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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala

@petinozappala.bsky.social
96 followers 37 following 222 posts

hopefully monstruous evolutionary biologist transitioning into HPS 🇦🇷 in 🇩🇪 www.researchgate.net/profile/M-Alej…

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Reposted by M. Alejandra Petino Zappala
Joanna Karolina Malinowska @malinowska.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
@terezahendl.bsky.social and I are very happy to finally share the full programme of our workshop, “Mind the Gap: Engaging Europe’s East in Global Health Debates”! 29–30 October Berlin or online Free participation Apply until 9 October: www.globalhealth.de/news/view/mi... #philsci
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
New semester, new lecture series! This time with the fantastic @federicabocchi.bsky.social, @rossbrooks.co.uk, @drandyflack.bsky.social and others. Join us online on Mondays at 4pm (CET). Just click here to register: www.pe.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophie/... #HPBio #HistSci #PhilSci
Poster for the RUB Lecture Series of the Chair of History and Philosophy of Science. Find all talks here: https://www.pe.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophie/i/wtwg/colloquium/hpls.html.de
We also have additional reading group meetings on 19 October, 30 November and 18 January. To participate, just write an e-mail to jan.baedke[at]rub.de
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Oh I have been waiting for someone to dig into this issue. 👏 "The spectre of population collapse serves highly concrete economic purposes...world-building and market domination go hand in hand in the current fertility obsession manifested by tech elites." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Tech oligarchs’ obsession with pronatalism and fertility markets
Published in Science as Culture (Vol. 35, No. 3, 2026)
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Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 14/09/2026
My 📗 is #openaccess thanks to the D2O program of @mitpress.bsky.social: direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon... This initiative for equitable access to scholarship has just opened its new funding cycle: mitpress.mit.edu/the-mit-pres... 🙏 help spread the word & if you represent a library, do consider joining!
Promotional image of the Direct to Open (D2O) initiative of the MIT Press that allows academic books to be read open access. Promotional graphic on a beige background for the book "The Organism–Environment Pairing: A Historical and Philosophical Reappraisal" (MIT Press, 2026) by Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda. The book cover appears in the center of the image and has a green gradient background. The book series label “The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology” appears at the top. The title is set in large, bold lettering using three colors: white (“The” and “Pairing”), warm yellow (“Organism–”), and bright green (“Environment”). The subtitle appears below in smaller white text, and the author’s name is printed at the bottom. In the lower right, a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) rests on clusters of pink milkweed flowers. Behind it, a large pale-green butterfly silhouette fills the background; its outline follows the shape of a red lacewing butterfly (Cethosia biblis).
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Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I'll again note that the folks willing to sign a letter supporting a raging eugenicist (purportedly in defense of his academic freedom to be racist) aren't nearly as motivated when it comes to *actual* threats to academic freedom, like this.
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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
@gill1109.bsky.social has been so kind to put the op-ed on his blog, making it more easily accessible. science4justice.nl/2026/08/23/w...
science4justice.nl
Guest post by Pieter Beck: Why I believe Nathan Cofnas violated Ghent University’s Code of Ethics - Science for justice - NL
Dr Beck is a postdoctoral researcher in history and philosophy of science, Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Pieter Beck, recipient of one of the Jan Gillis prizes awarded ...
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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
We have written a statement in support of Ghent Uni's decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. We resist attempts to frame this as a punishment for "whistleblowing" or censorship of "controversial research". We invite all academics who share our views to sign our letter. forms.gle/qwN8xzEM5C7Q...
forms.gle
Open letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent University
We, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. With th...
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
At some point it needs to be discussed that there are pockets of academia in which having an "edgy" idea or take is taken as a value in itself. The ... "journal" where this was published has consistently some of the most bigoted and abysmal-quality scholarship imaginable. It's academic ragebait.
