Issue |
Nat. Sci. Soc.
Volume 29, Number 3, Juillet/Septembre 2021
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 262 - 273 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/nss/2021063 | |
Published online | 03 December 2021 |
Dans l’ombre du génie génétique : le génie métabolique
Metabolic engineering. In the shadow of genetic engineering
Sociologie des sciences et des techniques, IFRIS, UMR Cermès 3,
Champs-sur-Marne, France
* Auteur correspondant : raimbault.benjamin6@gmail.com
Reçu :
7
Janvier
2020
Accepté :
1
Avril
2021
Cet article se propose d’interroger la réduction du processus de molécularisation du vivant à sa dimension informationnelle à partir des années 1970-1980 en réintégrant une ontologie chimique du vivant qui se caractérise par la centralité des questions de production et une grande proximité avec l’industrie. La mise en visibilité et la caractérisation d’une molécularisation chimique du vivant sont enquêtées à partir de la naissance et la stabilisation d’un domaine scientifique peu connu : l’ingénierie métabolique. Pour cela, nous nous appuyons sur un travail associant analyse scientométrique d’un corpus de 6 288 articles scientifiques, traitement d’archives d’un centre de recherche ainsi qu’une série d’entretiens semi-directifs avec plusieurs figures fondatrices de l’ingénierie métabolique.
Abstract
This article aims to question the reducing of the process of molecularization of life to its informational dimension from the 1970s and 1980s through reintegration of a chemical ontology of life. The characteristic feature of this chemical ontology is the centrality of production issues and a high proximity with industry. Our paper investigates the visibility and characterization of chemical molecularization of life from the birth and stabilization of a little-known scientific field, namely metabolic engineering. To this end our work combined a scientometric analysis of a corpus of 6,288 scientific papers, archives from a research center and a series of semi-structured interviews with several key figures in metabolic engineering. Through the study of this scientific field, we describe a chemical molecularization of life process, a) based on classical entities in biochemistry (enzymes, metabolic pathways), b) supported by innovation policies inspired from chemical engineering and c) involving scientists highly committed with industry, as in chemical engineering. Chemical molecularization has expanded in the shadow of informational molecularization, which is not ignored, but ‘integrated’ as resources for maintaining the competitiveness of existing industries, innovation policies and scientific practices.
Mots clés : technologies / recherche / molécularisation du vivant / biochimie / relations sciences-industrie
Key words: technologies / research / molecularization of life / biochemistry / relations between science and industry
© B. Raimbault, Hosted by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, except for commercial purposes, provided the original work is properly cited.
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