The Selfish Gene, 50 years on — it’s time for an update www.nature.com/articles/d41... - an interesting piece by @nccomfort.bsky.social, but peppered with red herrings, IMO...
The Selfish Gene, 50 years on — it’s time for an update
A focus on the gene alone has become outdated. Books that capture the complexity of life deserve centre stage.
www.nature.com
October 31, 2026 at 7:16 PM
🔍 Behind the Paper: 'From Silence to Semiosis: A Personal Journey Back to the Philosophy of Biology.' Mustafa Yavuz shares how an unexpected turning point and a lifelong fascination with lichens led to a new paper in Biosemiotics.
🔗 bit.ly/4imy6eH
#PhilBio #PhilSci
🔗 bit.ly/4imy6eH
#PhilBio #PhilSci
October 30, 2026 at 4:00 PM
🔍 Behind the Paper: 'From Silence to Semiosis: A Personal Journey Back to the Philosophy of Biology.' Mustafa Yavuz shares how an unexpected turning point and a lifelong fascination with lichens led to a new paper in Biosemiotics.
🔗 bit.ly/4imy6eH
#PhilBio #PhilSci
🔗 bit.ly/4imy6eH
#PhilBio #PhilSci
I'm pleased to announce that Wimsatt's Festschrift SI at Acta Biotheoretica has several new contributions to peruse! One is by @plutynski.bsky.social and Ge Fang looking at Bill's (and others') work on scaffolding: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philbio #hpbio
October 28, 2026 at 12:07 PM
I'm pleased to announce that Wimsatt's Festschrift SI at Acta Biotheoretica has several new contributions to peruse! One is by @plutynski.bsky.social and Ge Fang looking at Bill's (and others') work on scaffolding: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philbio #hpbio
How many individuals are in a lichen? My new paper in Biosemiotics proposes an operational framework for semiotic individuality.
#philbio #biyolojifelsefesi #CanlıbilimleriTarihiveFelsefesi #lichens
doi.org/10.1007/s123...
#philbio #biyolojifelsefesi #CanlıbilimleriTarihiveFelsefesi #lichens
doi.org/10.1007/s123...
Semiotic Individuality in Lichen Symbioses: An Operational Framework - Biosemiotics
Lichens challenge biological individuality because an organised thallus can unite partners with distinct genomes, life histories, and degrees of autonomy. Their taxonomic heterogeneity and within-thal...
doi.org
October 30, 2026 at 11:11 PM
How many individuals are in a lichen? My new paper in Biosemiotics proposes an operational framework for semiotic individuality.
#philbio #biyolojifelsefesi #CanlıbilimleriTarihiveFelsefesi #lichens
doi.org/10.1007/s123...
#philbio #biyolojifelsefesi #CanlıbilimleriTarihiveFelsefesi #lichens
doi.org/10.1007/s123...
1/ Two really fun reviews just landed back to back in Current Biology, both on a question I never get tired of: why did animals take over when they did? One argues animals engineered their own world. The other argues oxygen and temperature had to line up first.
October 21, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Critical metaphors reduced misinformation. The authors argue that metaphors act as epistemic conditioning devices: they shape judgments by structuring understanding.
#De-extinction #Biotech #Conservation #Biodiversity
#DeExtinction #Misinformation #Metaphor #PhilSci #PhilBio #xphi
#De-extinction #Biotech #Conservation #Biodiversity
#DeExtinction #Misinformation #Metaphor #PhilSci #PhilBio #xphi
October 21, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Critical metaphors reduced misinformation. The authors argue that metaphors act as epistemic conditioning devices: they shape judgments by structuring understanding.
#De-extinction #Biotech #Conservation #Biodiversity
#DeExtinction #Misinformation #Metaphor #PhilSci #PhilBio #xphi
#De-extinction #Biotech #Conservation #Biodiversity
#DeExtinction #Misinformation #Metaphor #PhilSci #PhilBio #xphi
New paper: "Once Upon a Time in Emergentism", with Maxime Hilbert, forthcoming in History and Philosophy of the Life Science.
In this paper, we challenge the widespread assumption that emergentism has always been "standard".
Preprint available here: philpapers.org/rec/HILOUA
#philsci #philbio
In this paper, we challenge the widespread assumption that emergentism has always been "standard".
Preprint available here: philpapers.org/rec/HILOUA
#philsci #philbio
October 20, 2026 at 11:50 AM
New paper: "Once Upon a Time in Emergentism", with Maxime Hilbert, forthcoming in History and Philosophy of the Life Science.
