Xenotransplantation (XTP; animal-to-human transplantation) is a controversial technology of contemporary scientific, medical, ethical and social debate in Australia and internationally. The complexities of XTP encompass immunology, immunosuppression, physiology, technology (genetic engineering and cloning), microbiology, and animal/human relations. As a result of these controversies, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia, formed the Xenotransplantation Working Party (XWP) in 2001. The XWP was designed to advise the NHMRC on XTP, if and how it should proceed in Australia, and to provide draft regulatory guidelines. During the period 2001-2004, the XWP produced three publicly available documents one of which, ‘Animal-to-Human Transplantation Research: A Guide for the Community’ (2003), was specifically designed to introduce the general public to the major issues and background of XTP. This thesis examines XTP in Australia as guided and influenced by this community document. Explicitly, drawing upon actor (actant)- network theory, I will reveal the Australian XTP network and explore, describe and explain XTP problematisations and network negotiations by the enrolled actants on two key concepts and obligatory passage points - animals and risk. These actants include those providing regulatory advice (members of the XWP and the associated Animal Issues Subcommittee), those developing and/or critiquing XTP (official science and scientists), and those targeted by the technology (people on dialysis, with Type-1 diabetes, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, pre-or post-human-tohuman transplantation, and their partner/spouse). The stories are gathered through focus groups, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. They reveal ambiguous and sometimes contradictory stories about animals and risk, which influence and impact the problematisations of XTP and its networks. Therefore, XTP mobilises tension; facilitating both support and apprehension of the XTP network and its construction by both the sciences and the publics.

This dissertation utilizes three independent research projects to examine one overarching theoretical question: How do people understand, contest, negotiate, and / or rationalize the ways in which bodies-human, animal, and microbial - are socially constructed as commensurate, or not, in science? Using three unique projects focusing on either the human, animal, or microbial body, this dissertation broadly explores the social processes inherent in the construction of "bodies" for scientific research. This dissertation explores the complexity of how bodies are used in science, how this is understood by individuals, and the impacts this has not only on science but also the intertwined lives of animals, humans, and their microbes. Each paper explores a key set of questions drawing from a shared set of theoretical lenses, including local biology and biolooping, commensuration, the biovalue of bodies, and the microbiome. Specifically this dissertation presentation will explore these questions: 1) How are Japanese bodies socially constructed as different from other bodies in ethnobridging clinical trials?; 2) How is local biology employed as a technique of commensuration at the site of the Japanese body, by the government, and the global pharmaceutical industry and what does this mean for scientific studies utilizing it in this way?; 3) How do scientists construct nonhuman primates as appropriate proxies for humans in biomedical research experiments?; 4) How do individuals understand themselves and their health in relation to pet dogs and microbes?; and 5) How do humans understand the ways in which humans, animals, and microbes co-create their biological and social worlds? This dissertation shows how the construction of the body as an object of scientific study is negotiated, contested, and taken up in daily life, and how this is flexible, malleable, and not at all uniform. It explores the ways in which biomedical knowledge of the body is socially constructed and how it co-creates the animal, microbial, environmental, and cultural worlds in which it circulates. Through doing so and using techniques and lenses grounded in biosocial anthropology, this dissertation adds to the literature on the body in both medical and multispecies anthropology.

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This thesis focuses on the evolution and framing of xenotransplantation (XTP) policy debate in New Zealand from 1998 to 2011. Its aim is providing a better understanding of both the science-society interface and the importance of issue framing policy debate in understanding of the scientific debate in New Zealand and its relationship with the public. A qualitative study, this thesis draws upon a variety of public science commentary and debate and poses the research question: How did xenotransplantation’s introduction and explanation to the New Zealand public inform its current status as a Restricted Procedure under New Zealand law; and what ethical implications arise from this public policy debate for public participation in bio-medical research in New Zealand?

