title: Entanglements of instruments and media in investigating organic life.
abstract: The question what constitutes organic life might be answered variously. This special issue explores how the rendering of life throughout the history of biology has been shaped by various instruments and media. While acknowledging the significance of the theoretical and social scenes of inquiry in which specific tools and techniques develop, and which delimit epistemic possibilities for making sense of life, the issue draws attention to material practices and instrumental mediations in experimental studies of life. Although it might seem self-evident that biology takes as its object of inquiry living organisms, it is productive to regard its subject matter as organic media rather than discrete organisms. The papers gathered in this issue show the rich potential for the critical study of how organic life has been constituted through the tools used to mediate its study.
authors.affiliation: Science and Technology Studies, Department of Humanities, York University, 218 Bethune College, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto ON, M3J 1P3, USA. Electronic address: steiger@yorku.ca.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steigerwald
mesh_terms: D001695:Biology / Q000379:methods*; D019369:Life; D012107:Research Design
keywords: Biology; Instruments; Media; Mediation; Organic life