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Janella

@janellabaxter.bsky.social
1.4K followers 976 following 96 posts

I'm a U.S. settler, enrolled member @choctawnationOK, and philosopher of science at Sam Houston State University.

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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
After 15 years with my beloved, vintage motobecane, I've bought a new shiny bike with gears and disc breaks! With commuting my toddler to daycare, it was time for an upgrade. Bikes = ❤️
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Update on Effie's status: We've been home since her discharge in late June. She is growing steadily. She and her older sister seem to be flourishing despite their parents' daily (metaphorical) hair on fire. Fingers crossed things keep going in this direction.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
So thrilled that my paper on Crick's philosophy of science -- at least in the 1950s & 60s is forthcoming in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science! H/t @matthewcobb.bsky.social
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
My daughter, Euphemia, was born this April with a pretty large whole in her heart. Her delivery and subsequent NICU stay is at one of the best pediatric cardio depts in the nation (2hrs from my home). I have not been home since she was born
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PhilSci-Archive @philsci-archive.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
New on the Archive: Baxter, Janella (2026) From the Elephant to Butyric Acid Bacterium – it is [Not] all the Same! How the Genetic Code is Not Universal (with apologies to Albert Jan Kluyver). [Preprint] philsci-archive.pitt.edu/28372
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
@laurennross.bsky.social I am teaching your paper Multiple Realizability from a Causal Perspective to my philosophy of biology students this week. I'm using it to help them answer the question: why is there diversity in the life sciences? It's been a pleasure to prepare lecture. It is so clear!
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
I feel like Americans are so desperate for wholesome, mundane news that Mamdani's NYC weather briefings have become top views on Youtube this weekend.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
A long-time shero to me and many feminist scholars, Elizabeth Spelman, has passed away. She was one of several feminist philosophers who inspired me as an undergraduate. Our community has lost a tremendous scholar. www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...
legacy.com
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Mayor Mamdani visited a pre-k school with Ms. Rachel and it is the best of humanity. Check it out if you need a few moments of happiness.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
I love how my Philosophy of Biology syllabus features so many women authors! It's so lovely.
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Extinct blog @extinctblog.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
My new Gould paper is out today in Paleobiology (OA)! It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my historical work on Stephen Jay Gould’s early career, which explores the curious position of punctuated equilibria in his early vision for evolutionary paleontology www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...
extinctblog.org
Max’s New Gould paper — Extinct
My new paper in Paleobiology (OA), on some lesser known aspects of the early history of punctuated equilibria, is available to read online. It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my older work on ...
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Eran Tal @erantal.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
🚨We're hiring! A tenure track position at McGill University in the area of #bioethics and / or philosophy of science, with a special focus on the ethics of medical technologies. Please share widely. #philsky #ethics #philsci philjobs.org/job/show/30402
philjobs.org
Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy and Department of Philosophy, McGill University - PhilJobs:JFP Assistant Professor (Tenure Track), Department of Equity...
An international database of jobs for philosophers
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Following the brilliant @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social: I've been performing small acts of resistance by holding on to hope, practicing empathy, and finding levity in times of darkness. There is hope.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
#philsci at a meeting where an upper administrator is telling us there's no problem of scientific funding when there's plenty of private funding to go around...
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 17/08/2025
It's always a great day when I get to cite Jonathan Harwood's work. #philsci
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Chris Smith @chriscrsmith.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Hello bluesky community! I'm hiring a postdoc to do machine learning in population genetics. Starting to build up a lab at Indiana University Bloomington where I just started a faculty position. Apply with the below link: indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/30325
indiana.peopleadmin.com
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The department of Biology is a large, unified department with strong undergraduate degrees, nationally-ranked graduate programs, and world-class research spanning the breadth of biological questions a...
