Everyday characterizations of translational research: researchers\u2019 own use of terminology and models in medical research and practice

In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that the ways in which knowledge — scientific, social and cultural — is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices and policies. Identifying a range of features of the new moder of knowledge production — reflexivity, transdisciplinarity, heterogeneity — the authors show the connections between these features and the changing role of knowledge in social relations. While the knowledge produced by research and development in science and technology (both public and industrial) is accorded central concern, the authors also outline the changing dimensions of social scientific and humanities knowledge and the relations between the production of knowledge and its dissemination through education. Placing science policy and scientific knowledge in its broader context within contemporary societies, this book will be essential reading for all those concerned with the changing nature of knowledge, with the social study of science, with educational systems, and with the relations between R&D and social, economic and technological development.

In recent years, school science has been the target of increasing critique for two reasons. On the one hand, it is said to enforce ‘epic’ images of science that celebrate the heroes and heroic deeds that established the scientific canon and its methods and thereby falsifies the history and nature of science. On the other hand, the sciences are presented as objective, making factual statements independent of location and time—a claim that runs counter to the current mainstream canon of scientific knowledge as socially and individually constructed. In this article, we suggest that contexts leading to new scientific knowledge make science objective and subjective simultaneously. Our approach, which focuses on the performative dimensions of (school) science, works to overcome the distinctions between knowledge and knowing and the associated distinction between theory and practice. We show the significance of the performative dimension through a comparison of anatomy lectures and texts from the 17th century and in present-day biology classrooms. We underscore the need to retain and investigate the historical connections between the founding of (scientific) knowledge and its present-day form taught in schools.

Previous articleNext article No AccessCase StudiesCold Fusion and Hot HistoryBruce V. LewensteinBruce V. Lewenstein Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Osiris Volume 7, Number 11992Science after '40 Published for the History of Science Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/368708 Views: 20Total views on this site Citations: 22Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1992 The History of Science Society, Inc.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:M. Mert Örsler, Lutz Peschke ‘It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s a Fusion Reactor’: Representation of Energy in Superhero Movies, Quarterly Review of Film and Video 14 (May 2022): 1–15.https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2022.2069978Massimiano Bucchi Norms, Competition, and Visibility in Contemporary Science: The Legacy of Robert K. Merton, (Nov 2020): 17–37.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52885-0_2Anthony Larsson From cold fusion to cold storage: A comparative case study of how organizational champions caused two scientific megaprojects to fail, Accountability in Research 27, no.22 (Jan 2020): 57–79.https://doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2019.1709449Mark R Johnson ‘The biggest legal battle in UK casino history’: Processes and politics of ‘cheating’ in sociotechnical networks, Social Studies of Science 48, no.22 (Apr 2018): 304–327.https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312718771212Friedrich Steinle Stability and Replication of Experimental Results: A Historical Perspective, (Jul 2016): 39–63.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118865064.ch3Clara Florensa , Centaurus 58, no.33 ( 2016): 219.https://doi.org/10.1111/1600-0498.12123Massimiano Bucchi Norms, competition and visibility in contemporary science: The legacy of Robert K. Merton, Journal of Classical Sociology 15, no.33 (Dec 2014): 233–252.https://doi.org/10.1177/1468795X14558766Grit Laudel, Martin Benninghoff, Eric Lettkemann, Elias Håkansson Highly Adaptable but Not Invulnerable: Necessary and Facilitating Conditions for Research in Evolutionary Developmental Biology, (Oct 2014): 235–265.https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20140000042008Ronald Kline Teaching Social Responsibility for the Conduct of Research, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 32, no.22 (Jan 2013): 52–58.https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2013.2259331Filippo Radicchi In science “there is no bad publicity”: Papers criticized in comments have high scientific impact, Scientific Reports 2, no.11 (Nov 2012).https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00815Sarah Kaplan, Joanna Radin Bounding an emerging technology: Para-scientific media and the Drexler-Smalley debate about nanotechnology, Social Studies of Science 41, no.44 (Apr 2011): 457–485.https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711402722Thomas Heinze, Philip Shapira, Juan D. Rogers, Jacqueline M. Senker Organizational and institutional influences on creativity in scientific research, Research Policy 38, no.44 (May 2009): 610–623.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2009.01.014Amanda Rees Reflections on the Field, Social Studies of Science 37, no.66 (Jun 2016): 881–907.https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312707077368Gary Edmond, David Mercer Creating (public) science in the Noah's Ark case, Public Understanding of Science 8, no.44 (Dec 2016): 317–343.https://doi.org/10.1088/0963-6625/8/4/304Peter Weingart Science and the media, Research Policy 27, no.88 (Dec 1998): 869–879.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(98)00096-1 References, (Mar 2015): 243–255.https://doi.org/10.1108/S1876-0562(1997)000097B009Charles Taylor Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory: Toward a Constructive Analysis of Scientific Rhetorics, Communication Theory 6, no.44 (Nov 1996): 374–387.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1996.tb00137.xMassimiano Bucchi When scientists turn to the public: alternative routes in science communication, Public Understanding of Science 5, no.44 (Dec 2016): 375–394.https://doi.org/10.1088/0963-6625/5/4/005Bruce V. Lewenstein Do Public Electronic Bulletin Boards Help Create Scientific Knowledge?, Science, Technology, & Human Values 20, no.22 (Aug 2016): 123–149.https://doi.org/10.1177/016224399502000201Caroline van den Brul Perceptions of Science: How Scientists and others view the Media Reporting of Science, Studies in Science Education 25, no.11 (Jan 1995): 211–237.https://doi.org/10.1080/03057269508560055Trevor Pinch Cold fusion and the sociology of scientific knowledge, Technical Communication Quarterly 3, no.11 (Jan 1994): 85–100.https://doi.org/10.1080/10572259409364559Rob Hagendijk, Jan Meeus Blind faith: fact, fiction and fraud in public controversy over science, Public Understanding of Science 2, no.44 (Dec 2016): 391–415.https://doi.org/10.1088/0963-6625/2/4/008

