Democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas. Help sustain it with a tax-deductible donation today.
Stefan Helmreich is Elting E. Morison Professor of Anthropology at MIT. He is author of Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas (California, 2009) and Sounding the Limits of Life: Essays in the Anthropology of Biology and Beyond (Princeton, 2016). His essays have appeared in Critical Inquiry, Representations, American Anthropologist, The Wire, Cabinet, Public Culture, and BOMB.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission
We publish leading scholars, activists, and writers on the most pressing political debates of our time.
But as a small nonprofit, we rely on reader support. Will you help support bold thinking about a more just world?
That’s what sociologist Alondra Nelson says of Boston Review. Independent and nonprofit, we believe in the power of collective reasoning and imagination to create a more just world.
That’s why there are no paywalls on our website, but we can’t do it without the support of our readers. Will you make a tax-deductible contribution today?