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
To the 40 philosophers who signed this list: Esp. you should know that academic freedom has legal limits & is constrained by others’ rights. Thus “academic misconduct” includes not only plagiarism but also behaviors that violate others’ rights or seriously interfere with academic work. #PhilSci #HPS
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Scientific racism is now mainstream again but Andrew Winston explains here why treating it as mainstream science is a mistake - tackling it with the ordinary scientific methods of peer review won’t be enough to stop it because it’s a “community project”, not science
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Plagiarism is only one part of a much broader scope of academic misconduct, and ‘race realism’ is itself a form of academic misconduct: using academia to launder long-discredited and empirically refuted white supremacist propaganda. It is disseminating pernicious lies into broader society
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
This is the peak of a weekend filled with sad philosophical news… The damage this guy is doing to our philosophy of biology community is enormous. #PoS #hpsbio
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Bird account @dialecticbio.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Awful. Think about how little media attention other high profile cases of academic fraud have received compared to Arday. Ariely, Gino, Pruitt, Richard Lynn... barely a peep compared to this media frenzy. But obviously, all those fraudsters were not Black
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
So the department at the prestigious Belgian university where Cofnas was hired wrote a detailed statement raising concerns about his appointment process, and then had their concerns censored 👇
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T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦 @tryangregory.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
If you're a biologist, especially one in a field that has a history of eugenics and racism (which absolutely includes my own field of evolutionary biology) and you choose to remain "neutral" as race science once again crawls out from under its rock, you are not in fact neutral.
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Santiago Ginnobili @santiginno.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Mi charla sobre las tensiones entre el antiesclavismo y la jerarquía racial en la obra de Darwin. En el Encontro de História e Filosofia da Biologia (2026), ABFHiB, en Maringá. ¡Hermoso congreso! youtu.be/GeK62vjlLcM?...
youtu.be
Tensiones darwinianas: antiesclavismo y jerarquía racial - Professor Santiago Ginnobili
YouTube video by ABFHiB - História e Filosofia da Biologia
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires denounces Milei's statements, where he accused students, professors and researchers of being "terrorists in disguise"; they compel the university to pursue legal action.
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Ezequiel Vera @ezequielvera.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
¡Ya está disponible el N.º 6 de Carnotaurus! La revista de divulgación científica del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales suma una nueva edición con historias, descubrimientos y miradas que te acercan a la ciencia. 📖 Descargala gratuitamente de acá: www.macnconicet.gob.ar/coleccion/ca...
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Webinar coming up today 👇 If you can't make it, check out Celso's work, including his ERC-funded project answering an important question: "The study of human genetic differences is rapidly changing science, but how can we study these differences without promoting racism and social harm?"
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Yay! Thanks to everyone who showed up and to the fellow presenters! 😊
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Cassandra Yang @cassandrazieyang.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Happening tomorrow! If you are joining us online, you can do so via this link: teams.microsoft.com/meet/3453882... The workshop programme is available here: drive.google.com/file/d/1Mkuz...
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Kevin Bird @stairwaytokevin.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
A thorough documenting of the statistical shenanigans in the embryo selection company Herasight’s claims about genetic IQ prediction. The paper was published in a new Intelligence journal against the reviewers’ protest that the proprietary prediction model was not disclosed and so was unverifiable
open.substack.com
Herasight: Latent Promises, Observed Failures
Many make the mistake of rejecting Herasight on ethical grounds, but doing so gives them too much credit.
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
New paper out by our former visiting fellow Alberto Monterde Fuertes! It examines the methodological decisions structuring inquiry in engaged philosophy of science. Check it out here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #PhilSci
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Katie Abson @katieabson.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Our paper is out! 📣 we find that molecular measures of genetic variation do not predict heritable genetic variation across species - important implications for the application of genomic data for conservation! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Nucleotide diversity is a poor predictor of short-term adaptive potential | PNAS
The capacity to adapt is essential for a population to avoid extinction in a changing world and is recognized as a global conservation priority. Ad...
