Microbial Geographies at the Extremes of Life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3914205 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Juan Francisco Salazar (0000-0003-1700-8984, Western Sydney University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 398-417 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2201-1919 • E-ISSN: 2201-1919 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/22011919-4215361 |
| OpenAlex | W2795236948 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 34 |
This article explores world-making processes through which extreme frontiers of life are made habitable. Examining how notions of life are enlarged, incorporated, and appropriated in complex geopolitical contexts, the article argues that microbial worlds are becoming part of worlding processes and projects that further these frontiers. The emphasis on "microbial ontologies" is designed to draw attention to the increasing expediency of conceptualizing extreme earthly ecologies as analogues for other planetary worlds, as a way of tracing the relational trajectories of Antarctica and outer space, and to reflect on emerging modes of an extraterrestrial mode of thinking Earth. This article is informed by short-term ethnographic fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula with Chilean microbiologists engaged in the bioprospecting of extremophiles, to account for how extremophile organisms are made part of a market-driven search for bioactive components in areas highly sensitive to geopolitics at the same time as they become meaningful as proxies for extraterrestrial life. The article combines analysis, description, and fieldwork material, tracing the relational trajectories of Antarctica and outer space in very general terms and then discussing the intricacies of bioprospecting in Antarctica, where the question of who owns the microbial diversity existing outside of national territories remains ambiguous and contested
Astrobiology · Biology · Bioprospecting · Environmental ethics · Extraterrestrial life · Geography · Geopolitics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Philosophy · Planetary Science and Exploration · Polar Research and Ecology · Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life · Ecology
Moving plants and designing Earth otherwise with assisted migration
Denaturalizing computation
Extremophile Microbes in Food and Agricultural Systems
Space in Common? Property, Waste and Their Colonial Lives in the Cosmos
Astroenvironmentalism as SF
The invisible city
Mapping microbial stories
The substance of climate
Environmental Geopolitics and Outer Space
Home and Away
Futures of Life and Futures of Reason
When Nature Goes Public
Novel climates, no-analog communities, and ecological surprises
Anthropologies and Futures
Antarctica as Cultural Critique
Does bioprospecting risk moral hazard for science in the Antarctic Treaty System
Ethics and bioprospecting in Antarctica
Archaeology in Antarctica
Bioprospecting in Antarctica
The perils and promises of microbial abundance
Agential Conversations
Biosecurity
Capitalist Impact on Krill in Area 48 (Antarctica)
Political Ecology in the Extreme
Extraterrestrial Relativism
Relational Space
Extreme
Satellite Planetarity and the Ends of the Earth
Amazonia as pharmacopia
Post-Pasteurian Cultures
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,38 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |