Contrary to claims that view the life sciences as having similar effects everywhere, I draw on research in the Biopolis of Singapore to examine how an assemblage of global and situated elements engenders conditions that crystallize scientific inquiries and orient social effects in the research milieu. I trace some of the intricate relationships among many things—researchers, governments, capital, populations, mutations, maladies, and emotions in the Asian tropics—that help crystallize an emerging biomedical frontier.
