Metaphors in search of a target: the curious case of epigenetics

Carrying out research in genetics and genomics and communicating about them would not be possible without metaphors such as “information,” “code,” “letter” or “book.” Genetic and genomic metaphors have remained relatively stable for a long time but are now beginning to shift in the context of synthetic biology and epigenetics. This article charts the emergence of metaphors in the context of epigenetics, first through collecting some examples of metaphors in scientific and popular writing and second through a systematic analysis of metaphors used in two UK broadsheets. Findings show that while source domains for metaphors can be identified, such as our knowledge of electrical switches or of bookmarks, it is difficult to pinpoint target domains for such metaphors. This may be indicative both of struggles over what epigenetics means for scientists (natural and social) and of difficulties associated with talking about this, as yet, young field in the popular press.     

Epigenetic determinism in science and society

The epigenetic “revolution” in science cuts across many disciplines, and it is now one of the fastest-growing research areas in biology. Increasingly, claims are made that epigenetics research represents a move away from the genetic determinism that has been prominent both in biological research and in understandings of the impact of biology on society. We discuss to what extent an epigenetic framework actually supports these claims. We show that, in contrast to the received view, epigenetics research is often couched in language as deterministic as genetics research in both science and the popular press. We engage the rapidly emerging conversation about the impact of epigenetics on public discourse and scientific practice, and we contend that the notion of epigenetic determinism – or the belief that epigenetic mechanisms determine the expression of human traits and behaviors – matters for understandings of the influence of biology and society on population health.     

Mapping the new molecular landscape: social dimensions of epigenetics

Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the DNA itself. The field is rapidly growing and being widely promoted, attracting attention in diverse arenas. These include those of the social sciences, where some researchers have been encouraged by the resonance between imaginaries of development within epigenetics and social theory. Yet, sustained attention from science and technology studies (STS) scholars to epigenetics and the praxis it propels has been lacking. In this article, we reflexively consider some of the ways in which epigenetics is being constructed as an area of biomedical novelty and discuss the content and logics underlying the ambivalent promises being made by scientists working in this area. We then reflect on the scope, limits and future of engagements between epigenetics and the social sciences. Our discussion is situated within wider literatures on biomedicine and society, the politics of “interventionist STS”, and on the problems of “caseness” within empirical social science.     

Maps, books and other metaphors for systems biology

We briefly review the use of metaphors in science and progressively focus on fields from biology and molecular biology to genomics and bioinformatics. We discuss how metaphors are both a tool for scientific exploration and a medium for public communication of complex subjects, by various short examples. Finally, we propose a metaphor for systems biology that provides an illuminating perspective for the ambitious goals of this field and delimits its current agenda.     

Risky cultures to risky genes: The racialised discursive construction of south Asian genetic diabetes risk

Type 2 diabetes within UK South Asian populations has increasingly become the focus of health science discourse. Growing rates across the globe have been a public health concern for a number of decades. Diabetes discourse has focused on lifestyle and a generalized idea of “cultural” factors as contributory factors. These have become part of what I identify as a South Asian diabetes “risk-package.” This risk formulation is extended to an additional genetic discourse which generates new causal explanations for this heightened “risk.” South Asian groups are already the subject of discursive, racialized risk constructions, which positions them as active owners of “risky culture.” The mobilization of genetic arguments repositions them as additionally passive owners of “risky genes.” I argue that the use of racial categories in genetic diabetes science, despite the relative uncertainty and ambiguity of scientific knowledge claims, is problematic and requires critical re-situating.     

Commentary: The Rôle of Toxicology in Prevention and Precaution

Advocates of the Precautionary Principle have recently called for a “new science” to support the goals of precaution-based environmental and occupational health policy. While much attention has been given to epidemiology, the evidentiary science most relevant to precaution, or prevention, is toxicology. Opportunities for enhancing the rôle of toxicology in public policy must consider current biases in the field. Thus, rather than a “new science,” advocates for change should focus upon ensuring that current scientific methods are appropriate and that interpretations of scientific data are accurate.     

Epigenetics for the social sciences: justice,embodiment, and inheritance in the postgenomic age

In this paper, I firstly situate the current rise of interest in epigenetics in the broader history of attempts to go “beyond the gene” in twentieth-century biology. In the second part, after a summary of the main differences between epigenetic and genetic mutations, I consider what kind of implications the sui generis features of epigenetic mutations may have for the social sciences. I focus in particular on two sites of investigation: (a) the blurring of the boundaries between natural and social inequalities in theories of justice and their possible implications for public policy and public health and (b) a deepening of the notion that the constitution of the body is deeply dependent on its material and socially shaped surroundings (“embodied constructivism”). In conclusion, I advance some cautionary reflections on some of the (known and unprecedented) problems that the circulation of epigenetics in wider society may present.     

