ABSTRACT
This chapter first investigates the way in which taxonomy has developed over time and in light of the evolutionary insights of Darwin. It demonstrates how the field of process biology has emerged to emphasise the way in which life is continually changing yet represents stabilities for particular periods of time. Such an approach allows us to bring together the differing conceptions of the nature of molecular life in terms of its contingency and constant biological dynamics discussed so far. Utilising a processual approach, the constant biological dynamics and specific molecular sites targeted by medical countermeasures represent dynamic stabilities relative to particular timescales. Within this context, this chapter then analyses the workings of ten different medical countermeasures that have been stockpiled by governments and international organisations around the world. It demonstrates the way in which each one intervenes in and inhibits the constant disease-causing process of the pathogen in question by targeting and binding to a specific molecular site.
