Henk van den Belt

Henk van den Belt
Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Department of Communication, Technology and Philosophy

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109
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Publications

Publications (109)
Chapter
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In this paper, we explore the opportunities and limitations of the ideal of transparency in responsible (research and) innovation, by consulting the virtual case of ‘The Circle’, a company which appears in Dave Eggers’ recent novel The Circle. The Circle is a high-tech company that provides services like Google and Facebook. The mission of The Circ...
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Responsible Innovation (RI) is often heralded in EU policy circles as a means to achieve ethically acceptable, sustainable innovations. Yet, conceptual questions on the specific notion of ‘responsibility’ and to what extent an innovation can be ‘responsible’ are only partly addressed. In this chapter the question of responsibility for the indirect...
Chapter
As in the other parts of the book, in this part culturally entrenched boundaries and demarcations are also critically re-examined in light of the arrival of the Anthropocene as a new geological era. Here the focus is on rethinking the received distinction between humans and non-human animals. In a long series of discourses making up our cultural he...
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Since 2008, we witness the emergence of the Do-It-Yourself Biology movement, a global movement spreading the use of biotechnology beyond traditional academic and industrial institutions and into the lay public. Practitioners include a broad mix of amateurs, enthusiasts, students, and trained scientists. At this moment, the movement counts nearly 50...
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Agricultural biotechnology dates from the last two decades of the twentieth century. It involves the creation of plants and animals with new useful traits by inserting one or more genes taken from other species. New legal possibilities for patenting transgenic organisms and isolated genes have been provided to promote the development of this new te...
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Although synthetic biology (SB) conjures up a future cornucopia of new medicines and other health applications, the antimalarial drug artemisinin is still one of the few concrete illustrations to substantiate this promise. As SB’s favorite poster child, it is atypical because it exemplifies a rather unusual mixture of lavish philanthropy and ad hoc...
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The legal and moral issues that synthetic biology (SB) and its medical applications are likely to raise with regard to intellectual property (IP) and patenting are best approached through the lens of a theoretical framework highlighting the "co-construction" or "co-evolution" of patent law and technology. The current situation is characterized by a...
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Post-print available at http://edepot.wur.nl/252885 Any system for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has three main kinds of distributive effects. It will determine or influence: (a) the types of objects that will be developed and for which IPRs will be sought; (b) the differential access various people will have to these objec...
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One of the most attractive, but nevertheless highly controversial proposals to alleviate the negative effects of today’s international patent regime is the Health Impact Fund (HIF). Although the HIF has been drafted to facilitate access to medicines and boost pharmaceutical research, we have analysed the burdens for the global poor a similar propos...
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International negotiations on anthropogenic climate change are far from running smoothly. Opinions are deeply divided on what are the respective responsibilities of developed and developing countries with regard to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the alleviation of the negative effects of global warming. A major bone of contention con...
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Genomics holds out the promise of a more personalised approach to medicine and nutrition and claims to have overcome the dangers of ‘geneticisation’ by attending to the subtle interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Sometimes, this promise is also considered a reason to enhance consumer (or patient) autonomy by removing medical experts...
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In Chapter 3 of this volume, Tsjalling Swierstra distinguishes three discourses, all agreeing that obesity constitutes a pressing problem but each focusing on different causes of and solutions to this problem. Discourse I emphasizes the significance of personal behaviour, which is seen as under the individual’s control; discourse II highlights the...
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Ludwik Fleck is widely recognized as a precursor of Science and Technology Studies, but his case study on the development of the Wassermann reaction as a test for detecting syphilis has never been subjected to detailed empirical scrutiny. The fact that Fleck?s monograph is based on a limited set of documentary sources makes his work vulnerable to u...
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full text available at http://edepot.wur.nl/249712 - So-called climate-ready GM crops can be of great help in adapting to a changing climate. Climate change, caused in great part by anthropogenic greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution by the developed world, is felt much stronger in the developing world, causing...
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The term "techno science" is increasingly being used to refer to such contemporary disciplines as information and communication technology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and to biotechnology. The popularity of the term is illustrated by the fact that even a group of social scientists reporting on the changing attitudes of European public...
