... matter and biological agency by tracing the composition and activity of the proteins that facilitate and regulate the cross-membrane traffic of biochemicals. The chapter explains the enabling and limiting conditions that make possible the construction of proteins by reference to genes. It proposes...

... This chapter introduces the reader to arts of protein crystallography, detailing the intricate range of techniques involved in producing crystallographic data of protein structure, from the purification of proteins, to techniques for crystallization and diffraction experiments. This chapter...

... protein crystallography visualization techniques affect embodied vision diffraction ...

... mechanism and animism anthropomorphism animations protein folding neo-Darwinism and Lamarckianism ...

... biological reductionism genes proteins biological agency biological matter biocultural genes science and humanities biocultural creatures ...

...Laboratory Entanglements This chapter introduces the reader to arts of protein crystallography, detailing the intricate range of techniques involved in producing crystallographic data of protein structure, from the purification of proteins, to techniques for crystallization and diffraction...

...Ontics and Epistemics This chapter asks how molecular models “re-present” and “stand in” as proxies for protein molecules. It examines the use of mimetic, three-dimensional models in the history of the life sciences, comparing and contrasting these to models of protein structures...

... This chapter examines how members of the protein crystallography community adjudicate the truth status of protein models. This chapter takes a close look at two recent events involving the retraction of major scientific publications: one set of retractions came in response to the discovery...

... This chapter introduces the reader to the techniques involved in interpreting crystallographic data to build molecular models of protein molecules. It argues that molecular model building is a craft practice. It documents the history of molecular model building techniques and materials...

...Forms of Life This chapter pays close attention to biological engineers’ use of mechanistic logic and machine analogies to render living substance in the form of molecular machines. It offers an ethnographic account of protein modelers’ creativity with both words and things as they learn...

... This chapter asks how molecular models “re-present” and “stand in” as proxies for protein molecules. It examines the use of mimetic, three-dimensional models in the history of the life sciences, comparing and contrasting these to models of protein structures. This chapter seeks to trouble...

... This chapter introduces the challenges protein crystallographers face building models of otherwise imperceptible phenomena. The chapter highlights the ways that protein modelers must cultivate embodied knowledge to visualize, reason through, and articulate their insights into molecular...

... This chapter highlights a range of ways that molecular models are rendered in time-based media. It takes a close look at computer graphic animations of molecular movements and phenomena such as protein folding and unfolding. The chapter argues that the narrative forms and temporalities...

... of the genome. The postgenomic era instantiates a shift from an earlier conception of the genome as an effectively static collection of active genes to one of a dynamic and reactive system dedicated to the context specific regulation of protein coding sequences. epigenetics reactive genome gene action...

... This chapter pays close attention to biological engineers’ use of mechanistic logic and machine analogies to render living substance in the form of molecular machines. It offers an ethnographic account of protein modelers’ creativity with both words and things as they learn to put machines...

... In light of this ethnographic account of liveliness in the molecular stories told by protein modelers, this chapter asks, “what is life becoming?” in the contemporary biosciences. The analysis resists the temptation to claim that practitioners have finally captured “life itself” in their hands...

... In the decade since the completion of the Human Genome Project, biologists have increasingly described the relationships between biological objects (genes, proteins, small molecules, phenotypes) in terms of networks. This essay argues that a “networked” understanding of biology has become one...