Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology

Book Description

How computer animation technologies became vital visualization tools in the life sciences

Who would have thought that computer animation technologies developed in the second half of the twentieth century would become essential visualization tools in today’s biosciences? This book is the first to examine this phenomenon. Molecular Capture reveals how popular media consumption and biological knowledge production have converged in molecular animations—computer simulations of molecular and cellular processes that immerse viewers in the temporal unfolding of molecular worlds—to produce new regimes of seeing and knowing.

Situating the development of this technology within an evolving field of historical, epistemological, and political negotiations, Adam Nocek argues that molecular animations not only represent a key transformation in the visual knowledge practices of life scientists but also bring into sharp focus fundamental mutations in power within neoliberal capitalism. In particular, he reveals how the convergence of the visual economies of science and entertainment in molecular animations extends neoliberal modes of governance to the perceptual practices of scientific subjects. Drawing on Alfred North Whitehead’s speculative metaphysics and Michel Foucault’s genealogy of governmentality, Nocek builds a media philosophy well equipped to examine the unique coordination of media cultures in this undertheorized form of scientific media. More specifically, he demonstrates how governmentality operates across visual practices in the biosciences and the popular mediasphere to shape a molecular animation apparatus that unites scientific knowledge and entertainment culture.

Ultimately, Molecular Capture proposes that molecular animation is an achievement of governmental design. It weaves together speculative media philosophy, science and technology studies, and design theory to investigate how scientific knowledge practices are designed through media apparatuses.

中文：

书名：Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology

计算机动画技术如何成为生命科学中重要的可视化工具

谁会想到，20世纪下半叶发展起来的计算机动画技术会成为当今生物科学中必不可少的可视化工具？这本书是第一本研究这一现象的书。分子俘获它揭示了流行的媒体消费和生物知识生产如何在分子动画中融合-分子和细胞过程的计算机模拟，让观众沉浸在分子世界的时间展开中-以产生新的观看和认识制度。

亚当·诺切克将这项技术的发展置于一个不断演变的历史、认识论和政治谈判领域，他认为，分子动画不仅代表着生命科学家视觉知识实践的关键转变，而且还使新自由主义资本主义内部权力的根本突变成为人们关注的焦点。特别是，他揭示了分子动画中科学的视觉经济和娱乐的融合如何将新自由主义的管理模式扩展到科学主体的感性实践。诺切克借鉴了阿尔弗雷德·诺斯·怀特黑德的思辨形而上学和米歇尔·福柯的政府精神谱系，构建了一种媒体哲学，以检验这种未被理论化的科学媒体形式中媒体文化的独特协调。更具体地说，他展示了政府如何在生物科学和流行的媒体领域的视觉实践中运作，以塑造一个将科学知识和娱乐文化结合在一起的分子动画设备。

最终，中国分子俘获他提出，分子动画是政府设计的成果。它将思辨的媒体哲学、科学技术研究和设计理论编织在一起，调查科学知识实践是如何通过媒体设备设计的。