Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science - Softcover

Delfanti, Alessandro

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745332803 ISBN 13: 9780745332802

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2013

Synopsis

Biohackers explores fundamental changes occuring in the circulation and ownership of scientific information. Alessandro Delfanti argues that the combination of the ethos of 20th century science, the hacker movement and the free software movement is producing an open science culture which redefines the relationship between researchers, scientific institutions and commercial companies.

Biohackers looks at the emergence of the citizen biology community ‘DIYbio’, the shift to open access by the American biologist Craig Venter and the rebellion of the Italian virologist Ilaria Capua against WHO data-sharing policies.

Delfanti argues that these biologists and many others are involved in a transformation of both life sciences and information systems, using open access tools and claiming independence from both academic and corporate institutions.

About this title

About the Author:

Alessandro Delfanti teaches New Media at the University of Milan.

Review:

"Alessandro Delfanti's book is a deft and accessible introduction to the changing face of science in the new century. He brings a journalist's skill, a scientist's skepticism and an activist's passion to the question of open science today. The work offers an expert analysis of the global politics of big science and the details and pleasures, the successes and failures, of small-scale amateur and DIY biology. From the lucid writing emerges the story of a new ethic of sharing and decoding life - whether viewed under the microscope or lived out in hackerspaces and garage labs." – Christopher Kelty, Associate Professor of Information Studies and Anthropology, Institute for Society and Genetics, UCLA

About this edition

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0745332803
• ISBN 13: 9780745332802
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176