@book{jones_2022, title={Ancient DNA}, ISBN={9780300240122 9780300262377}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300240122.001.0001}, DOI={10.12987/yale/9780300240122.001.0001}, abstractNote={Ancient DNA research—the recovery of genetic material from long-dead organisms—is a discipline that developed from science fiction into a reality between the 1980s and today. Drawing on scientific, historical, and archival material, as well as original interviews with more than fifty researchers worldwide, the book explores the field's formation and explains its relationship with the media by examining its close connection to de-extinction, the science and technology of resurrecting extinct species. The book reveals how the search for DNA from fossils flourished under the influence of intense press and public interest, particularly as this new line of research coincided with the book and movie Jurassic Park. This is the first account to trace the historical and sociological interplay between science and celebrity in the rise of this new research field. In the process, the book argues that ancient DNA research is more than a public-facing science: it is a celebrity science.}, publisher={Yale University Press}, author={Jones, Elizabeth D.}, year={2022}, month={Mar} }
 @article{jones_boesl_2021, title={Ancient human DNA: A history of hype (then and now)}, volume={21}, ISSN={["1741-2951"]}, DOI={10.1177/1469605321990115}, abstractNote={In this article on the history of ancient DNA research, we argue that the innovation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) of the early 2000s has ushered in a second hype cycle much like the first hype cycle the field experienced in the 1990s with the advent of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). While the first hype cycle centered around the search for the oldest DNA, the field’s current optimism today promotes the rhetoric of revolution surrounding the study of ancient human gnomes. This is evidenced from written sources and personal interviews with researchers who feel the vast amount of data, the conclusions being made from this data, and the ever-increasing celebrity status of the field are perhaps moving too fast for their own good. Here, we use the concept of contamination, in both a literal and figurative understanding of the term, to explore the field’s continuities and disparities. We also argue that a number of additional, figurative interpretations of “contamination” are useful for navigating the current debate between geneticists and archaeologists regarding the origin, evolution, and migration of ancient humans across space and time. Our historical outlook on aDNA’s disciplinary development, we suggest, is necessary to accurately appreciate the state of the field, how it came to be, and where it might go in the future.}, number={2}, journal={JOURNAL OF SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY}, author={Jones, Elizabeth D. and Boesl, Elsbeth}, year={2021}, month={Jun}, pages={236–255} }
 @article{jones_2020, title={Assumptions of authority: the story of Sue the T-rex and controversy over access to fossils}, volume={42}, ISSN={["1742-6316"]}, DOI={10.1007/s40656-019-0288-4}, abstractNote={AbstractAlthough the buying, selling, and trading of fossils has been a principle part of paleontological practice over the centuries, the commercial collection of fossils today has re-emerged into a pervasive and lucrative industry. In the United States, the number of commercial companies driving the legal, and sometimes illegal, selling of fossils is estimated to have doubled since the 1980s, and worries from academic paleontologists over this issue has increased accordingly. Indeed, some view the commercialization of fossils as one of the greatest threats to paleontology today. In this article, I address the story of “Sue”—the largest, most complete, and most expensive Tyrannosaurus rex ever excavated—whose discovery incited a series of high-profile legal battles throughout the 1990s over the question of “Who owns Sue?” Over the course of a decade, various stakeholders from academic paleontologists and fossil dealers to Native Americans, private citizens, and government officials all laid claim to Sue. In exploring this case, I argue that assumptions of authority are responsible for initiating and sustaining debates over fossil access. Here, assumptions of authority are understood as assumptions of ownership, or expertise, or in some cases both. Viewing the story from this perspective illuminates the significance of fossils as boundary objects. It also highlights the process of boundary-work by which individuals and groups constructed or deconstructed borders around Sue (specifically) and fossil access (more generally) to establish their own authority. I draw on science studies scholarship as well as literature in the professionalization, commercialization, and valuation of science to examine how assumptions of authority facilitated one of the most divisive episodes in recent paleontological history and the broader debate on the commercial collection of vertebrate fossil material in the United Sates.}, number={1}, journal={HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES}, author={Jones, Elizabeth D.}, year={2020}, month={Mar} }