Understanding the ‘spaceflight treatment’ in plant space biology
Experimental practices, metadata workflows, and data re-analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7169062 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paola Castaño (0000-0002-0093-1206, University of Exeter, corresponding author), Sabina Leonelli (0000-0002-7815-6609, Technical University of Munich) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 114 |
| Pages | 102073 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-3681 • E-ISSN: 1879-2510 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.shpsa.2025.102073 |
| PMID | 41232305 |
| OpenAlex | W4416239376 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
The boundaries between targeted interventions, background factors, and confounders are concerns in all biological experimentation. Plant space biology takes these concerns to new territories not just geographically but also epistemically because of the operational constraints of collecting data in the multi-stressor spaceflight environment. In consequence, a central challenge in this field is the disentanglement of the various factors involved in the experiments and their tracing to biological effects on the plants. This paper characterizes the unique challenges of fundamental plant biology experiments and examines how secondary data analysis relying on metadata curation is providing novel ways to interpret, compare, and potentially integrate results obtained in these experiments. We propose an understanding of metadata workflows in comparative analyses of complex datasets as a form of post hoc experimental control that makes data tractable for interpretation in three ways: by providing a picture of the relevant intervening factors in experiments, refining the realm of comparison by keeping some conditions constant as background and others targets of analysis, and distinguishing between dependent and independent variables. More broadly, we maintain that this work can be regarded as an extension of experimental practice as it restructures the empirical resources on which researchers build analyses of past experiments and can contribute to the design of future ones. • Plant space biology experiments involve varied designs, operational limits, and partially uncertain environmental conditions. • The conditions of spaceflight differ from the administration of an experimental treatment in a controlled laboratory setting. • Different modes of control in plant space experiments address the challenge of linking factors to biological effects. • Metadata workflows in secondary data analysis also address that challenge can play the same epistemic function as controls. • Data re-analysis extends experiments enabling new interpretations and informing future experimental designs
Cyberinfrastructure · Field (mathematics) · Interpretation (philosophy) · Metadata · Realm · Relation (database) · Space (punctuation) · Workflow · Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology · Remote Sensing in Agriculture · Species Distribution and Climate Change
In pursuit of a science of agriculture
Metadata accounts
Approaches in Post‐Experimental Science. The Case of Precision Medicine
Big Data Biology
The Structure and Function of Experimental Control in the Life Sciences
Evidence Enriched
A New Account of Replication in the Experimental Life Sciences
Rethinking Ethnography for Philosophy of Science
From Value to Valuation
Experimental Artefacts
| Highly cited | No |
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