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
MIT philosopher Alex Byrne, who is personally cited in this passage, has now done irrevocable material damage to millions of trans people, based on discredited, shoddy work, all to accomplish this aim. That specific article is a sham. I think his colleagues should do something about this
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
After today's talk in our lecture series, you can immediately register for the next one, taking place on Monday, 4pm (CET): rotorub.wordpress.com/roto-lecture... In the last talk of this semester, Silvia De Cesare will speak about organic progress and evolutionary theory. #HPBio #PhilSci
Poster for the talk by Silvia De Cesare, entitled "Organic Progress and Evolutionary Theory". It will take place on Monday, 29 June 2026 at 4 pm (CET) via Zoom.
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Will @evolvingmoloch.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
This nonsense claim from this paper is making rounds on Twitter, claiming fertility & gender (in)equality correlated at .81. But the Gender Inequality Index includes adolescent fertility as part of the measure! When you rebuild the index without circular reproductive outcomes correlation cut in half
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds.
Joint Statement on the "State of Scholarship" Report
The Vanderbilt University and Washington University chapters of the American Association of University Professors express our profound disagreement with the "State of Scholarship" report commissioned by our universities' chancellors. The report distorts the state of humanistic and social scientific scholarship at our universities and in the academy overall. Worse, it proposes a shocking intrusion of university administration into faculty governance and portends greater threats to academic freedom that should concern all faculty.
The report currently appears on Vanderbilt's website under the insignia of both Vanderbilt and Washington Universities. It is already receiving public condemnation. As the American Council of Learned Societies makes clear, the report is founded on false premises and anecdotal evidence and thus does nothing to "ensure deeper and more meaningful relations among scholars and members of the public." No doubt more rebuttals from scholars, departments, and professional societies will follow. It suffices for us to say that the report falls far short of the standards of political neutrality and disinterested inquiry it claims to champion. Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. Nor does the report divulge its source of funding or conflicts of interest that may entail - standard practice for any work of humanistic or social scientific scholarship. In sum, the report is itself a clear example of "politicized" research that its authors attempt to decry.
What is most alarming is the guidance the report offers to its intended audience of university chancellors and presidents. By falsely arguing that humanities and social science departments are in the throes of an epistemological crisis, the authors lay the groundwork for university adminis…Weakening faculty governance does nothing to solve the real challenges facing our universities, and undermines our ability to effectively address society's most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change.
Indeed, the direst threats to public trust in higher education are not philosophical debates about the nature of truth. Currently, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for the humanities and social sciences as well as for the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, public health, and the arts. In response, university administrations have instituted austerity measures, even as administrative salaries and administrative positions have taken up an increasing share of decreasing budgets.
The best way for scholars to cultivate diverse opinions and advance knowledge is by strengthening academic freedom. Political threats to higher education have degraded, and will continue to degrade, the quality of all fields of our universities' research, to the detriment of America's global standing.
We note that the organizations now working most actively and successfully to defend academic free inquiry from politicized federal interference are not university leaders but the American Council of Learned Societies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Historical Association - professional societies of the very disciplines chastised by the report.
We call on our chancellors to rescind the report and affirm their commitment to the intellectual autonomy of faculty, academic departments, and governing faculty bodies. Administrative interference into academic departments, as licensed by this report, is a violation of the standards of academic freedom that have made American universities the envy of the world. Rather than undermining these bedrock principles, administrators should vigorously and publicly defend them.
Vanderbilt University AAUP
vanderbiltaaup@gmail.com
Wa…
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𝙼𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 @mkang.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
@jessicacalarco.com hit the nail on the head in her @pnas.org editorial about why the trend towards data transparency can be complicated for qualitative research--a dilemma that came to head in our recent PNAS paper on violence. I recommend giving it a read. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards | PNAS
With qualitative research, the risks of data sharing can outweigh the rewards
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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Next week we welcome prof. Charles C. Roseman ( @evoroseman.bsky.social ) for a lecture on a timely topic. Many thanks to prof. Roseman for being so generous with his time. More info (including a link for streaming) can be found here: www.ugent.be/lw/philosoph...
