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 Last century’s best philosopher? 1 Mar 2009 Brian Leiter has asked who that was in the train of the New York Times declaring that it was Wittgenstein.So far, Russell is leading. Russell? My goodness, he was important but hardly the best – most read more than best, I suspect. Moore was better than Russell. As to the… Read More
Uncategorized Judging experiments 30 Dec 200718 Sep 2017 This is a field in which I am largely ignorant, so I will just report it and leave the commenters to interpret. Collider blog has a discussion of an idea reported by Charm &c. in a paper at arXiv by Bruce Knudsen, proposing that experiments should be assessed using Shannon… Read More