Truth and Credibility: Science and the Social Study of Science

Une taxinomie de la connaissance technologique est developpee, en essayant de montrer l'interaction entre les scientifiques et les ingenieurs, a travers la recherche industrielle et en laboratoire

At this year's Biennale international art exhibition in Venice, Italy, Patricia Piccinini, a Melbourne‐based painter and sculptor, presented sculptures of synthetic life forms (Fig. 1). Entitled ‘The Young Family’, ‘Leather Landscape’ and ‘Still Life with Stem Cells’, her art crosses the species boundaries between humans and other animals. Treading a fine line between the grotesque and the life‐like, Piccinini's art provokes deeply ambivalent emotions in the viewer. Her monstrous, mutant life forms are never repulsive, but also never take possession of our nurturing instincts. Rather, they convey their difference from and likeness to humans with an impressive dignity of their own. The interface between science and society conjured in these creatures, through the imagination of the artist and the impressive range of media she masters, is a superb example of how some of the seemingly intractable questions posed by the life sciences can be addressed: by exposing our ambivalent emotions and provoking further reflection and discussion. Figure 1. The Young Family , by Patricia Piccinini (2002). Silicone, acrylic, human hair and leather. Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia. Another artist's work at the Biennale also addresses our understanding of humanity. Michal Rovner's projects are carefully choreographed configurations of people who, at first sight, appear to be forming and reforming new patterns. Photographed in black and white, Rovner's art resembles images from the early years of cinematography. The fascination that these ballet‐like arrangements evoke comes from the repetition of movements leading to change, and change leading to new repetitions. Images of the same people are projected as walking along horizontal lines, and bear a strong resemblance to patterns of genome sequencing (Fig. 2). In this artistic play of scale and size, of form and movement, of repetition, replication and change, the artist creates patterns with human figures, transforming them …

There is a need to understand the pedagogical reasons for an integrated agricultural science education. Indigenous knowledge is critical. The aim of the study was to provide a theoretical analysis of the nexus of science, technology and indigenous knowledge systems. A nexus generally refers to a connection or link between different elements or systems. The study selected science, technology and indigenous knowledge systems as major advancements in agriculture teaching and learning. Six predominant principles and components of these advancements were compared for potential indication of connectedness and combined impact. The approach of combining quantitative and empirical metanalysis found science to be the predominant factor (36%) in the understanding of the nexus compared with technology (33%) and indigenous knowledge (31%). To provide a global perspective, the study used case studies to explain the relevance of My Folio Pedagogic Planning as the closet framework. Future research in science, technology and indigenous knowledge education nexus is recommended.

