Thank you, @oscarw.bsky.social for the discussion last week on "Understanding to Some Purpose." The video, our latest in the International Postdoc Forum series, is now available to watch on the MCPS YouTube channel.
buff.ly/CoQAi5c
#philsci

OTD in 1838, Charles Darwin read Malthus’s Principles of Population “for amusement.”

The idea of a “war of nature” was venerable, but D realized that such a war would tend to remove deleterious variations from populations. Natural selection would necessarily follow.

🌱🐋🧪#HistSTM #philsci 📈📉#evolbio

I'm very excited to visit northwest Arkansas to give a talk at University of Arkansas. I grew up nearby in Rogers, so U of A was my hometown university. The lecture (3pm Friday 10/2) is open to the public, so feel free to attend if you are in the area and interested! #philsci #philsky 🧪

Visit our calendar for more information about this week's events. #philsci

https://www.centerphilsci.pitt.edu/events/

Want to make data and AI systems more resilient, sustainable, responsible? Want to think about what “research commons” may mean today? Join us in person or online in London next Monday! ethicaldatainitiative.org/2026/08/11/b... @edinitiative.bsky.social @researchdataall.bsky.social #philsci

3/3 The light itself is well documented — it rises with oxidative metabolism and stress, tying it to reactive oxygen species. So it could be a non-invasive stress readout. The open question is its statistics, not its existence. What would settle it? #academicsky #sciart #philsci

1/3 Your body glows — faintly. Ultraweak photon emission leaks from every living cell: a few hundred photons per second per square centimeter. Some researchers call it coherent 'biophoton' light. A 2015 review asks whether the evidence supports that. #academicsky #sciart #philsci

#philsci

L: Color print magazine advertisement for Pennsalt DDT products. This ad appeared in Time Magazine, June 30, 1947. Science History Institute.

R: Photo of children being spayed with DDT in a public swimming pool. Date and photographer unknown.

🌱🐋 # HistSTM 🧪🌎 #philsci #philsky #WomeninSTEM

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published OTD in 1962.

“[W]e have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”

🌱🐋 # HistSTM 🧪🌎 #philsci #philsky #WomeninSTEM

1/3 A healthy cell may be a coherent electromagnetic oscillator. A cancer cell may be one that lost the tune. That's the striking claim of a 2013 paper on bioelectric activity in tumors. #academicsky #biophysics #philsci

Speaking truth to power? Rather: testing philosophical assumptions about science-informed policy against real-world practice — this really was a fantastic workshop! #philsci #EBP

🎥 Some highlights from today's Grünbaum Memorial Lecture with Stephan Hartmann.

While at the Center, Stephan also recorded an episode of Conversations at the Center which will be releasing soon. #philsci

Fall has arrived on Burnaby Mountain, which means brutalist concrete enveloped in cloud.

Pro sem today was Carnap ESO and a chunk of the new book by Cartwright, Munro, and Pemberton. We had a good discussion and also had to turn the lights on because of the gloom.
#philsci #sfu

I'm not the best person to ask about textbooks — I never liked to teach with them — but I'll add some hashtags here so your post can get some more eyeballs. #philsci 🌱🐋

2/3 Sautbekov (2026) proposes a covariant extension of Maxwell’s equations that adds a scalar field S to the four‑potential, yielding extra longitudinal modes. #academicsky #bioelectromagnetics #philsci https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.26839v1

Join us as we sit down with visiting fellow Mike Hicks to learn more about his work here at the Center!
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dsJKE8f8jFU

Don't miss Mike's Lunchtime Talk next Tuesday: "Pragmatic Realism about Modality, Natural and Metaphysical" #philsci

I'm not against using LLMs for academic research. However, there is a huge danger of introducing hidden systematic biases if their contributions are not tracked. I try to explain here why I think letting AI into academic research requires radical openness. #PhilSci #AcademicSky