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.
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As always, this blog is also a forum, discussion is appreciated.