Outline of Synthesis of Cognitive and Socio-cultural Foundations of Scientific Knowledge Evolution in Research Programs of Western Philosophy of Science

Interviews with key scientists who had conducted research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), together with analysis of media reports, documentaries and other literature published during and after the SARS epidemic, revealed many interesting aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry in contemporary scientific research in the rapidly growing field of molecular biology. The story of SARS illustrates vividly some NOS features advocated in the school science curriculum, including the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, theory-laden observation and interpretation, multiplicity of approaches adopted in scientific inquiry, the inter-relationship between science and technology, and the nexus of science, politics, social and cultural practices. The story also provided some insights into a number of NOS features less emphasised in the school curriculum—for example, the need to combine and coordinate expertise in a number of scientific fields, the intense competition between research groups (suspended during the SARS crisis), the significance of affective issues relating to intellectual honesty and the courage to challenge authority, the pressure of funding issues on the conduct of research and the ‘peace of mind’ of researchers, These less emphasised elements provided empirical evidence that NOS knowledge, like scientific knowledge itself, changes over time. They reflected the need for teachers and curriculum planners to revisit and reconsider whether the features of NOS currently included in the school science curriculum are fully reflective of the practice of science in the 21st century. In this paper, we also report on how we made use of extracts from the news reports and documentaries on SARS, together with episodes from the scientists’ interviews, to develop a multimedia instructional package for explicitly teaching the prominent features of NOS and scientific inquiry identified in the SARS research.

What influences how people taste the food they eat? This paper investigates how sensual engagements with food, particularly tasting it, become contextualized in everyday life practices and social science theories. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Swiss hospital, the Kantonsspital Graubünden, the paper analyzes what doctors, patients and nurses bring up as shaping sensual engagements with food. It also investigates how sensual engagements with food become contextualized in three social scientific studies on “taste,” “eating” and “tasting.” The paper argues that the three different contexts developed in these studies, namely “society,” “food culture” and “in practice,” do not help to make sense of what was observed and was brought up by the people working and living in the hospital as shaping sensual engagements with food: what happens before, after and around eating. The paper therefore adds “mundane goings-on” as a fourth context and concludes that contexualizing tasting allows the addressing of social issues. It recommends further investigation of the relation between contexts.

IT & informatics in translational research: a case study

Abilities and competencies required, particularly by small firms, to identify and acquire new technology

Smooth Effects: The Erasure of Labour and Production of Police as Experts through Augmented Objects