Poster for the lecture of Charles C. Roseman. The title is: "Race science, genetics, and evolution: a scientific evaluation". When? 11 June 2026, 19:00-21:00. Where? Auditorium 1 Jan Broeckx. Prof. Roseman is associate professor of evolution, ecology and behavior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studies the evolution of complex traits and issues at the nexus of biology and society. The lecture will also be livestreamed. People who want to follow the lecture via livestream can send an e-mail to pieter.beck@ugent.be. The poster contains a QR which links to the following website: https://www.ugent.be/lw/philosophy/nl/actueel/agenda/charles-c-roseman-race-science-genetics-evolution-a-scientific-evaluation.htm. On the bottom, the poster displays the logo of Ghent University and the Faculty of Arts & Philosophy.
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
gracias a @grupoanfibio.bsky.social por la invitación y la discusión! #HPS
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Zvi Hasnes Beninson @zvihb.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
My latest article, “Formalization does not entail neutrality” is now published at @biologicaltheory.bsky.social You can read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Formalization Does Not Entail Neutrality: Evolutionary Game Theory and the Sociobiology Controversy - Biological Theory
Model makers often find themselves in the following situation: in order for the model to be able to represent the dynamics of the target system, they have to make certain assumptions that pertain to t...
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Grupo Anfibio @grupoanfibio.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Conferencia virtual: Campos interdisciplinarios, estándares y exclusión: el rol de la paleontología en la biología evolutiva tras la Síntesis Moderna. María Alejandra Petino Zappala 1 de junio, 11am (hora arg) Para asistir a la conferencia por favor inscribase aquí: forms.gle/Sw8p6qbTwuB3...
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Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
With @remyfurrer.bsky.social, a new piece in Nature Human Behavior. The standard description of a polygenic score as a "genetic predisposition" essentializes a statistical construct. It's not language policing: PGS are a new kind of entity; now is the time to think carefully about what they are.
nature.com
Polygenic risk scores are not genetic predispositions - Nature Human Behaviour
Nature Human Behaviour - Polygenic risk scores are not genetic predispositions
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Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 18/05/2026
I am genuinely humbled by the kind words from the first readers of my book! The 📗 is fully #openaccess, made possible by the generosity of libraries worldwide and @mitpress.bsky.social's D2O program: direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon... Please help spread the word! #booksky #philsci #philsky #histsci
direct.mit.edu
The Organism-Environment Pairing: A Historical and Philosophical Reappraisal
A historical and philosophical exploration of the organism-environment relationship and its role in shaping biological thought.In this first systematic boo
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
1981: Stephen Jay Gould's gets accused of "neo-Lysenkoism", contributing to a "chilling atmosphere" that prevents research in "a taboo area".
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
The final version of our paper (w/ @nheinzelmann.bsky.social) on the ethics and moral psychology of HPV vaccination is out! #ethics #bioethics #Xphi This is an observational study on parents living in 🇩🇪🇬🇧🇺🇸 who have not (yet) vaccinated their kids against HPV www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The ethics and moral psychology of HPV vaccination: Evidence from a cross-cultural study
Vaccine hesitancy is a major threat to public health worldwide. Debates about vaccines are often moralized; however, how ethics and ethical judgments …
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Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 12/05/2026
It is publication day for The Organism-Environment Pairing (@mitpress.bsky.social)! This 📗 has been deeply formative for me as a scholar, and it owes so much to so many wonderful people. I truly hope it finds many readers! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #booksky #philsci #histsci #philsky #evosky
Photograph of the book The Organism–Environment Pairing: A Historical and Philosophical Reappraisal (MIT Press, 2026) displayed on a small wooden easel. The green cover features multicolored title text and an image of a monarch butterfly resting on pink milkweed flowers, layered over a larger pale-green butterfly silhouette. The spine, visible at an angle, repeats the title and author’s name, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda. Softly blurred purple-and-white flowers appear in the background.
