Stefan Helmreich

Associate Professor of Anthropology,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

LECTURE

"How the Ocean Got Its Genome: Bodies of Knowledge and Bodies of Water in Marine Micropbiology"

September 20, 2007
4:00pm – 5:00pm
8417 Social Science Building

Reception beforehand at 3:30pm

Abstract:

This talk examines how a new generation of marine biologists is coming to see the sea as animated and maintained by its smallest inhabitants: marine microbes. Many such microbes thrive in the extreme environments of deep-sea volcanoes, methane-rich coastal areas, and the open ocean. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among marine biologists at sea and in laboratories in the United States, I offer an anthropological account of how scientists render
extremophilic organisms meaningful — as vestiges of early earthly life, barometers of climate change, and potentially profitable raw materials for biotechnology. The task scientists set for themselves, I argue, is one of making biological life forms significant for our social, cultural and ethical forms of life. Marine microbiologists — ecologically minded and primarily secularist — engage their research in debates about evolution versus intelligent design, ecological stewardship, and the politics of turning the ocean commons into a site for capital expansion. Some participants in this new research — including Craig Venter, who has modeled his “Ocean Microbial Genome Survey” on the voyage of the Beagle — are beginning to speak of Earth’s “ocean genome,” a phrasing that defines life as a property that scales from gene to globe.

MEETING WITH GRADUATE STUDENTS

September 21, 2007
10:30am – 11:30am
8411 Social Science Building


For more information on Stefan Helmreich, please visit his personal website:
http://web.mit.edu/anthropology/faculty_staff/helmreich/