On epigenetics 6 Apr 2009 Here is an interesting discussion of a recent paper on the operational and theoretical definitions of “epigenetics”. This term – which has a deep history, well before genetics – is interpreted in every manner from inherited histone patterns on chromosomes to parental investment and extrasomatic inheritance. The authors of the discussed paper go towards the former extreme, while Eva Jablonka goes for the other. It’s always fun to see scientists arguing over terms. Uncategorized
Uncategorized Sterelny wins Nicod Prize 3 Sep 200818 Sep 2017 Sometimes it’s so cool to know smart people, so you can congratulate them when they win awards. Go Kimbo! Hat tip Leiter. Read More
Uncategorized Marjorie Grene dies 17 Mar 200918 Sep 2017 Marjorie Grene was a doyen of philosophy and history of biology, and I reviewed one of her last texts a while back and linked to an interview. She died yesterday, according to Leiter, aged 99. Read More
Uncategorized New entry on Mach in Stanford Encyclopedia 21 May 2008 Ernst Mach is one of the more interesting of the nineteenth century polymaths. A physicist, he also kicked off positivism, and (I did not previously know) was an evolutionary epistemologist: Mach is part of the empiricist tradition, but he also believed in an a priori. But it is a biologized… Read More