Download STS 2411 - Lecture 15

SSSTS 2411 – Lecture 15 - Case Studies – The Origins of Oil and Gas and the Role of
Cholesterol and Fat in Heart Disease
- We have focused on theory for the first half of the course, we now get to some case studies
to apply those theories
The Origins of Oil and Gas
- Theories on origins of oil: biogenesis, oil and gas are remnants of ancient animal and plant
matter, abiogenesis, where hydrocarbons (in oil and gas) were primordial
- Biogenesis dominant in 1970’s when abiogenesis again suggested by Thomas Gold
- “A world with an abiogenic energy supply is a profoundly different world. Energyconsuming countries suddenly escape the grasp of OPEC. Hydrocarbons become the Earth’s
‘built-in’ energy source, which ought to be harvested rather than stockpiled.”
- Oil companies drilled deeper, chemistry of the deep earth
- Geologists - greed and market profits motivate drilling, most likely successful
- This is a social explanation (greed) for the discovery of truth (theory that leads to more oil)
Thomas Gold and Abiogenic Oil and Gas
- Thomas Gold “maverick” scientist, ground breaking work in different fields (biology,
astronomy), mistake on continental drift
- Gold’s successes in other areas don’t matter to geologists, failures don’t matter to his status
as “genius”, credibility or status does not transfer from one controversy to another
- Gold rumoured to have investments in speculative abiogenic gas companies, objectivity
- Gold: geologists in bed with oil companies, didn’t want to admit mistake
- Gold’s opponents questioned expertise, some geologists refused to comment on abiogenic
theory, claiming they weren’t qualified
- Gold: outsider perspective, ability to see new things, Kuhn
- Cosmochemistry - earth was formed from a cold, not molten, solid
Interpretive Flexibility
- geological data: spans millions of years, the whole planet in scope, geological theory indirect evidence, speculative, “interpretive flexibility” (many different theories can be
created to explain the same data)
- Gold’s: abiogenic origins of oil:
o hydrocarbons exist on planets without life
o vastly varying surface geologies can have oil, suggesting the source is below these
surface features
o hydrocarbons are “vertically stacked”, with gas below oil below coal, this can be
explained by a deeper source of all three
o oil producing regions are often near earthquake belts, suggesting that earthquakes
could have been triggered by oil and gas moving up
o Oil and gas areas associated with volcanoes, another sign of unstable geology
o the emergence of diamonds at the surface can be accounted for by the upwards
migration of hydrocarbons
o Some deep lakes have methane sources underneath
o microorganisms live in deep oil wells
o metals are transferred to oil when it moves up through the ground
- Microorganisms predate surface life, possible extraterrestrial in origin (asteroid collision)
- Explanation for organic molecules in gas: subterranean biosphere of microorganisms living
off petroleum
-
Gold enlisted microbiologists, microorganisms, cooperation and challenge
Microbiologists: different background assumptions, communication between microbiologists
and geologists difficult
A Crucial Experiment
- can“crucial experiment” decide between competing views?
- Siljan ring, Swedish meteor impact crater made entirely of granite, no sediments, no decayed
organic matter, any oil found there would have to be abiogenic
- More than 100 liters of oil found, argued that oil was due to contamination from the oil used
to lubricate the drill bit
- Analysed oil, not exactly like diesel oil used to lubricate drill bits or like crude oil,microbes
in the earth had altered it
- Geologists treated oil from the well as contamination until the abiogenic theory was proven,
but the oil was supposed to prove the abiogenic theory, Experimenter’s regress
- similar arguments for methane: contamination
- Drilling mud used to cool the bits allows data to be gathered, but it at the same time
contaminates the data
- Gold switched to water based mud for the drill bit, methane and oil found, opponents
claimed that the hydrocarbons had migrated down from a layer of soil on the surface
- Gold: microorganisms in the oil evidence of abiogenic oil from below, critics took it as
evidence of contamination from above
Science, Technology and Economics
- The Siljan Ring wells served three purposes:
o Scientific: contributed to our understanding of the origins of oil
o Technological: helped to prove viability of deep drilling technology
o Economic: helped demonstrate the profitability of deep drilling
- Gold enlisted Swedish government, drilling expensive, “translated” his interests from finding
a small amount of abiogenic oil (for scientific purposes) to finding commercially viable
amounts
- Oil wells sites of economic interest intertwined with scientific interest, geochemists,
geophysicists, hydrologists and microbiologists, scientific instruments and wells
- Economic concerns changed the scientific standards of proof: Gold’s opponents argued there
may be a small amount of abiogenic oil, but that only commercial quantities would prove
theory
Theory Versus Practice
- Oil prospecting scientifically informed, uses informal rules (e.g. trendology, following
geological formations like mountains and fault lines from oil reserve to oil reserve)
- Many large finds happened in areas that science suggested would be “dry”, like Saudi Arabia
- Gold, informal methods must be capturing some deeper structure of oil supply that
theoretical accounts miss
- Gold’s admiration for wildcat drillers, his image as a maverick scientist, not the Mertonian
disinterested scientist
- What Gold discovered is that to find abiogenic oil required:
o Enlisting peripheral disciplines
o Establishing facts
o Enlisting government funding
o Drilling expensive deep wells
-
Discovery of abiogenic oil would alter our oil reserve estimates and lead to much deeper
drilling
Cholesterol, Fat and Heart Disease
- 1980’s scientists completed decade long trial designed to test whether or not fat and
cholesterol had an impact on heart disease
- High-risk subjects used, increase odds of heart attacks
- To get the lowest cholesterol possible study augmented diet with a cholesterol lowering drug
- Less heart disease amongst the men who took the cholesterol lowering drug, difference
between outcomes for the control group and the intervention group small
- Claim: study supported importance of dietary changes, not directly
- Public education on cholesterol and heart disease, but this anti-cholesterol campaign has led
to,
o “… a massive medical surveillance and intervention effort, aimed mostly at people
who are not sick, and based on a body of scientific knowledge which is highly
contentious.”