Implicit prejudice, and in particular, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), are paradigmatic examples of psychological concepts and research methods that have recently enjoyed great publicity and accessibility. However, little is known about the possible reflexive consequences of this popularization for the public understanding of prejudice, and by implication, for the formulation of social policy aimed at the reduction of prejudice and racism. Specifically, how does the public interpret and contextualize the claims of the IAT and implicit prejudice? With what social and political preoccupations does this operationalization of implicit prejudice resonate? Furthermore, how do members of the public experience and interpret the IAT as both a scientific instrument and as a bearer of psychological truth? In answer to these questions, this dissertation comprises a report of two empirical studies of public encounters with the IAT and the concepts of implicit prejudice. The first of these focused on popular responses to IAT research in the New York Times. Employing a discourse analytic approach to reader comments, it identified the social and psychological concerns against which the public makes sense of the IAT. In responding to the IAT, readers drew on skeptical and confessional discourses to position themselves reflexively in relation to its claims. I argue that these discourses constitute a space within which strong injunctions to self-scrutiny, impartiality and objectivity are established as moral-psychological ideals. Building on these findings, the second study examined the IAT as a discursive practice through a focus on the lived experience of taking the test. Recruited participants took the IAT, and were subsequently interviewed to elicit moment-by-moment accounts of this process. Hermeneutic-phenomenological analysis of these accounts revealed thematic concerns that both resonated with and augmented those in the analysis of public discourse. In particular, the IAT was experienced as a vivid demonstration of the operationalization of "implicit bias". I argue that the test embodies and communicates this paradigm to test-takers, and therefore functions as a psychological pedagogical tool. The dissertation closes by discussing the implications of these analyses for public understandings of, and responses to, prejudice.

Implicit prejudice, and in particular, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), are paradigmatic examples of psychological concepts and research methods that have recently enjoyed great publicity and accessibility. However, little is known about the possible reflexive consequences of this popularization for the public understanding of prejudice, and by implication, for the formulation of social policy aimed at the reduction of prejudice and racism. Specifically, how does the public interpret and contextualize the claims of the IAT and implicit prejudice? With what social and political preoccupations does this operationalization of implicit prejudice resonate? Furthermore, how do members of the public experience and interpret the IAT as both a scientific instrument and as a bearer of psychological truth? In answer to these questions, this dissertation comprises a report of two empirical studies of public encounters with the IAT and the concepts of implicit prejudice. The first of these focused on popular responses to IAT research in the New York Times. Employing a discourse analytic approach to reader comments, it identified the social and psychological concerns against which the public makes sense of the IAT. In responding to the IAT, readers drew on skeptical and confessional discourses to position themselves reflexively in relation to its claims. I argue that these discourses constitute a space within which strong injunctions to self-scrutiny, impartiality and objectivity are established as moral-psychological ideals. Building on these findings, the second study examined the IAT as a discursive practice through a focus on the lived experience of taking the test. Recruited participants took the IAT, and were subsequently interviewed to elicit moment-by-moment accounts of this process. Hermeneutic-phenomenological analysis of these accounts revealed thematic concerns that both resonated with and augmented those in the analysis of public discourse. In particular, the IAT was experienced as a vivid demonstration of the operationalization of "implicit bias". I argue that the test embodies and communicates this paradigm to test-takers, and therefore functions as a psychological pedagogical tool. The dissertation closes by discussing the implications of these analyses for public understandings of, and responses to, prejudice.

A Ritalina, nome comercial do metilfenidato, tem sido cada vez mais produzida e consumida no Brasil. Somente entre 2002 e 2006, produção brasileira de metilfenidato, cresceu 465%. Sua vinculação ao diagnóstico de TDAH tem sido fator predominante de justificativa para tal crescimento. Entretanto, os discursos que circulam em torno do tema e legitimam seu uso também contribuem para o avanço nas vendas. Estes discursos não estão despojados de atravessamentos sociais e são o objeto de estudo desta pesquisa. Este trabalho tem por objetivo fazer uma análise das publicações brasileiras sobre os usos da Ritalina, de 1998, ano em que o medicamento foi autorizado no Brasil, até 2008. Para tanto, realizamos uma busca em todos os periódicos de psiquiatria brasileiros indexados na base Scielo, assim como nos jornais e revistas direcionados para o público em geral com maior tiragem. Em nossa análise, discutimos quais pontos são priorizados e quais são omitidos nos discursos sobre o metilfenidato no Brasil, e quais são seus possíveis efeitos na prática clínica com o paciente. Além disso, as diferenças nas prioridades de informações encontradas nos dois tipos de publicação, leiga e científica, também são discutidas neste trabalho. / The Ritalin, a commercial name for methylphenidate, has been more and more produced and consumed in Brazil. Only between 2002 and 2006, the Brazilian production of methylphenidate raised 465 per cent. Its bound to diagnosis of ADHD has been the main factor in order to justify such growth. However, the speeches which circulate around the subject and legitimize its use, also contribute for the sales advance. Those speeches are not freed of social points and they are the object of this research. This work intends to do an analysis of the Brazilian publications about Ritalin uses from 1998, when the medicine was authorized in Brazil, until 2008. For this purpose we made a search in all Brazilian psychiatric periodicals included in the site Scielo, as well as in the newspapers and magazines of greater circulation addressed for the public in general. In our analysis we have discussed which points are priorized and which ones are omitted at the speeches about methylphenidate in Brazil, and what are its possible effects at clinical practice with the patient. Furthermore, the differences in the priorities of information found at both kind of publication, lay and scientifical, are also discussed in this work.