In this paper, we challenge the widespread assumption that emergentism has always been "standard".
Preprint available here: philpapers.org/rec/HILOUA
#philsci #philbio
In this paper, we challenge the widespread assumption that emergentism has always been "standard".
Preprint available here: philpapers.org/rec/HILOUA
#philsci #philbio
🧪Lala & Feldman (2026): "Racial taxonomies distort the true nature of human biological diversity. They imply humans are found in genetically distinct groupings, but the science unequivocally shows the data are just not like that." @uniofstandrews.bsky.social #PsychSciSky #philbio #philsci #evolution
I am pleased to share this article written with Marc Feldman that reviews the history of scientific racism and biological race realism, through the lens of two recent books: Hochman’s The Race Illusion and Lorusso & Winther’s Remapping Race in a Global Context.
academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...
The “zombie science” of biological race realism
Review of Adam Hochman’s The Race Illusion and Lorusso and Winther’s Remapping Race in a Global Context.
academic.oup.com
October 19, 2026 at 1:48 PM
🧪Lala & Feldman (2026): "Racial taxonomies distort the true nature of human biological diversity. They imply humans are found in genetically distinct groupings, but the science unequivocally shows the data are just not like that." @uniofstandrews.bsky.social #PsychSciSky #philbio #philsci #evolution
Lots of interesting chapters in this open-access volume on "Culture, Identity, and Essentialism: Anthropological and Psychological Approaches" (2026), edited by Wolfgang Wagner and Cristina Moya @hyperadapthyrax.bsky.social.
#psychscisky #philbio #ehbea #hbes
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
#psychscisky #philbio #ehbea #hbes
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Culture, Identity, and Essentialism
This open access book approaches topics of culture, identity, and essentialism through an anthropological and psychological lens.
link.springer.com
October 19, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Lots of interesting chapters in this open-access volume on "Culture, Identity, and Essentialism: Anthropological and Psychological Approaches" (2026), edited by Wolfgang Wagner and Cristina Moya @hyperadapthyrax.bsky.social.
#psychscisky #philbio #ehbea #hbes
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
#psychscisky #philbio #ehbea #hbes
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Gutted I can't celebrate launch of @adrian-currie.bsky.social fabulous new book The Science of Lost Worlds in person today, BUT I can online, as all Egenis seminars are hybrid! To join, contact us through event link:
www.exeter.ac.uk/events/resea...
#philbio #philsci #histSTM #paleo #dinosaurs
www.exeter.ac.uk/events/resea...
#philbio #philsci #histSTM #paleo #dinosaurs
The Science of Lost Worlds is out! OA! illustrations by the magnificent Jim Robins, audiobook feat the amazing Boo Jackson as Prof Ichthy. Delicious paleontological #philsci for your reading/listening pleasure. So many people helped me make this - much greatful ucp.manifoldapp.org/projects/978...
October 19, 2026 at 9:11 AM
Gutted I can't celebrate launch of @adrian-currie.bsky.social fabulous new book The Science of Lost Worlds in person today, BUT I can online, as all Egenis seminars are hybrid! To join, contact us through event link:
www.exeter.ac.uk/events/resea...
#philbio #philsci #histSTM #paleo #dinosaurs
www.exeter.ac.uk/events/resea...
#philbio #philsci #histSTM #paleo #dinosaurs
bsky.app/profile/vare...
Also, this and the question of the function of a fact are good, but otherwise my understanding of philbio is just too sparse for this to be worth pondering over so deeply.
Also, this and the question of the function of a fact are good, but otherwise my understanding of philbio is just too sparse for this to be worth pondering over so deeply.
The first time something was noticed to be true, nothing was \textit{known} as true.
October 20, 2026 at 12:35 AM
bsky.app/profile/vare...
Also, this and the question of the function of a fact are good, but otherwise my understanding of philbio is just too sparse for this to be worth pondering over so deeply.
Also, this and the question of the function of a fact are good, but otherwise my understanding of philbio is just too sparse for this to be worth pondering over so deeply.
1/ There are a ton of cool papers coming out on evolutionary transitions in individuality right now! Here are five recent ones I've really enjoyed, spanning Snowball Earth, volvocine algae, plasmids that fuse into a new individual, the relatives of animals, and... water kefir
October 16, 2026 at 2:49 AM
October 15, 2026 at 9:15 PM
Philbio is such an enticing area. I wish I had a better grasp on its ideas.
