Inventing Mosquitoes: Digital Organisms as Rhetorical Boundary Objects in Genetic Pest Management for Dengue and Malaria Control.
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: HARTZOG, MOLLY SUE.Inventing Mosquitoes: Digital Organisms as Rhetorical Boundary Objects in Genetic Pest Management for Dengue and Malaria Control.(Under the direction of Carolyn R. Miller).Genome databases are widely used tools for facilitating interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, and international communication among scientists conducting research in genetic engineering.Historians and philosophers of science have shown that these databases have become a central driving force in the scientific community, identifying appropriate use of specimens and essentially defining the community standards of experimental biology (Leonelli & Ankeny, 2012).By arguing that model organism databases serve a central role in defining a scientific community, Leonelli and Ankeny, perhaps unintentionally, open genome databases as a site of rhetorical activity, that is, as a site that persuades scientists towards certain actions and certain beliefs about the natural world.In short, it is clear that genome databases act as sites of rhetorical invention, but it is unclear how they do so.In organizing these databases and generating data and metadata about different species, scientists are essentially debating how to best organize a digital analogy to the natural world to serve as a reliable communication tool and reflect theory, generating scientific thinking.This dissertation brings together these questions regarding the use of digital genome databases and debates about classification to explore the role of these databases in the laboratory as tools for rhetorical invention.In conclusion, I argue that researchers in genetic engineering for dengue and malaria control are taking temporary, stable definitions at the level of species in
Author: Molly Hartzog
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2544651387