Rethinking Reductionism,or, the Transformative Work of Making the Same

Plant-based drug discovery has long served as an iconic instance of both the power and the folly of scientific reductionism: this is a project, after all, that seeks to turn complex indigenous therapeutic practices into isolated molecules, to be scaled-up, and set into mass circulation. This arena has, for good reason, served as an example of the economic and epistemological violences enacted in forms of ‘recognition’ or ‘translation’ that treat scientific idioms and industrial value as the arbiters of truth and value. But here, I ask whether we are giving too much away, in analytic terms, when we take reductionism for granted. In this essay, I draw on my ethnographic research in Mexico, as well as broader philosophical debates, to suggest critical resources that might allow us to do something other than restage the familiar, infelicitous encounter between ‘embedded’, relational indigenous knowledges and isolating, abstracting, reductionist science. Here, I consider pharmaceutical research and development as a process that works less by reducing than by proliferating materials: in particular, by producing and recontextualising chemical compounds as simultaneously the same, and not the same. This formula has a strong place in pharmaceutical chemistry, and it resonates somewhat surprisingly in domains ranging from transnational drug regulation, to marketing strategies for generic drugs in Mexico, to debates within the philosophy of chemistry about the nature of chemical entities themselves. These conversations offer conceptual resources for rethinking reduction(ism), itself one of the key operators in charged projects of recognising and translating knowledge.     

Same Same but Different. Different Trigeminal Chemoreceptors Share the Same Central Pathway

Intranasal trigeminal sensations are important in everyday life of human beings, as they play a governing role in protecting the airways from harm. Trigeminal sensations arise from the binding of a ligand to various sub-types of transient receptor potential (TRP) channels located on mucosal branches of the trigeminal nerve. Which underlying neural networks are involved in the processing of various trigeminal inputs is still unknown. To target this unresolved question fourteen healthy human subjects were investigated by completing three functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning sessions during which three trigeminal substances, activating varying sub-types of chemoreceptors and evoking different sensations in the nose were presented: CO₂, menthol and cinnamaldehyde. We identified similar functional networks responding to all stimuli: an olfactory network, a somatosensory network and an integrative network. The processing pathway of all three stimulants was represented by the same functional networks, although CO₂ evokes painful but virtually odorless sensations, and the two other stimulants, menthol and cinnamaldehyde are perceived as mostly non painful with a clear olfactory percept. Therefore, our results suggest a common central processing pathway for trigeminal information regardless of the trigeminal chemoreceptor and sensation type.     

同走一条路

1997年7月,我从北京到达云南德钦,在那里的旅馆里巧遇昆明来的诗人梦泽和他女朋友,三个人聊得投机,决定一起“走向拉萨”。我们兴奋地把这次不期而遇当作了“朝圣”。     

同住一个村

他们还处在半与世隔绝的状态之中,他们还没有脱离贫困,他们的孩子读书还很困难,他们进趟城还要走上两三天……因为建立了保护区,他们改变了自己祖祖辈辈早已熟悉的生产和生活．扛起野生动物保护的重要责任。     

Is Shape of a Fresh and Dried Leaf the Same?

Plants kept as dried herbarium specimens share many characteristics with their living counterparts, but there are some substantial differences between them. Due to dehydration, leaves of herbarium specimens change not only their mass and colour, but in many cases change their dimensions, too. The present study aimed to determine whether leaf shape changes during the drying process. A total of 794 pairs of fresh and dried leaves or leaflets of 22 plant taxa were studied. The shape of the blades was quantified using elliptic Fourier analysis combined with principal component analysis. In addition, area and mass of the leaves were measured. Statistical tests were applied for comparing fresh and dried leaves. The results indicate that the preservation process of pressing and drying plants for herbarium purposes causes changes in leaf shape. In general, the shape changes were directional. As the shape of fresh and dried plants is different, it is strongly recommended that shape analyses should be performed on datasets containing either of the leaf types.     

