Products of the Haber–Bosch process, necessary for the production of the fertilizer we rely on in contemporary agriculture, are present in every protein and every strand of DNA in our bodies. In the words of historian of science Thomas Hager ‘Half of the nitrogen in your blood, your skin and hair, your proteins and DNA, is synthetic.’ Thinkers of the anthropocene complicate the distinctions between human being and ‘Nature’. We are our natural condition and the transformations brought forth by centuries of industrial practices, which cannot be undone must become the new principles of our understanding of ourselves and our world. Pharmaceuticals, microplastics and other products of the globalized industrial production chain have infiltrated our bodies and maybe even our ideas, informed by instruments produced by the same processes. Stacy Alaimo examines this new hybrid experience in all its complexity, especially with regard to medicine and new notions of health, ability and disability.
Chapter we read from Bodily Natures