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The emergent new science of synthetic biology is challenging entrenched distinctions between, amongst others, life and non-life, the natural and the artificial, the evolved and the designed, and even the material and the informational. Whenever such culturally sanctioned boundaries are breached, researchers are inevitably accused of playing God or...
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Nowadays, wildlife has no chance to be conserved and maintained without the helping hand of man. Ambitious plans to adopt an offensive rather than defensive approach to conservation by creating 'new nature' led to initiatives to build ecological networks, from the local, through the regional and the national to the European level. Nature policy in...
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Welfare of animals can be defined as the kind of feelings the environmental conditions bring about in the animals. These feelings depend on the needs of the animals and their degree of satisfaction. Needs of animals, and so their welfare, are partly genetically determined. Therefore, welfare can be changed by breeding. The aim of this study was to...
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A central question in constructivist studies of science is how the analyst should deal with the material objects handled by scientific practitioners in laboratories. Representatives of ‘radical constructivism’ such as Knorr-Cetina and Latour have gone furthest in exploring the role of these ‘non-humans’ but have also maneuvered themselves in untena...
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On May 20, 1999, Nature published a brief report on an experiment performed by researchers at Cornell University that indicated that pollen from genetically modified (GM) Bt corn (Zea mays) could kill the larvae of monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). In laboratory tests, caterpillars fed milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) leaves dusted with polle...
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Due to the rise of functional foods,the distinction between foods and medicines hasbecome increasingly blurred. A new EUregulation covering health claims and otherclaims on food and drink products is on thedocks. A basic motive of legal regulation oflabeling and advertising is to inform andprotect the consumer. Promotion of informedchoice and consu...
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This textbook presents in a unified manner the fundamentals of both continuous and discrete versions of the Fourier and Laplace transforms. These transforms play an important role in the analysis of all kinds of physical phenomena. As a link between the various applications of these transforms the authors use the theory of signals and systems, as w...
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In 1905 two different microbes were proposed to fill the vacant role of etiologic agent for syphilis, one, the Cytorrhyctes luis, by John Siegel, the other, Spirochaeta pallida, by Fritz Schaudinn. After gathering and reviewing the evidence the majority of medical scientists decided in favor of Schaudinn’s candidate. In a previous issue Jean Linden...
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With the turning of wilderness areas into wildlife parks and the returning of developed areas of land to the forces of nature, intermediate hybrid realms surface in which wild and managed nature become increasingly entangled. A partitioning of environmental philosophy into ecoethics and animal welfare ethics leaves these mixed territories relativel...
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Opponents of biotechnology ofteninvoke the Precautionary Principle to advancetheir cause, whereas biotech enthusiasts preferto appeal to ``sound science.'' Publicauthorities are still groping for a usefuldefinition. A crucial issue in this debate isthe distribution of the burden of proof amongthe parties favoring and opposing certaintechnological d...
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Ingrijpen als de dieren in moeilijkheden komen of de natuur haar gang laten gaan. Ethische dilemma's, zelfredzaamheid en ethisch pluralisme
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In 1998, Greenpeace, Natuur en Milieu(Nature and Environment), Milieudefensie(Environmental Defense), and the National ConsumersUnion presented a report about the possible risks andhazards associated with pesticide residues on fruitsand vegetables. Although these organizationsexplicitly denied having unassailable evidence on theharmful effects of p...
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The theoretical and empirical scope of this study thus clarified, an outline of the chapters which follow can now be presented.In Chapter II 1 shall systematically compare Fleck's theories with the approaches adopted by contemporary constructivists. My strategy is partly to use modern forms of constructivism as a foil for extracting relevant and va...
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The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth's life-support system. They contribute to human welfare, both directly and indirectly, and therefore represent part of the total economic value of the planet. We have estimated the current economic value of 17 ecosystem s...
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Historians are invariably wiser after the event. Their approaches to the subject of this paper, the Société La Fuchsine, make no exceptions to this rule. That company was formed in December 1863 with the participation of the Crédit Lyonnais bank to exploit the patent monopoly on the synthetic dyestuff known as fuchsine, and its derivatives, of the...
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Nature has many positive experiences to offer, such as aesthetic pleasure and restoration from stress. But there is also a dark side to contact with nature. Natural environments contain many dangers, such as dangerous animals and lightning, that can strike quickly and without warning. People's reactions to these natural threats show considerable va...
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This paper ,examines the influence ,of need ,for structure on preferences for ,natural environments using the Personal Need for Structure scale (PNS; Thompson, Naccarato, & Parker, 1989). Starting from the assumption,that individuals are motivated to process information in a ,manner that matches and reinforces their needs and personality characteri...

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