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
3 Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions in the History of Science, Technology, Medicine, and the Environment at Texas State University 🗃️ #HPS #histsci #histmed #envhist networks.h-net.org/jobs/68829/t...
networks.h-net.org
Texas State University - Cluster Hire: Three Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions in the History of Science, Technology, Medicine, and the Environment | H-Net
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
@matthewcobb.bsky.social I'm working on a paper on the frozen accident, nonstandard genetic codes, and the great man history that surrounds Crick. I have some questions about the influence work of Sonneborn (1965) and Zuckerkandl & Pauling (1965) had on Crick's 1968 paper.
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Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
The HOPOS 2026 website is up. Detailed call for papers coming soon. Keynotes by Peter R. Anstey and Heather Douglas. hopos2026.dryfta.com #philsci
hopos2026.dryfta.com
HOPOS 2026
Paper and symposium proposals for HOPOS 2026 can now be submitted through this web site. For detailed instructions, plea
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Scottie Buehler @midwifehistory.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Check out our newly released special issue, "Reproductive Objects"! Through a collection of stellar articles, it traces the material "stuff" that constitutes the uneven tapestries of power, authority, and knowledge making around human reproduction. www.press.jhu.edu/journals/bul...
press.jhu.edu
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Nemik's manifesto from Andor. There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction.
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Postdoc opportunity w/ @rachelankeny.bsky.social & philosophy group at Wageningen University on topics such as philosophy of science & technology, philosophy of biology, agricultural & food ethics, human-animal relations for 2026-27. For full consideration, application draft by 30 August #philsci
wur.nl
prof.dr. RA (Rachel) Ankeny
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Adrian Currie @adrian-currie.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
New special issue in HPLS! Rethinking the History of Microbiology, edited by Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva & Mathilde Gallay Keller. link.springer.com/collections/... #hps #philsci
link.springer.com
Rethinking the History of Microbiology
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Adrian Currie @adrian-currie.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
3 year postdoc in STS of health (“health” and “STS” construed broadly) here at Egenis! jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
jobs.exeter.ac.uk
Powered by MHR
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
#philsci arstechnica.com/health/2025/...
arstechnica.com
NIH scientists publish “Bethesda Declaration” rebuking Trump admin
The letter is modeled after the NIH director’s controversial “Great Barrington Declaration.”…
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DrDinD.bsky.social @drdind.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Williams College declines federal research funding because of the Trump administration insistence on omitting DEI language www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
U.S. college is first to decline federal science grants because of new DEI language
Williams College says NSF and NIH requirement related to discrimination “undermines” academic freedom
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
It seems like an opportune time to plug this excellent book: www.bloomsbury.com/us/philosoph...
bloomsbury.com
The Philosophy of Protest
Protest is a critical part of the contemporary political landscape. Despite the prevalence of protest as a real-world practice, most liberal political theory li…
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
The NHGRI and its historical archive of genomics research at the NIH is an invaluable asset to our public memory and ongoing research (including my own!). I send my friends at the NHGRI all my love. I stand with you.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
When nonstandard genetic codes were first discovered in mitochondrial DNA, their significance was minimized for various reasons. My favorite: "all sorts of nefarious genetics" are possible in the strange and mysterious organelle (Niels Lehman "Molecular Evolution: Please Release me, Genetic Code")
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Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science @mcps-philsci.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Only a few days left to apply for the postdoc position in the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. Deadline 9 June.
buff.ly
Call for Applications: Open PostDoc-Position
...
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
#philsci Texas, not to be outdone by Utah, has passed SB37 -- a bill that imposes significant political/administrative oversight of college curriculum and has the power to eliminate programs with a small number of majors -- i.e., my own department. www.texastribune.org/2025/05/24/t...
texastribune.org
Bill to give political appointees more oversight over Texas universities wins final passage
The latest version of the proposal eliminates language that would have required university curricula not to advocate that “any race, sex, ethnicity or religious belief is inherently superior to anothe...
