Research Objects in their Technological Setting

Bernadette Bensaude Vincent is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at University Paris 1 Panthon-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); Matire penser. (2008). Bionanothique (2008), Les Vertiges de la technocience. (2009), Fabriquer la vie. O va la biologie de synthse (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, Moores 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 Universitt 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 Figures List of Contributors Introduction: The Genesis and Ontology of Technoscientific Objects PART I Horizon of Possibilities 1 The Pyramid and the Ring: A Physics Indifferent to Ontology Peter Galison 2 Cancer Stem Cells: Ontology Matters Lucie Laplane 3 Robots Behaving Badly: Simulation and Participation in the Study of Life Christopher Kelty 4 Vanishing Friction Events and the Inverted Platonism of Technoscience Alfred Nordmann 5 From the Birth of Fuel Cells to the Utopia of the Hydrogen World Pierre Teissier PART II Arenas of Contestation 6 Heroin: Taming a Drug and Losing Control Jens Soentgen 7 Long Live Play: The Playstation Network and Technogenic Life Colin Milburn 8 A Biography of a Disorder that Didnt Want to be Diagnosed Simone van den Burg 9 The Plasticity and Recalcitrance of Wetlands Kevin C. Elliott 10 The Life and Times of Transgenics Hugh Lacey 11 Cardboard: Thinking the Box Cheryce von Xylander PART III Multiple Temporalities 12 The Multiple Signatures of Carbon Sacha Loeve and Bernadette Bensaude Vincent 13 Monitoring and Remediating a Garbage Patch Jennifer Gabrys 14 Polar Ice Cores: Climate Change Messengers Aant Elzinga 15 Nuclear Waste: An Untreatable Technoscientific Product Sophie Poirot-Delpech 16 Biography of a Sand Heap: Staging the Beginnings of Nature Astrid Schwarz Index