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Interested in herbaria, plants and digitization? Come work with us! 3 PhD & Postdoc Positions in History & Phil. of Biology & Digital Humanities! #ERC Project BOTLEG; @ruhr-uni-bochum.de! Deadline: 25 May '26 #HistSci #PhilSci #HPBio #EnvHist #DigitalHumanities #AcademicSky #PhDSky Details below 👇
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HUGERA @hugeraproject.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Prof. Steve Sturdy continues our spring speaker series with the talk “Eugenics and Bioeconomic Value” on June 2nd. You can register to attend via zoom here: hugera.org/lecture-seri...
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N. Heinzelmann @nheinzelmann.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
New paper with @petinozappala.bsky.social: "parents' ethical judgments in all countries are strongly associated with vaccination intention" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #vaccines #bioethics #xphi #hpv #trust #philosophy #ethics #OpenAccess #survey #socialscience #medicine
sciencedirect.com
The ethics and moral psychology of HPV vaccination: evidence from a cross-cultural study
Vaccine hesitancy is a major threat to public health worldwide. Debates about vaccines are often moralized; however, how ethics and ethical judgments …
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Next week, we welcome Gry Oftedal ‬(University of Oslo) in our ROTO Lecture Series. Gry will speak about self-assembly in living systems. Just register here to participate 👉 rotorub.wordpress.com/roto-lecture... #HPBio #PhilSci
Poster for the talk by Gry Oftedal, entitled "Explaining Self-Assembly in Living Systems: Beyond Mechanisms". It will take place on Monday, 11 May 2026 at 4 pm (CET) via Zoom.
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Daniel S. Brooks @dsbrooks.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Looking forward to presenting at this wonderful meeting in Cambridge, organized by @cassandrazieyang.bsky.social, @yoshinariyoshida.bsky.social , and Patrick Ferree! This will be during the week of the SPSP too, so hopefully you can make it! #philbio #philsci
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Two great events next week! Reading group on Monday with a paper on Soviet plant philosophy by Isabel Jacobs: crmep.co.uk/articles/jac... And on Thursday, we welcome @petinozappala.bsky.social in our Lecture Series who will talk about canalization in #HPBio. #HistSci #PhilSci
Poster for the talk by Alejandra Petino Zappala (Ruhr-University Bochum), entitled "Canalization, Stabilizing Selection and Evolution: A Case of Conceptual Gatekeeping in 20th Century Evolutionary Biology?". It will take place on Thursday, 30 April 2026, at 6 pm (CET) in GA 3/143 and will be streamed via Zoom.
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RUB History & Philosophy of Science @roto-rub.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
📣 We're #Hiring! #ERC Consolidator Project BOTLEG at @ruhr-uni-bochum.de is recruiting: - 1 PostDoc ➡️ jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/9... - 2 PhDs ➡️ jobs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/jobposting/c... 📅 Deadline: 25 May 2026 #PhDSky #HistSci #PhilSci #HPBio #EnvHist #DigitalHumanities #AcademicSky
Local collector from Guatemala (left) and digitized herbarium specimen (right)
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
earlier this year I had my students read Diane Paul's (1987) The nine lives of discredited data (link in next post). It is disappointing, but not surprising, to see that the problem remains unresolved (maybe jumped from a discipline to another).
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
you can attend my (hybrid) talk on the 30th and share my fascination and (many) frustrations with the concept of canalization!
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Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda @alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 10/04/2026
Unconventional experiments that later redefine what counts as 'pursuitworthy' are excluded by strict standards. Szymon Miłkoś suggests that we need “transformative” standards: judge risky research by how well it turns intuitions into shareable norms 📄👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #HPS #philsci
Article header from the European Journal for Philosophy of Science (2026), labeled “Paper in Philosophy of Science in Practice.” The title, “Pursuitworthiness of breakthrough experiments: transforming emerging intuitions into established norms,” appears in bold above the author Szymon Miłkoś (with ORCID icon).
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M. Alejandra Petino Zappala @petinozappala.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
It becomes really difficult to criticize the alt-right's use of BS "evolutionary explanations" when one of the best-read scientific journals publishes this. how do you argue that we should be careful about equating complex human behaviors with other animals' after this? "Civil war"?? really? 😑
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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Some slides from a recent talk on missing heritability. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kvogj...
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