A Ritalina, nome comercial do metilfenidato, tem sido cada vez mais produzida e consumida no Brasil. Somente entre 2002 e 2006, produção brasileira de metilfenidato, cresceu 465%. Sua vinculação ao diagnóstico de TDAH tem sido fator predominante de justificativa para tal crescimento. Entretanto, os discursos que circulam em torno do tema e legitimam seu uso também contribuem para o avanço nas vendas. Estes discursos não estão despojados de atravessamentos sociais e são o objeto de estudo desta pesquisa. Este trabalho tem por objetivo fazer uma análise das publicações brasileiras sobre os usos da Ritalina, de 1998, ano em que o medicamento foi autorizado no Brasil, até 2008. Para tanto, realizamos uma busca em todos os periódicos de psiquiatria brasileiros indexados na base Scielo, assim como nos jornais e revistas direcionados para o público em geral com maior tiragem. Em nossa análise, discutimos quais pontos são priorizados e quais são omitidos nos discursos sobre o metilfenidato no Brasil, e quais são seus possíveis efeitos na prática clínica com o paciente. Além disso, as diferenças nas prioridades de informações encontradas nos dois tipos de publicação, leiga e científica, também são discutidas neste trabalho. / The Ritalin, a commercial name for methylphenidate, has been more and more produced and consumed in Brazil. Only between 2002 and 2006, the Brazilian production of methylphenidate raised 465 per cent. Its bound to diagnosis of ADHD has been the main factor in order to justify such growth. However, the speeches which circulate around the subject and legitimize its use, also contribute for the sales advance. Those speeches are not freed of social points and they are the object of this research. This work intends to do an analysis of the Brazilian publications about Ritalin uses from 1998, when the medicine was authorized in Brazil, until 2008. For this purpose we made a search in all Brazilian psychiatric periodicals included in the site Scielo, as well as in the newspapers and magazines of greater circulation addressed for the public in general. In our analysis we have discussed which points are priorized and which ones are omitted at the speeches about methylphenidate in Brazil, and what are its possible effects at clinical practice with the patient. Furthermore, the differences in the priorities of information found at both kind of publication, lay and scientifical, are also discussed in this work.

Yes / The abstract nature of physical chemistry and spectroscopy makes the subject difficult to comprehend for many students. However, bridging arts and science has the potential to provide innovative learning methods and to facilitate the understanding of abstract concepts. Herein, we present a high-school project based on the conversion of selected infrared absorbances of well-known molecules into audible frequencies. This process offered students a unique insight into the way molecules and chemical bonds vibrate, as well as an opportunity to develop their creativity by producing musical pieces related to the molecules they synthesized. We believe that experiencing chemistry from an alternative viewpoint opens up new perspectives not only for student learning but also for the decompartmentalization of scientific and artistic disciplines. / This project was supported by the Royal Society (Partnership Grant no. PG\170122 to NPEB and NG and University Research Fellowship no. UF150295 to NPEB) and the Academy of Medical Sciences/the Wellcome Trust/the Government Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy/the British Heart Foundation springboard Award [SBF003\1170 to NPEB].

Scientists are widely regarded as high status individuals, who are smarter than the vast majority of the population. Science holds a very high status as a discipline, both within and outside of academe. This notwithstanding, popular stereotypes of scientists are often highly negative, with the image of the socially inept or even mad scientist being commonplace. This apparent contradiction is worth exploring. Additionally, we see the label scientific being used to justify pseudoscience and other results that are flatly contradicted by the bulk of scientific research (e.g., links between vaccines and autism). This is not due, as some argue, only or even primarily to a lack of understanding of science. Ultimately, there are two "sciences": science defined by the scientific methodology of the scientists, and the broader cultural use of science as a truthteller without real use of scientific methodology. This dichotomy is wrapped up in both the nature of modernity and the idea of post-modernity. This research uses a content analysis of film to examine the nature of stereotypical portrayals of scientists, and a factor analysis of NSF survey data to investigate the complex attitudes towards science and scientists.