The adjective “translational” stems from Ancient Latin “translatio” (transfero, carry over). Translational research is the branch of scientific research aimed at transferring discoveries obtained in basic research investigations to the clinical context. Accordingly, in the field of biomedical sciences the concept of translational research relates to the transfer of scientific knowledge into practical clinical applications in order to improve the management and treatment of human diseases. Medicine in general is particularly fascinated by the translational concept, probably for its peculiar applied scopes, and cardiology is not an exception. In this regard, the International Society for Cardiovascular Translational Research (http://www.isctr.org/) was founded in 2007 with the objective to coordinate and guide basic and clinical researchers, regulatory authorities, and the medical industry to improve the process of transferring new scientific evidence into clinical applications, promote translational research and divulgate new scientific results to the scientific community, and develop guidelines for conducting translational research studies. In addition, the ISCTR and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) collaborative efforts began in 2010 involving education on translational science pathways. The reason behind the interest for translation research in the cardiovascular field is obvious. Although huge advances in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases have been made during the last decades, the morbidity and mortality associated with heart diseases are still too high [1]. In particular, the incidence of heart failure continues to increase with a progressively higher overload for national health systems and health care providers involved in the management of this chronic and highly disabling disease. For all these reasons, it is crucial to develop new therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of cardiac diseases, with a particular focus on heart failure. However, the only way to be successful in this difficult task is to implement the efforts devoted to translational research. One important goal of cardiovascular translational research is the discovery of new biomarkers that could be useful for the diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and therapeutic management of specific cardiac diseases [2]. This can be achieved by testing whether factors, which were previously found to be associated with specific cardiovascular disease models in experimental studies, are indeed useful for the clinical management of patients affected by these illnesses. These biomarkers could be circulating humoral factors or specific cellular subtypes, or preclinical markers of organ damage. For example, it is now well established that a reduction of flow-mediated artery dilation in human subjects is a preclinical sign of endothelial dysfunction and an independent predictor of adverse cardiovascular events [3]. Another important interest of translational research is the elucidation of the genetic basis of cardiovascular diseases. In fact, the clarification of the genetic predisposition to cardiovascular illnesses can help to identify those subjects who need a different clinical management. Genome-wide association studies are continuously providing new insights into the gene variants associated with cardiovascular sicknesses [4]. However, case-cohort studies or longitudinal investigations are also brilliantly identifying new polymorphisms linked to an increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases or to a worse prognosis. For example, recent studies demonstrated that T2238C atrial natriuretic peptide gene variant is independently associated with an increased incidence of adverse cardiovascular events [5]. A fundamental field in cardiovascular research is also represented by the study of cardioprotection [6]. In fact, the discovery of new therapies reducing the amount of myocardial death during an acute myocardial infarction would help to significantly reduce the incidence of subsequent cardiac dysfunction and heart failure. This would be possible only if the mechanisms regulating cardiomyocyte survival and death during myocardial ischemia are elucidated so that appropriate therapeutic targets can be identified. Unfortunately, in the last decades only few of the therapeutic interventions effective in the reduction of myocardial infarction and cardiac remodeling in animal models of ischemia, ischemia/reperfusion, and chronic myocardial infarction resulted to be effective also in patients experiencing a real heart attack. This may be due to the fact that the animal models of myocardial ischemia and infarction currently employed in basic experimental studies do not accurately mimic the pathophysiology of a human myocardial infarction [7]. Future efforts of researchers working on cardioprotection should be devoted to the development of more relevant models of cardiac diseases. Finally, a fascinating and promising field of translational research is represented by cardiac regeneration. The possibility for physicians to repair a failing heart with stem cells or applied tissue-engineered myocardial patches still represents a new frontier for the treatment of heart failure [8]. Unfortunately, as in the field of cardioprotection, most of the attempts to effectively translate the highly promising experimental results obtained in this field into the clinical setting highlighted mixed results with benefits ranging from absent to transient or, at most, marginal [9, 10]. A part of the delay in the therapeutic advancement in the field of stem cells and cardiac regeneration is caused by the fact that little is still known about the mechanisms to increase stem cell survival after in vivo transplantation and to efficiently induce its transdifferentiation into mature cardiomyocytes. These mechanisms need to be urgently elucidated in future investigations. In addition, the standardization of the procedures for isolation, purification, manipulation, and transplantation of human stem cells used for therapeutic purposes needs to be implemented, despite the fact that the standards of safety and quality for stem cell therapeutic uses are currently defined in the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines (see Eudralex EU guidelines for Good Manufacturing Practice for Medicinal Products for Human and Veterinary Use) [11, 12]. Nonetheless, full compliance with GMP is a mandatory aspect of stem cell-tissue engineering and manufacturing. The improvement of translational research, however, cannot represent alone the solution for developing new strategies for the cure of cardiovascular diseases. Together with translational research, it would be highly important to implement also clinical and outcome research. These scientific research branches aim to further expand the current knowledge of the prevalence, incidence, impact, and management of cardiovascular abnormal conditions in selected or real-world patients. This would help to identify shortfalls in practice and to develop strategies to improve care. In particular, outcome research is planned to continuously provide new insights into the therapeutic interventions working best for specific types of patients and under specific circumstances. Given these premises, this special issue aimed at integrating expertise from different disciplines toward the same objective: a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular diseases as well as the development of new therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat cardiovascular diseases. In our opinion the result was notable. Among the accepted manuscripts, some studies developed new methods enhancing the cardiovascular transdifferentiation of stem cells or standardized the procedures for the isolation of bone marrow-derived cellular subtypes for the treatment of refractory ischemia. Other manuscripts dealt with the molecular mechanisms underlying ischemia/reperfusion damage or heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The biomarkers associated with resistant hypertension or aortic aneurism rupture were also studied. In addition, some epidemiologic studies provided new insights into the factors associated with coronary artery disease or with a worse cardiovascular outcome. Finally, the genetic basis of metabolically unhealthy obesity was also investigated. The editors really hope that the scientific contributions accepted for this special issue may contribute in some extent to the advance of the current knowledge of the pathophysiology, prognosis, and management of cardiovascular diseases. Giacomo Frati Umberto Benedetto Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai Sebastiano Sciarretta

A review of science–policy interactions in the Dutch Wadden Sea — The cockle fishery and gas exploitation controversies