According to accepted wisdom and textbooks, “metabolism” is a nineteenth-century term and concept, established at the confluence of organic chemistry, cell biology, and physiology. In Microscopical Researches (1839), Schwann spoke of the “metabolic phenomena of the cells,” using for the first time the adjective metabolische, from which “metabolic” entered the English language in the 1847 translation (Bing 1971). This standard …
Category Archives: Features
Decentering Metabolism: Peripheral and Southern Diffractions
In the last few years, a renewed interest in metabolic exchange, and in ideas of a porous and permeable body, has come from disciplines like microbiomics, nutrigenomics, and epigenetics. Moreover, a number of technological changes from food manufacturing to different body/technology interfaces have brought to light conceptions of a “new metabolism” offering “a window onto profound changes to the material and conceptual constitution of …
Toxic Disavowal

In April 1998, Jeanette succumbed to terminal cancer. She was only 56. Her obituary described her as a “high-energy grandmother with short, spiky hair” and a committed “environmental activist.”[1] Jeanette died fighting for a buyout of her home on Wagner’s Point, a …
Art, the Clinic, and the Political Exercise of Thinking
From 2002-2013, the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona (MACBA) brought together professionals from the fields of psychoanalysis, art therapy, and anthropology to provide different services for a variety of groups and individuals in an effort to create new forms of socialization between the museum and the city. In the words of the former director of MACBA’s Public Programs, the intention …
Against Forgetting: Telling Stories After Zika
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Contra o Esquecimento: Contando Histórias após o Zika
Dois anos atrás, em um aeroporto, enquanto esperava uma conexão, recebi uma mensagem de WhatsApp de uma mulher no Brasil que conheci através da minha pesquisa de campo e trabalho voluntário em Salvador, capital do estado da Bahia. Ela era uma das mães associadas a uma ONG …
Web Roundup: Measles, Vaccinations and Epidemics
This month has been filled with news stories about the growing problem of measles outbreaks in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S. this has been a growing concern over measles in airports, potentially impacting travelers. However this is just a smaller part of a worldwide trend. The WHO estimates that over 140,000 people have died from …