly controversial global economy in bioinformation. But, they argue, change is afoot as new models emerge that challenge the ethos of privatisation by creating instead a dynamic open source 'bioinformational commons' available for all future generations.

Information Processing and Living Systems

Information Processing and Living Systems PDF Author: Vladimir B. Baji?
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1860945635
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 799

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Book Description
Information processing and information flow occur in the course of an organism's development and throughout its lifespan. Organisms do not exist in isolation, but interact with each other constantly within a complex ecosystem. The relationships between organisms, such as those between prey or predator, host and parasite, and between mating partners, are complex and multidimensional. In all cases, there is constant communication and information flow at many levels.This book focuses on information processing by life forms and the use of information technology in understanding them. Readers are first given a comprehensive overview of biocomputing before navigating the complex terrain of natural processing of biological information using physiological and analogous computing models. The remainder of the book deals with ?artificial? processing of biological information as a human endeavor in order to derive new knowledge and gain insight into life forms and their functioning. Specific innovative applications and tools for biological discovery are provided as the link and complement to biocomputing.Since ?artificial? processing of biological information is complementary to natural processing, a better understanding of the former helps us improve the latter. Consequently, readers are exposed to both domains and, when dealing with biological problems of their interest, will be better equipped to grasp relevant ideas.

Trading the Genome

Trading the Genome PDF Author: Bronwyn Parry
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231121743
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
"In a work that draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, business, and law, Bronwyn Parry links a firsthand investigation of the operation of the bioprospecting industry to an analysis of broader economic, regulatory, and technological transformations: the rise of an information economy, global intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing regimes, and the progressive molecularization of approaches to biological research. Parry reveals how a failure to monitor this new global trade in bio-information could have potentially disastrous consequences for the suppliers of genetic and biochemical resources - transforming the complex dynamics of collecting, as well as the politics and practice of biological resource exploitation."--BOOK JACKET.

Information Theory And Evolution (Third Edition)

Information Theory And Evolution (Third Edition) PDF Author: John Scales Avery
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811250383
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This highly interdisciplinary book discusses the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution, against the background of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Among the central themes is the seeming contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems. As the author shows, this paradox has its resolution in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources. Another focus of the book is the role of information in human cultural evolution, which is also discussed with the origin of human linguistic abilities. One of the final chapters addresses the merging of information technology and biotechnology into a new discipline — bioinformation technology.This third edition has been updated to reflect the latest scientific and technological advances. Professor Avery makes use of the perspectives of famous scholars such as Professor Noam Chomsky and Nobel Laureates John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edward Moser to cast light on the evolution of human languages. The mechanism of cell differentiation, and the rapid acceleration of information technology in the 21st century are also discussed.With various research disciplines becoming increasingly interrelated today, Information Theory and Evolution provides nuance to the conversation between bioinformatics, information technology, and pertinent social-political issues. This book is a welcome voice in working on the future challenges that humanity will face as a result of scientific and technological progress.

Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology

Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology PDF Author: Peter C. Little
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666901105
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
This book explores technology and the global tech industry in relation to social, health, economic, and environmental relations and politics. Peter C. Little argues that the power and influence of electronics and Big Tech—from the proliferation of digital platforms to the expansion of global electronic waste streams—is a political-ecological problem that impacts communities and lives in both the Global North and South. From intense resource extraction, industrial pollution, and surging health and economic inequalities, to data-driven surveillance, platform economy proliferation and intrusion, and Silicon Valley corporate-power, Little argues that the political ecology of tech matters now more than ever. Based on a mixture of engagements with tech criticism, ethnographic case studies, and critical analysis and development of guiding concepts—ranging from technocapital to technoprecarious political ecology—the book exposes and interrogates the underlying toxicity, precarity, and planetary politics of global tech. Critical Zones of Technopower and Global Political Ecology also tracks justice struggles that confront technopower, including “just tech” forms of social action that further reinforce the importance of a global political ecology of technocapitalism in the digital age.

Genetic Afterlives

Genetic Afterlives PDF Author: Noah Tamarkin
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478012307
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
In 1997, M. E. R. Mathivha, an elder of the black Jewish Lemba people of South Africa, announced to the Lemba Cultural Association that a recent DNA study substantiated their ancestral connections to Jews. Lemba people subsequently leveraged their genetic test results to seek recognition from the post-apartheid government as indigenous Africans with rights to traditional leadership and land, retheorizing genetic ancestry in the process. In Genetic Afterlives, Noah Tamarkin illustrates how Lemba people give their own meanings to the results of DNA tests and employ them to manage competing claims of Jewish ethnic and religious identity, African indigeneity, and South African citizenship. Tamarkin turns away from genetics researchers' results that defined a single story of Lemba peoples' “true” origins and toward Lemba understandings of their own genealogy as multivalent. Guided by Lemba people’s negotiations of their belonging as diasporic Jews, South African citizens, and indigenous Africans, Tamarkin considers new ways to think about belonging that can acknowledge the importance of historical and sacred ties to land without valorizing autochthony, borders, or other technologies of exclusion.

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year PDF Author: Jonathan Strahan
Publisher: Start Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1597804606
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 758

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Book Description
In print and on-line, science fiction and fantasy is thriving as never before. A multitude of astonishingly creative and gifted writers are boldly exploring the mythic past, the paranormal present, and the promises and perils of myriad alternate worlds and futures. There are almost too many new and intriguing stories published every year for any reader to be able to experience them all. So how to make sure you haven’t missed any future classics? Award-winning editor and anthologist Jonathan Strahan has surveyed the expanding universes of modern sf and fantasy to find the brightest stars in today’s dazzling literary firmament. From the latest masterworks by the acknowledged titans of the field to fresh visions from exciting new talents, this outstanding collection is a comprehensive showcase for the current state of the art in both science fiction and fantasy. Anyone who wants to know where the future of imaginative short fiction is going, and treat themselves to dozens of unforgettable stories, will find this year’s edition of Best Science Fiction and Fantasy to be just what they’re looking for!

Introduction to Bioinformatics

Introduction to Bioinformatics PDF Author: Arthur M. Lesk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191975387
Category : Bioinformatics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A vast amount of biological information about a wide range of species has become available in recent years as technological advances have significantly reduced the time it takes to sequence a genome or determine a novel protein structure. This text describes how bioinformatics can be used as a powerful set of tools for retrieving and analysing this biological data, and how bioinformatics can be applied to a wide range of disciplines such as molecular biology, medicine, biotechnology, forensic science, and anthropology.

The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality

The Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality PDF Author: Cecilia McCallum
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108669220
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 829

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Book Description
With contributions from a diverse team of global authors, this cutting-edge Handbook documents the impact of the study of gender and sexuality upon the foundational practices and precepts of anthropology. Providing a survey of the state-of-the-art in the field, it is essential reading for academic researchers and students of anthropology.