October 14, 2026 at 10:11 PM
Philbio is such an enticing area. I wish I had a better grasp on its ideas.
Out today in @nature.com: our review on how single cells evolve into multicellular organisms. With Ozan Bozdag, @kaitong25.bsky.social, Peter Yunker, and @matthewherron.bsky.social.
rdcu.be/9ZuiKow9twKa
For an overview, check out the video below.
rdcu.be/9ZuiKow9twKa
For an overview, check out the video below.
October 7, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Recently, I went to the Donald Campbell archives to draw out connections between Campbell’s work and Bill Wimsatt’s work on robustness. My paper was just published in the Acta Biotheoretica Festschrift issue (edited by Daniel Brooks and Caitlin Mace).
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
William Wimsatt, Donald Campbell, and the Idea of Robustness - Acta Biotheoretica
In this paper, I chart the influence of social scientist Donald Campbell’s work on William Wimsatt’s ideas of robustness reasoning. One reason is that Campbell’s work is less familiar in the broader p...
link.springer.com
October 4, 2026 at 9:14 PM
"Here, we develop mathematical models linking anisogamy to secondary sex-role evolution, showing that anisogamy drives sex-role divergence along contrasting evolutionary trajectories depending on ecological context." #philbio
Anisogamy drives diverse patterns of sex-role divergence https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.26.754688v1
October 2, 2026 at 2:36 PM
"Here, we develop mathematical models linking anisogamy to secondary sex-role evolution, showing that anisogamy drives sex-role divergence along contrasting evolutionary trajectories depending on ecological context." #philbio
After a workshop in March in Milan, we are meeting next week in the woods of Leusden (ISVW) to continue our discussion of the epistemic and ethical challenges in microbiome and exposome research!
Thanks to the Descartes Centre's Seed Money, this collaborative work can thrive!
#hpbio #philbio 🐋🌱
Thanks to the Descartes Centre's Seed Money, this collaborative work can thrive!
#hpbio #philbio 🐋🌱
September 28, 2026 at 11:25 AM
"... we show that a combination of random environmental fluctuations with fitness benefits that specific microbes provide to their hosts can result in the evolution of vertical transmission, even when microbes are continually acquired from the environment." #philbio
An eco-evolutionary theory of host-associated microbiomes
#microbiology #microbiomes #evolution #MicroSky
@pnas.org
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
#microbiology #microbiomes #evolution #MicroSky
@pnas.org
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
September 24, 2026 at 5:13 PM
"... we show that a combination of random environmental fluctuations with fitness benefits that specific microbes provide to their hosts can result in the evolution of vertical transmission, even when microbes are continually acquired from the environment." #philbio
This makes me wonder how many human organs are also composed of parallel cell lineages during development. Is it so unusual that one anatomical part comes from two distinct lineages? #philbio #philsci
news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
Human brain is two separate organs, study finds
Scientists have viewed the brain as one organ for centuries. A Stanford Medicine-led discovery challenging that view could advance research into ALS, spinal muscular atrophy, and other neurological di...
news.stanford.edu
September 22, 2026 at 3:54 PM
This makes me wonder how many human organs are also composed of parallel cell lineages during development. Is it so unusual that one anatomical part comes from two distinct lineages? #philbio #philsci
news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
news.stanford.edu/stories/2026...
"High-quality revisionary taxonomy must be grounded in experienced character evaluation and homology assessment, concept delimitation, and contingent analytical judgment, skills that are developed over years of immersive engagement with natural history collections" 👏👏👏
Newly accepted work I contributed to: Challenges for reproducibility in species delimitation academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
September 16, 2026 at 10:08 PM
This ought to be of interest to some #philbio people.
I'm happy to share my new paper "A new conceptual framework for host-microbe symbiosis"
If you've seen me give a talk in the last 5 years, then you've seen me talk about this. It's been a journey.
academic.oup.com/ismehm/artic...
#MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky
If you've seen me give a talk in the last 5 years, then you've seen me talk about this. It's been a journey.
academic.oup.com/ismehm/artic...
#MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky
A new conceptual framework for host-microbe symbiosis
Abstract. Host-microbe relationships are studied across biological disciplines, with unique but overlapping conceptual frameworks arising from each of them
academic.oup.com
September 16, 2026 at 4:42 AM
This ought to be of interest to some #philbio people.