BioSocieties (2010) 5, 1. doi:10.1057/biosoc.2009.14 In the four years since our initial publication, BioSocieties has sought to develop constructive dialogue between social scientists and life scientists on key conceptual and practical issues from genomics and neuroscience to stem cells and experimental practices. As we enter our fifth year, under new publishing arrangements with Palgrave Macmillan, we are delighted to publish a special issue on drugs and addiction sustaining these efforts. As well as providing important analyses of the key social and neurobiological issues raised by ‘the problem of addiction’, these papers show that dialogue between distinct and sometimes opposing epistemological and conceptual positions is both difficult and possible. The issue was edited by Professor Howard Kushner, Nat C. Robertson Distinguished Professor of Science and Society, Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts and Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Dr Scott Vrecko, Department of Sociology & Philosophy, University of Exeter and Deanne Dunbar, Department of Behavioral Sciences & Health Education, Emory University. It is both possible and increasingly necessary for even quite basic researchers in the life sciences and biomedicine to consider, at very early stages in the selection and pursuit of their research agendas, the social, and not merely the biological life of the processes they study. As well, the potential social implications of their work, and the ways in which it is shaped by its cultural context deserve attention. Indeed, it would be naı¨ve to believe that such considerations do not enter into the very choice of research questions...