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
#philsci
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Jay Odenbaugh @jayode.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
If you are interested in hearing some thoughts about the so-called dire wolves resurrected from extinction, here is an interview I did. #de-extinction #publicphilosophy
katv.com
Are Dire Wolves Back? The Science & Ethics of De-Extinction
In Jurassic Park, scientists bio-engineered dinosaurs by splicing preserved dino DNA with modern-day frog DNA.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
1969 congressional meeting to discuss funds to build a particle collider at Fermilab outside of Chicago. Senator Pastore: Is there anything connected in the hopes of...the security of the nation?
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 19/03/2025
1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world. 
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Congrats to #philsci Derek Skillings, Pat Forber, & Rory Smead on Templeton grant! "research will focus on holobionts or “superorganisms”... coral reefs or lichens... “We used to think these… amalgamations of symbioses were exception in nature. But now we are realizing...it’s probably everything”
realizing.xn--its-so0a
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Lynn Chiu @drlynnchiu.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Spread the word! The KLI & Biological Theory is hiring! kli.ac.at/content/en/t... #philbio #evobio #hps #biology
kli.ac.at
The KLI | Open Calls | Discover The KLI
The Konrad Lorenz Institute provides a stimulating and creative environment for fellows, visiting scholars, students, and external faculty.
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Kevin Zollman @kevinzollman.com · 07/03/2025
Sloan Foundation announced a program to support postdocs in philosophy, sociology, and metascience who want to understand how AI will affect science. Pass it along to anyone who might be interested, the Institute for Complex Social Dynamics might be interested in hosting sloan.org/programs/dig...
sloan.org
Call for submissions: Metascience and AI postdoctoral fellowship | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Our mission is to make the world a better place through the advancement of scientific knowledge.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Leonard Peltier is being freed from prison today.
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Alan Richardson @alanrichardson.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
“All universities worthy of the name have always been centers of social protest. If American universities ever cease to be such centers, they will lose both their self-respect and the respect of the learned world.”—Richard Rorty, 1998
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D. Hicks @danhicks.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
New blog post "Weaponized Metascience," on Ted Cruz' list of "woke DEI" NSF grants, NIH indirect cost fuckery, and using the trappings of science to undermine science dhicks.github.io/posts/2025-0... #philsci #sts
dhicks.github.io
Weaponized metascience – Dan Hicks
Website description
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Angela Cassidy @angecass.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Sounding the Egenis #jobklaxon again! 3 year #sts postdoc investigating entanglements of race, biomedicine and genomics, working in collaboration with #philsci #philbio colleagues, including the fabulous @celsoneto.bsky.social. Come and join us!
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
I have run out of patience with the apparent silence of most US science institutions (and not just US) in the face of Trump & Musk's rampage. There are of so many facets of that, but in this column for @chemistryworld.com I talk about the assaults on inclusion. www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/scie...
chemistryworld.com
Scientific institutions have a long history of anticipatory obedience
Societies should learn from this and speak up to support inclusion
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Sophie Stone @sarstone.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
The Biological Engineering Collaboratory's next session, "If a squirrel falls in the woods", is tomorrow, 3pm (UK time). Rob and Sarah will talk about squirrels, gene drive technology and governance of environmental synthetic biology. Want to join us? It's online and open to all, DM me for details.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Who saw this coming?
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Today is my husband's last day at his job. He is leaving his career as a data scientist to be full-time, stay at home dad. We are choosing our family over income. He is choosing my profession as a philosopher over his. We're nervous -- esp. wrt possible future inflation -- but hopeful.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
I think this quote by Jean Paul Sartre is especially poignant at the moment. “Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge.
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
A president’s executive order cannot undo a law or a Supreme Court decision, let alone a provision of the Constitution. Forget that and you do have a dictatorship on day one.
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
It's about time!
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Janella @janellabaxter.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Where is the blurb about the PSA that explains to non-philosophers how fancy and prestigious the journal and conference are? Asking for tenure file.
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