Developed from presentations given at the Cerisy SVSI (Sciences de la vie, sciences de l’information) conference held in 2016, this book presents a broad overview of thought and research at the intersection of life sciences and information sciences. The contributors to this edited volume explore life and information on an equal footing, with each considered as crucial to the other. In the first part of the book, the relation of life and information in the functioning of genes, at both the phylogenetic and ontogenetic levels, is articulated and the common understanding of DNA as code is problematized from a range of perspectives. The second part of the book homes in on the algorithmic nature of information, questioning the fit between life and automaton and the accompanying division between individualization and invariance. Consisting of both philosophical speculation and ethological research, the explorations in this book are a timely intervention into prevailing understandings of the relation between information and life.

The potential misuse of advances in life sciences research is raising concerns about national security threats. Dual Use Research of Concern in the Life Sciences: Current Issues and Controversies examines the U.S. strategy for reducing biosecurity risks in life sciences research and considers mechanisms that would allow researchers to manage the dissemination of the results of research while mitigating the potential for harm to national security.

Debates on the human-rights implications of new and emerging technologies have been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive theoretical framework for the complex issues involved. This volume provides that framework, bringing a multidisciplinary and international perspective to the evolution of human rights in the digital and biotechnological era. It delves into the latest frontiers of technological innovation in the life sciences and information technology sectors, such as neurotechnology, robotics, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence. Leading experts from the technological, medical, and social sciences as well as law, philosophy, and business share their extensive knowledge about the transformation of the rights framework in response to technological innovation. In addition to providing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and international state-of-the art descriptive analysis, the volume also offers policy recommendations to protect and promote human rights in the context of emerging socio-technological trends.

Practicing scientists know that the quality of their livelihood is strongly connected to the quality of their writing, and critical thinking is the most necessary and valuable tool for effectively generating and communicating scientific information. Writing in the Life Sciences is an innovative, process-based text that gives beginning writers the tools to write about science skillfully by taking a critical thinking approach. Laurence Greene emphasizes "writing as thinking" as he takes beginning writers through the important stages of planning, drafting, and revising their work. Throughout, he uses focused and systematic critical reading and thinking activities to help scientific writers develop the skills to effectively communicate. Each chapter addresses a particular writing task rather than a specific type of document. The book makes clear which tasks are important for all writing projects (i.e., audience analysis, attending to instructions) and which are unique to a specific writing project (rhetorical goals for each type of document). Ideal for Scientific Writing courses and writing-intensive courses in various science departments (e.g., Biology, Environmental Studies, etc.), this innovative, process-based text goes beyond explaining what scientific writing is and gives students the tools to do it skillfully.

Agriculture to Zoology: Information Literacy in the Life Sciences sets the stage for purposefully integrating information literacy activities within the subject-specific content of the life sciences. The book is written for librarians and other professionals who teach information literacy skills, especially those in the science disciplines, and most especially the life sciences. It is also intended to be helpful to secondary school teachers, college faculty who teach life science-related subjects, library school students, and others interested in information literacy and science education. Anyone wanting to learn more about the Earth's life sciences, from citizen to scientist, will benefit as well. The book's seven chapters fill a gap with varying perspectives of literacy instruction in the life sciences and include resources identified by academic librarians as important for use in subject-specific research in higher education. Contributors are longtime specialists in the fields of the life sciences, science and information literacy, scientific and electronic communication, assessment, and more, including Arctic and Antarctic information. - Specialized focus on information literacy in the life science disciplines, rather than information literacy in general - Discussion of library instruction, featuring methods, tools, and assignments to engage students in different areas of the life sciences - Chapters on specific life science subjects highlight traditional as well as non-traditional sources

This textbook introduces a science philosophy called "information theoretic" based on Kullback-Leibler information theory. It focuses on a science philosophy based on "multiple working hypotheses" and statistical models to represent them. The text is written for people new to the information-theoretic approaches to statistical inference, whether graduate students, post-docs, or professionals. Readers are however expected to have a background in general statistical principles, regression analysis, and some exposure to likelihood methods. This is not an elementary text as it assumes reasonable competence in modeling and parameter estimation.