Theoretical Approaches
- Actor Network Theory and Symbolic Interactionism, neither of which favors macrosocial
explanation
- ANT - scientists “impose their versions of the scientific truth on others” by “translating their
interests”, this involves enlisting allies and constructing networks strong enough to suppress
dissent
- Symbolic Interactionism: shared negotiation of meaning, long tradition of looking at labor
groups, view science as a profession and focuses on practice and craft and tacit knowledge
components of science
- SI uses the concept of “social worlds”, these are,
o “… loosely or rigidly structured units in which people share resources and
information. They are characterized by a commitment to common assumptions about
what is important, and what should be done. People typically participate in several
social worlds… participation can be variable.. often several worlds form an arena of
common interest around a particular issue, such as solving the problems of cancer or
heart disease”
- Social worlds not fixed, change over time in composition, include interests, knowledge and a
wide range of social actors, not just scientists
- Social worlds seek to maintain legitimacy for their views, enlist science, claiming
competitors are non-scientific
- SI: social problems are constructed, and heart disease was constructed as a public health
issue from an obscure concern, advertisement, health authorities
The Cholesterol Hypothesis
- Animal experiments, human trials, links between cholesterol and heart disesase, all early
results were contested
- Clear cut off point or connection between cholesterol and heart disease not found
- Until the 1950s the uncertainty of cholesterol heart disease risks kept most scientists from
advocating dietary changes as scientific
- Early studies supported relationship between fat, cholesterol and heart disease, cited by
advocates, dietary changes
-
Critics: other causes ignored, difficult populations (those with low heart disease and high fat
consumption) left out
Popular press and certain advocates pushed connections in public, popular wisdom
Studies supported link between heart disease and cholesterol levels, not between dietary
changes and reduction of heart disease incidence
Social worlds of science not homogeneous, dissent over claims about cholesterol and heart
disease, many scientists not convinced
Social Worlds Outside Science
- Late 1950s, food industry became involved, claim certain kinds of fats lowered cholesterol,
promoted products, advertised in the medical literature
- Food industry companies that represented foods high in cholesterol and fats stressed the
limits in the science, those low in cholesterol and fats stressed the connections
- All attempts at “crucial experiments” to prove hypothesis were contested (by some scientists
and food industry reps from products that contained high cholesterol and saturated fats),
while other social worlds (medical organizations, Western governments and food industry
and consumer groups) supported the claim
- Groups hostile to the hypothesis lobbied government to support their industries, permission
to market versions of their foods with reduced saturated fat and cholesterol levels, attacked
scientific status of the hypothesis
- Diet changes popular public health initiative, lowering health care costs, governments
supported them
Social Worlds and Cholesterol
- Different social worlds in the cholesterol controversy, worked together to promote it
(scientists, journalists, politicians, lobbyists, food industry reps, policy makers), worked
against each other to criticize it
- General public embraced the cholesterol hypothesis, doctors fearing their authority was
being compromised challenged the hypothesis
- By the 1970’s the cholesterol hypothesis was backed up by the medical establishment,
transition into “factual” status
- Lack of a ‘conclusive proof” was irrelevant as general claim of a connection had survived for
a long time in the mainstream of science
Actor Network Theory, SI and Social Causation
- ANT : non-human actants can contribute to the closure of debates, in this case no definitive
evidence to close the debates
- Macrosocial factors such as the health reform movement, advertising, the food industry,
social movements aligned against the food industry contributed to knowledge about diet and
heart disease
- “boundary objects”, objects that share an identity between social worlds, cluster of claims
around cholesterol and diet one such boundary object
- SI analysis, power relationships, imposition of their interpretation of facts on others