Aslihan Sanal is a cultural anthropologist who focuses on science and medical technology. She received her PhD from MIT in 2005, and is currently working as an independent scholar. This is her first book.

Prologue. The Accurate Nature of Things xi
Introduction. What Makes the World Our Own 1
The Book 6
In the Field 7
Part One. The Desirable 15
Half a Human 15
From the Earth, Through the Quake 21
Against the Tide 26
Traveling to the West and the East 30
Within the Experiment 36
Close to Death 41
Internal Objects 44
Words of Life 46
The Biopolis 50
East of "Reason," West of "Eternal Life" 54
Regulating Human Affairs, Fears, Emotions 63
The Economy of Human Flesh and Bones 85
The Biopolis's Vocations 95
Twice Inert, Lifeless, and Life-less 108
Part Two. The Impossible 111
Spaces of Death 111
The Pool of the Dead 118
Mehmed 122
Insanity 128
Kadavra 130
Beyond the Mirror 134
Dissection and Disenchantment 140
Burial 143
Rites of Diffusion 146
Reburial 150
Suicide 153
Dying Metaphors 160
Sacrifice 165
The Possible 175
Conclusion. New Life 179
Epistemic Passages 180
Benimseme 191
Acknowledgments 197
Notes 201
Bibliography 221
Index 233