On being a (modern) scientist: risks of public engagement in the UK interspecies embryo debate

In 2006, a small group of UK academic scientists made headlines when they proposed the creation of interspecies embryos – mixing human and animal genetic material. A public campaign was fought to mobilize support for the research. Drawing on interviews with the key scientists involved, this paper argues that engaging the public through communicating their ideas via the media can result in tensions between the necessity of, and inherent dangers in, scientists campaigning on controversial issues. Some scientists believed that communicating science had damaged their professional standing in the eyes of their peers, who, in turn, policed the boundaries around what they believed constituted a “good” scientist. Tensions between promoting “science” versus promotion of the “scientist”; engaging the public versus publishing peer-reviewed articles and winning grants; and building expectations versus overhyping the science reveal the difficult choices scientists in the modern world have to make over the potential gains and risks of communicating science. We conclude that although scientists' participation in public debates is often encouraged, the rewards of such engagement remain. Moreover, this participation can detrimentally affect scientists' careers.     

Professionalization as a governance strategy for synthetic biology

This article considers professionalization as a governance strategy for synthetic biology, reporting on social science interviews done with scientists, science journal editors, members of science advisory boards and authors of nongovernmental policy reports on synthetic biology. After summarizing their observations about the potential advantages and disadvantages of the professionalization of synthetic biology, we analyze professionalization as a strategy that overcomes dichotomies found in the current debates about synthetic biology governance, specifically “top down” versus “bottom up” governance and scientific fact versus public values. Professionalization combines community and state, fact and value. Like all governance options, professionalization has limitations, particularly regarding war and peace. It is best conceptualized as potentially part of a wider range of governance mechanisms working in concert: a “web of prevention”.     

Clinicians’ views and expectations of human microbiome science on asthma and its translations

Human microbiome science examines the microbiota that live in and on the human body and their role in human health. This paper examines clinicians’ views and expectations of microbiome science in asthma care. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 10 clinicians in Canada, we explore their perspectives for insights into translation of human microbiome science. The emphasis on novelty in much microbiome scholarship, we suggest, does not account fully for the ways in which microbiome science translations may be taken up in multiple ways that are both disruptive to and continuous with contemporary biomedicine. We suggest that clinicians drew on scientific discourses of “evidence” and “facts” as a form of boundary work to re-establish a separation between western biomedicine and alternative health practitioners, and clinical expertise and lay knowledge. We conclude with a discussion of human microbiome science and the emergence of post-Pasteurian modes of health in western biomedicine.     

Conceptual and ethical problems in the epistemology of genetic information

My thesis will be that the identification of genetic features and their medical interpretation follow at least partially from reductionist premises: “Genes are charging the gun, life(-style) will trigger it.” This simplistic metaphor illustrates a problem of genetic diagnosis: from the viewpoint of philosophy of science, concepts of the gene and the genome are vague and confused. Until now these concepts have not been defined satisfactorily. Partly on account of this there is an additional problem in applying genetic tests in medical diagnostics. The epistemic status of predictive genetic diagnosis in many cases can justifiably be called “opaque.” But a predictive genetic test is designed to reveal genetic knowledge of and for a client on the basis of scientific research. Methodologically the diagnosis of the scientific problem in genetics as a science is developed philosophically as an epistemological argument. The problem of genetics as applied science in medicine and society is the danger of irrationality due to reductionist premises of science. This problem is to be revealed by philosophical analysis. The major result of the argument is that the assessment of applications of basic research in genetics should include considerations from epistemology and philosophy of science. The epistemological status of scientific concepts and reasonableness of advice are interrelated. My thesis is that at the interface between theory of science in genetics and reasonableness of “genetic advice” is the responsibility of the researchers for concepts of their science.     

Heterogeneous assemblages of bioethics and science: the “pre-embryo” debate in America

This paper explores the “pre-embryo” debate in America to analyze the relationship between scientific uncertainty and moral decision-making. This paper explores how an ethical debate among bioethicists around the term “pre-embryo” has been transformed into a scientific “fact” debate between developmental biology and embryology. This transformation is driven by the scientism of ethical reasoning that stresses scientific claims to increase the credibility of ethical claims. This paper concludes that the “pre-embryo” debate is not an ethical controversy over a unified science but rather credibility struggles between two heterogeneous assemblages of science and bioethics.     

Scientific motherhood,responsibility, and hope: umbilical cord blood banking in South Korea

This paper explores how concepts of hope, motherhood, responsibility, and science are mobilized and transformed in the marketing strategies of private cord blood banks in South Korea. Cord blood banking provides a useful case study of the “political economy of hope,” which emphasizes future expectations over current utility. In particular, appeals to hope are rendered natural as being applied in relation to various concepts of motherhood (e.g. “scientific motherhood” and “consumer motherhood”), thereby refiguring ideas of a mother's responsibility to her child. In South Korea, cord blood banks rely heavily on the discourse of “scientific motherhood,” which is based on certain gender norms and ideas about science, modernity, and “advanced society.” By exploring the discourse of scientific motherhood, this study reexamines the “political economy of hope” through the lenses of gender and transnationalism.     

