What Difference Does Quantity Make? On the Epistemology of Big Data in Biology

Big Data & Society
Sabina Leonelli

Abstract

Is big data science a whole new way of doing research? And what difference does data quantity make to knowledge production strategies and their outputs? I argue that the novelty of big data science does not lie in the sheer quantity of data involved, but rather in (1) the prominence and status acquired by data as commodity and recognised output, both within and outside of the scientific community; and (2) the methods, infrastructures, technologies, skills and knowledge developed to handle data. These developments generate the impression that data-intensive research is a new mode of doing science, with its own epistemology and norms. To assess this claim, one needs to consider the ways in which data are actually disseminated and used to generate knowledge. Accordingly, this paper reviews the development of sophisticated ways to disseminate, integrate and re-use data acquired on model organisms over the last three decades of work in experimental biology. I focus on online databases as prominent infrastructures set up to organise and interpret such data; and examine the wealth and diversity of expertise, resources and conceptual scaffolding that such databases draw upon. This illuminates some of the conditions under which big data...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 8, 2016·Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences·Etienne S Benson
Feb 5, 2016·British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology·David FlockhartSorell L Schwartz
Jan 30, 2015·Biodiversity Data Journal·Jeremy A MillerLyubomir Penev
Jan 7, 2017·Social Studies of Science·Brian Salter, Charlotte Salter
Sep 21, 2016·History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences·Vincent Devictor, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
Nov 7, 2015·Molecular Biology of the Cell·Harald Hutter, Donald Moerman
Aug 22, 2017·Life Sciences, Society and Policy·Brígida RisoVojin Rakic
Feb 13, 2018·Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy·M W Vegter
Jul 2, 2019·Omics : a Journal of Integrative Biology·Martina Überall, Gabriele Werner-Felmayer
Jul 11, 2019·Social Studies of Science·Katrin Amelang, Susanne Bauer
Oct 11, 2015·History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences·James W E Lowe
Jan 1, 2016·Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·Sabina Leonelli
Jun 19, 2019·BMC Medical Research Methodology·Amke CaliebeMichael Krawczak
Apr 11, 2018·Evolutionary Applications·Michael Kosoy, Roman Kosoy
Sep 4, 2020·PLoS Computational Biology·Aïda BafetaFrançois Taddei
Mar 12, 2021·Frontiers in Big Data·Dominik Balazka, Dario Rodighiero
Feb 13, 2016·Philosophy of Science·Sabina Leonelli
Feb 14, 2017··Samir PassiSteven Jackson

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