Genomics with Care

Mike Fortun is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Promising Genomics: Iceland and deCODE Genetics in a World of Speculation.

• Acknowledgments  viiPoem-Like Tolls 1: A Prelude  1Part I. Genomics, Double Binds, Affects1. Fors  132. Labyrinth Life: Affect Excess Infrastructure  423. Double Binds of Science  80Poem-Like Tolls 2: An InterludePart II. Minding the Infrastructure of Genomics4. Curation: Of Data’s Limits  1115. Scrupulousness: Of Experiment’s Limit  1416. Solicitude: Of Science’s Limit  1837. Friendship: Of Community’s Limits  221Poem-Like Tolls 3: An Appendix  253Postscript  259Notes  277Works Cited  311Index  337

“Genomics with Care is an inventive, generous, funny, rigorous, and path-opening contribution to the anthropology of science that teaches readers new methods of understanding science as a vocation. Mike Fortun deftly fuses attention to the social affects and effects that accompany research in today’s molecular biology. This utterly splendid book reminds us what science and science studies are for.” - Stefan Helmreich, author of (A Book of Waves) “This brilliant and much-needed intervention into science and technology studies provides an affecting model for reading not just genomics, but the sciences in general. It opens a new path for thinking and writing differently in relation to the natural sciences. Indeed, it is a superb model for scholars and students who wish to read any text, community, or epistemology in a caring and critical way.” - Elizabeth A. Wilson, author of (Gut Feminism) "While scientific practice is often thought to be devoid of affective influence from practitioners, it is nonetheless a human endeavor and often defenseless against the affective nature of the human condition. Fortun employs the scientific literature as a source of observational data to produce an ethnographic exploration of the process of science within the context of genomics research. . . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." - J. A. Hewlett (Choice)