The Transductionist

Transduction, if one simply looks it up on Wikipedia, is most simply a transfer from one source to another.  Specifically, it can be used; as it is in my line of work as a molecular biologist, to describe the transfer of a molecular signal from one source, say outside a cell, to another source, say the inside of the cell.  In physics it is the transfer of a donor electron to a recipient and in psychology it is used to describe extrapolation from a single case into the general case.  This blog will be an attempt at transduction.  I will attempt to ‘transduce’ the information that I find in the scientific and popular media into my own set of prose on specific topics regarding science, science policy, and scientific theory.   Furthermore, I wish to herein coin the term ‘Transductionist,’ to describe an individual that believes that they; like all living things, are the culmination of experience and the source of its passage.

            The transductionist, like the existentialist or transcendentalist before him, is a viewpoint on the way life operates.  Whereas, one can look up the meaning of existentialism (as discussed by Camus or Nietzsche) as referring to an individual making sense out of a meaningless world; the transductionist is born into an ordered and organized world, with rules and laws that are invariably followed.  We may not know the rules, but they are concrete and in some cases confining; and as humans we strive to understand them, manipulate them, and perhaps ultimately bend them to our will. 

            This blog will be my attempt to convey information that is both ardent and thoughtful, but potentially opinionated and controversial. As such, I implore you to use my viewpoint as a starting point and this blog as a forum. The format will be loosely based on the five paragraph essay using the journalistic upside-down pyramid in terms of content.  My voice is one among the many and yours is the refrain and rebuttal.  Thank you for joining me …  and welcome.