Invisibilizing politics: Accepting and legitimating ignorance in environmental sciences

Although sociologists have explored how political and economic factors influence the formation of ignorance in science and technology, we know little about how scientists comply with external controls by abandoning their prior research and leaving scientific innovations incomplete. Most research in science and technology studies (STS) on ignorance has relied on structural and historical analyses, lacking in situ studies in scientific laboratories. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article examines the habitus of ignorance as a mechanism of the social production of ignorance. Scientists have a set of dispositions that establish practical contexts enabling them to ignore particular scientific content. Leaders of the organization repeatedly legitimate the abandonment of unfinished projects, while ordinary laboratory scientists internalize the normalized view that the scientific field is inherently opportunistic and that unfunded research should be left undone. A cycle of legitimation and acceptance of ignorance by actors at distinctive positions within the organization provides a mechanism of social control of scientific knowledge. As the mechanism is habitually self-governed by the rules of the game of current scientific institutions, the result is an indirect, although deeply subjugating, invisible and consolidating form of political and economic domination of the scientific field.

Ionic Liquids for the Utilization of Lignocellulosics

Given the ever increasing world-wide demand for energy, coupled with the instability of current petroleum resources, the development of sustainable, biologically-derived energy and commodity chemical feedstock sources is critical. A great deal of interest and effort is currently being focused on the development of technologies to convert lignocellulosic material (“woody” biomass) into renewable replacements and augments for current petroleum-derived platform chemicals and fuels. These technologies must address the challenge of “biomass recalcitrance” – the natural resistance plant matter exhibits to biodegradation. Recently, a novel class of compounds, ionic liquids, has been presented as a possible solution to the challenge of biomass recalcitrance. These compounds have demonstrated the ability to dissolve either the entirety of the lignocellulosic biomass or the individual fractions selectively. While the potential for ionic liquids to serve as solvents for the chemical and biochemical processing of biomass is high, the body of scientific knowledge is still in the early stages of exploration and many challenges remain to be resolved. The purpose of this article is to provide a “state-of-the-art” review of the scientific literature and to identify trends that are developing and issues that remain.