Research Objects in their Technological Setting

Bernadette Bensaude Vincent is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Her research topics span from the history and philosophy of chemistry to materials science and nanotechnology with a continuous interest in science and the public issues. Among her recent publications: Chemistry. The Impure Science, (co-author J. Simon, 2008); Matière à penser. (2008). Bionanoéthique (2008), Les Vertiges de la technocience. (2009), Fabriquer la vie. Où va la biologie de synthèse (co-author D. Benoit-Browayes, 2011).Sacha Loeve is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Technology at University Lyon 3. Since his Ph.D. on molecular nanomachines (2009), he practices a ‘fieldwork philosophy’ centred on objects and primarily interested in rethinking technology as a narrative logos of technics. His publications include works on Gilbert Simondon, nano-objects, images and technology, pharmacotechnology, synthetic biology, Moore’s Law and electronic waste. Alfred Nordmann is Professor of Philosophy at Darmstadt Technical University, after receiving his Ph.D. in Hamburg (1986) and several years on the faculty at the University of South Carolina (1988-2002). In the field of History and Philosophy of Science and of Technoscience he is interested primarily in the questions of knowledge and objectivity, explanation and understanding under representational and technological conditions of knowledge production, see Science Transformed (co-edited with Hans Radder and Gregor Schiemann, 2011) and Science in the Context Application (co-edited with Martin Carrier, 2011).Astrid Schwarz holds the chair of General Science of Technology at Brandenburg Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg. In her resarch she asks questions about the status and power of concepts, models, and objects in the process of generating, stabilizing and demarcating scientific knowledge. Recently, she focuses on debates around green cultures and ecotechnology, as well as on gardens as models to act in the Anthropocene. Her last book was Experiments in Practice (2014).

• List of FiguresList of ContributorsIntroduction: The Genesis and Ontology of Technoscientific ObjectsPART IHorizon of Possibilities1 The Pyramid and the Ring: A Physics Indifferent to OntologyPeter Galison2 Cancer Stem Cells: Ontology MattersLucie Laplane3 Robots Behaving Badly: Simulation and Participation in the Study of LifeChristopher Kelty4 Vanishing Friction Events and the Inverted Platonism of TechnoscienceAlfred Nordmann5 From the Birth of Fuel Cells to the Utopia of the Hydrogen WorldPierre TeissierPART IIArenas of Contestation6 Heroin: Taming a Drug and Losing ControlJens Soentgen7 Long Live Play: The Playstation Network and Technogenic LifeColin Milburn8 A Biography of a Disorder that Didn’t Want to be DiagnosedSimone van den Burg9 The Plasticity and Recalcitrance of WetlandsKevin C. Elliott10 The Life and Times of TransgenicsHugh Lacey11 Cardboard: Thinking the BoxCheryce von XylanderPART IIIMultiple Temporalities12 The Multiple Signatures of CarbonSacha Loeve and Bernadette Bensaude Vincent13 Monitoring and Remediating a Garbage PatchJennifer Gabrys14 Polar Ice Cores: Climate Change MessengersAant Elzinga15 Nuclear Waste: An Untreatable Technoscientific ProductSophie Poirot-Delpech16 Biography of a ‘Sand Heap’: Staging the Beginnings of NatureAstrid SchwarzIndex