Human ecology
Translations between biology and sociology

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TBBS: draft outline - 19/6/99

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Draft outline for PhD proposal...

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Translations between biology and sociology - Introduction (5,000 words)

• Safety of GM foods - Authority in political decision making.
• Cultural vs. academic sources.
• Academic discusion of culture. Cultural Theory - Semiotics post-Foucault.
• (Sokal - Turney - Gould - Frankenstein - Scaremongering)
• Academic discusion of genetics. Genotype and Phenotype - Gould, Dawkins, Cohen & Stewart
• (Natural - Symbolic - Hurst vs. Dolly)

Part I: Initial points of translation (15-25,000 words)
Initial points of translation from biology (5,000 words)

• Sociology and fishing ecologies - Jacquie McGlade - Communicative approaches
• Sociology and farming ecologies - Vandana Shiva - Global and local knowledge
• Biology and ecology - Ernst Mayr - Population thinking - plurality
• Mathematics and biology - 1900's Mendel - 1930's Synthetic theory - Neutral theory (Kiruma)- Game theory -
• Computation and biology - Neural nets - protein computation - gas nets - virtual heart - Chaos

Formalism: a linking theme between mathematics, computation, and cultural theory (5,000 words)

• Leibniz - Eco and Barrow
• Mathematical formalism - Cantor - Peano - Russell - Godel - (Casti, Hof, Barrow)
• Computational formalism - Boole - Difference Engine - Turing - (
• Cultural formalism - Saussure - Jakobson - Levi-Strauss - Barthes - Derrida - Baudrillard - Eco - (Hawkes)

Initial points of translation from formalism (5,000 words)

• Symbolic, syntactic codes -
• Interest of Leibniz, Peano and Godel in language -
• Infinities - Cantor's paradox -
• Classification - Limitative theories
• The librarian's problem -
• Theories of everything -
• Colour -

Conclusion part I: Possible grounds for translation (5,000 words)

• Linking cultural theory to the genotype - phenotype question.

Part II: What questions does sociology ask? (30-40,000 words)
Introduction - (5,000 words)

The work of representation: Stuart Hall (5,000 words)

• (Textbook culture?)
• Reflective, Intentional, and Constructive models of representation.
• The semiotic approach
• Michel Foucault

Power/Knowledge: Michel Foucault (5,000 words)

• Global knowledge and subjugated knowledges
• Archaeologies and Genealogies
• The embodiment of theory ('The Eye of Power')
• Geographic and historic diversity

Communicative Action: Jurgen Habermas (5,000 words)

• Weber's problem
• Goal rationality
• Communicative Action
• Lifeworld and system

Risk Society: Ulrich Beck (5,000 words)

• Wealth creation and risk creation
• Reflexive modernisation
• The programme of modernity

The Search for the Perfect Language: Umberto Eco (5,000 words)

• Perfect and universal languages
• Classification
• a priori and a posteriori languages
• Linguistic plurality

Conclusion part II: What questions does sociology ask biology? (5,000 words)

Part III: What are the roles of calcium in the genotype - phenotype argument? (30-40,000 words)
Introduction- 5000 words

• The ecology of calcium: the calcium cycle.
• The structure and organisation of eukaryotic cells
• The structure and organisation of multi-cellular organisms

Chemiosmotic metabolism

• Chemiosmosis and Membranes - Nicholls, D.G. & Ferguson, S.J. (1992)
• Gibbs energy - The 'High-energy bond' 'myth' - ibid.
• Proton pumps and metabolism

• Calcium channels and pumps
• Calcium gradients across eukaryotic cell membranes

Neurological roles of calcium

• Synaptic Vesicles - Neurotramsitters - van der Meer
• Long term potentiation - Rose

Structural roles of calcium

• Bone
• Muscle contraction - Troponin C

Calcium in the endocrine system

• Calcitonin
• Parathryoid gland

Calcium in the heart

• Virtual heart - Noble
• 'Voodoo Death'

Developmental roles of calcium

• Cell Division - Mitosis and Meiosis

• Calcium peaks at fertilization, pronuclear migration, nuclear envelope breakdown, the metaphase-anaphase transition, and cleavage. (van der Meer) - Cell cycle

Genetic roles of calcium

• DNA replication
• DNA - RNA transcription
• RNA - protein

• Calmodulin is a highly conserved protein

Protein metabolism

• Photosynthesis - Goodwin, T.W. & Mercer, E.I. (1983)
• Respiration - ibid.
• Glycolysis - ibid.
• Diversity of bacterial metabolism -

• Pyruvate dehydrogenase phosphatase - Nicholls, D.G. & Ferguson, S.J. (1992)
• NAD+ linked isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) - ibid.
• 2-Oxogluarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) - ibid.

Protein computation - Bray

• Calmodulin
• CaM II Kinase - Bray
• Inositol 1,4,5 Triphosphate - Hopkins - van der Meer

Conclusion part III: ? (5000 words)

• Questions raised

Translations between biology and sociology - Conclusions (10,000 words)

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Links to other sites...

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Created 19/6/99