Quaternary Structures of Human Cytoplasmic and Nuclear PCNA Are the Same

Properties and mechanisms of PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) functions have been investigated for a long time and are studied in great detail. As follows from its name, most known PCNA functions (DNA replication, DNA repair, DNA recombination and others) are connected with cell proliferation and localization of this protein in nuclei. In addition, there is good reason to believe that PCNA also performs some functions in the cytoplasm. However, the possible role and mechanisms of PCNA action in the cytoplasm require careful study and clarification. Interestingly, such cells as neutrophils differ in that they are non-dividing on one hand and on the other hand contain a rather large amount of PCNA, which is localized only in the cytoplasm, that is, they are an ideal model for the study of cytoplasmic PCNA. Using cross-linkages with formaldehyde, we showed that this cytoplasmic PCNA is cross-linked in a similar way, that is, organized in the same way as the nuclear PCNA that is present in the proliferating cells. Previously, we showed that PCNA in such cells is organized into a dynamic complex of double trimer on the basis of the back-toback principle. Apparently, such organization of this hub-protein allows it to better coordinate the processes taking place in the cytoplasm as well.     

Scanning and Transmission Electron Micrographs of the Same Frozen Fractured Surface

The freeze-etch technique was applied to scanning and transmission electron-microscopy by freezing samples of tissue from 3-wk-old laboratory white mice in Freon 12 cooled with liquid nitrogen. The samples were fractured and placed into a rotary stage cold-block device and rotary shadowed with platinum and then carbon at a 45° angle. They were dried overnight in a vacuum at approximately 5 × 10^-6 torr and then exposed to OsO₄ vapors for 48 hr. After being viewed in a scanning electron microscope, the carbon-platinum replica was removed from the sample by dissolving away the tissue with Clorox. The replica was mounted on a grid and viewed in a transmission electron microscope.     

Successful Triple Immuno - Enzymatic Method Employing Primary Antibodies from Same Species and Same Immunoglobulin Subclass

Protocols for immunohistochemical (IHC) detection of multiple antigens in the same tissue sections have been developed using primary antibodies directly conjugated to different enzymes or fluorochromes, or ones that have been raised in different species, or from different immunoglobulin (Ig) classes or subclasses. For antibodies lacking such dissimilarities, very few proposals have been published with varying degrees of generalizability. In this report we present a successful triple IHC protocol engaging three unconjugated monoclonal primary antibodies raised in the same species and of the same Ig subclass. Compared to other methods, our results showed that denaturation of the preceding reaction complex by microwave heating, combined with additional suppression of enzyme activity, enabled the detection of all three reactions by using the same detection system, with no cross reaction observed. Moreover, expression patterns of each of the three antigens in the triple stained sections, was found to be similar to the pattern observed when single staining was performed. Unlike previous reports, no damage of targeted antigens or tissues did occur following this protocol. Furthermore, the contrast of the colors employed was investigated by computerized color deconvolution, and the three reactions products were successfully separated into three individual images that could be used for further objective quantification.Key words: triple immunohistochemistry, immunoenzyme, same species antibodies     

Endodontic Microflora of Different Teeth in the Same Mouth

This study examined similarities in the microbiology of initial, and subsequent, infections in different dental root canals in the same patient. In the initial infections, 61.5% of root canals had anaerobes present compared with 54% of root canals treated subsequently. Commercial identification kits were employed in speciation of isolates. Both sets of dental root canals had in common Peptostreptococcus micros, Eubacterium lentum and Veillonella parvula as species very commonly isolated. In addition Prevotella spp. tended to be present in both initial and subsequently infected teeth in the same patient (P=0.01); this was true of Gram-negative bacteria in general (P=0.03). A significant association was observed between the type of tooth infected at an initial and subsequent infection in the same mouth (P=0.01). In conclusion, there is an association between bacteria isolated from initial endodontically infected teeth and subsequent infected root canals in a patient.