Knowing, Interpreting and Engaging with New and Old Biocomplexities

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     Last modified: April 22, 2005
     Presentation date: 07/14/2005 9:15 AM in MACK 236
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Abstract
Biocomplexity rules!-from the Biocomplexity Thesaurus of the U.S. National Biological Information Infrastructure to the NSF designating biocomplexity as a priority area for research and education. Even when it is not named as biocomplexity, biological research and biomedical work grapples with many kinds of complexity. Corresponding complexity arises in scientific and social efforts to acquire the appropriate data, produce unambiguous conclusions, promote biocomplexity-restorative measures, and sustain the efforts of researchers, activists, and others to these ends. How do ways of knowing, interpreting, and engaging with such complexities differ from those of, say, the early post-war applications of cybernetics in biology? Papers approach the complexities of biocomplexities from a wide range of ISHPSSB-ish vantage points.

Multiple Paper Session:
Papers in this session:
Life course origins of chronic diseases: How to reconcile the contributions of competing epidemiological approaches
The(unruly) complexity of carcinogenicity, or, how Helicobacter pylori 'causes' cancer
Scale Shifts, Complexities and Comprehensive Knowledge: Exploring the Construction of the "Aging Erythrocyte" as a Biomedical Object