The first session of the L is for the Way You Look at Me Reading Group is kicked off by the anonymous biologist and philosopher Meltdown Your Books (MYB), who outlines the not-yet-articulated ‘liveliness’ of life sciences.

Science is often imagined as something apart from ‘real life’: an abstract, objective pursuit taking place in sterile labs and elite institutions, untouched by the rhythms of everyday existence. This division comforts both scientists and non-scientists alike. But science is not a sealed-off system, and it is deeply intertwined with daily life—science shapes how we live, but, more crucially, how we live shapes the kind of science we do. This reading group is an invitation to explore this reciprocal dynamic: how scientific knowledge enters our habits, homes, and bodies, and how the very concept of ‘objective’ science is already structured by social, personal, and cultural life. 

By re-embedding science into life (both the everyday and the condition of being alive), this reading group session highlights the vibrant and ongoing exchanges in the process of life. It is these exchanges which further complicate our sense of self, boundaries, intimacy, and ways of interacting and loving.