Sex Cells: Gender and the Language of Bacterial Genetics

Between 1946 and 1960, a new phenomenon emerged in the field of bacteriology. “Bacterial sex,” as it was called, revolutionized the study of genetics, largely by making available a whole new class of cheap, fast-growing, and easily manipulated organisms. But what was “bacterial sex?” How could single-celled organisms have “sex” or even be sexually differentiated? The technical language used in the scientific press – the public and inalienable face of 20th century science – to describe this apparently neuter organism was explicit: the cells “copulated,” had “intimate contract,” “conjugal unions,” and engaged in “ménage ã trois” relationships. And yet, to describe bacteria as sexually reproducing organisms, the definition of sex itself had to change. Despite manifold contradictions and the availability of alternative language, the notion of sexually active (even promiscuous) single-celled organisms has persisted, even into contemporary textbooks on cell biology and genetics. In this paper I examine the ways in which bacteria were brought into the genetic fold, sexualized, and given gender; I also consider the issues underlying the durability of “bacterial sex.”     

Thinking in continua: beyond the “adaptive radiation” metaphor

“Adaptive radiation” is an evocative metaphor for explosive evolutionary divergence, which for over 100 years has given a powerful heuristic to countless scientists working on all types of organisms at all phylogenetic levels. However, success has come at the price of making “adaptive radiation” so vague that it can no longer reflect the detailed results yielded by powerful new phylogeny‐based techniques that quantify continuous adaptive radiation variables such as speciation rate, phylogenetic tree shape, and morphological diversity. Attempts to shoehorn the results of these techniques into categorical “adaptive radiation: yes/no” schemes lead to reification, in which arbitrary quantitative thresholds are regarded as real. Our account of the life cycle of metaphors in science suggests that it is time to exchange the spent metaphor for new concepts that better represent the full range of diversity, disparity, and speciation rate across all of life.     

Restoration Goes Wild: A Reply to Throop and Purdom

Throop and Purdom’s proposal for virtues based restoration is consistent with my concept of focal restoration, but their interpretation conflates focal restoration with participatory restoration. We disagree on the meaning of wilderness and on the appropriate underlying relationship between nature and culture, which affects how each of us regards the role of restoration in so‐called wilderness. I prefer the term “wildness” over wilderness precisely because the former locates the power of meaning in process rather than place. The primary metaphors we used to describe the proper role of restoration differ, too. Throop and Purdom prefer “healing,” whereas my preference is for “design” as a way of acknowledging the moral implications of restoration interventions in natural processes.     

Citizen Science

Citizen science Citizen science is performed on a honorary basis. Citizen scientists (”Citizen Science proper“) have no professional employment in the relevant field of research and differ very much in their educational background, specific knowledge and amount of time dedicated to the subject of research. Today, citizen science has become especially important in some fields neglected by professional science, e.g. regional research. Recently, another form of citizen science has gained much attention, in which usually many citizen scientist are active (”Citizen Science light“). Internet, smartphone and georeferencing by GPS are important tools for collecting, documenting and communicating the observation data. Besides the scientific results, social relevance through participation and information of citizens (e.g. for conservation issues) play a very important role in these projects. The recently strongly increasing interest in and contribution to citizen science plays an important role to strengthen the link and communication between science and society.     

Improving the public understanding of science: New initiatives

The United States may be on the brink of losing its global edge in science. Many American students are underprepared for and uninterested in the scientific and technical careers they may be asked to take on. Furthermore, these students, their teachers, and the broader public lack basic understandings of what science is and how it works, which may negatively impact their ability to make reasoned and informed decisions about science-related issues. We describe two unique and recently developed projects designed to help tackle these problems by improving public understanding of and interest in science. The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science is a grassroots effort to lower the barriers between the scientific community and the public. It aims to inspire broad appreciation of science, inform the public about the nature and process of science, and make science accessible to everyone. Understanding Science is a web-based project that aims to improve teacher understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise, to provide resources that encourage and enable kindergarten through undergraduate (K-16) teachers to reinforce the nature of science throughout their teaching, and to serve as a clear and accessible reference that accurately portrays the scientific endeavor. The botanical and broader scientific communities are invited to participate in these efforts.     

Genomics: shifts in metaphorical landscape between 2000 and 2003

This article examines the shifts and changes in the metaphors used to describe the human genome and the human genome project (HGP) between 2000 and 2003, with the year 2001 as a trigger for genomic and metaphorical reflection. We want to answer questions, such as: Did the findings announced in 2001 shake the metaphorical foundations on which the HGP had been built or not? Did novel metaphors capture the imagination of scientists and the public or did old metaphors survive throughout this period? What influence does the continuity or discontinuity in metaphorical framing of the HGP have on the public perception of the HGP as well as on its scientific understanding? To answer these questions we have systematically compared the metaphors used in one major scientific journal, Nature, and in one major UK newspaper, the online edition of the Guardian/The Observer during a period of two months around June 2000, February 2001 and April 2003.