Biological Interest Group
Meeting time: Friday mornings 10:15-11:30 am Central time
Meeting place: Hybrid format: 737 Heller Hall and online via Zoom.
The biological interest group (BIG) reads and discusses works of mutual interest in the history and philosophy of biology. We select readings for a variety of reasons: to keep up on the most exciting developments in the field, to help participants scrutinize literature relevant to their research projects (faculty or graduate student research), to provide feedback on works in progress being written by BIG participants (graduate students, faculty, and Center visitors), to revisit classic articles in the literature, and sometimes just to have fun discussing a topic related to biology. For more information, please contact Alan Love (aclove@umn.edu).
Our meetings are informal and some participants need to arrive late or leave early because of scheduling conflicts. All faculty from the University of Minnesota and area colleges and universities and graduate students are welcome to attend whenever they would like (without invitation) and without giving advanced notice. Undergraduates are included by invitation. (If you know of an undergraduate who is well-suited and possibly interested, please contact Alan Love at aclove@umn.edu so an invitation can be extended.)
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Fall 2024
September 6: Robinson, D.G., et al. 2024. Mother trees, altruistic fungi, and the perils of plant personification. Trends in Plant Science 29:20-31. (pdf opens in new tab)
September 13: Gamboa, JP. Work-in-progress. Neuroscientists Do Not Seek Realizers of Cognition (pdf opens in new tab)
September 20: Hoquet, T. 2024. Darwin and the White Shipwrecked Sailor: Beyond Blending Inheritance and the Jenkin Myth. Journal of the History of Biology 57:17–49 DOI: 10.1007/s10739-024-09770-y (pdf opens in new tab)
September 27: Depew, D. 2024. Richard Lewontin and Theodosius Dobzhansky: Genetics, Race, and the Anxiety of Influence. Biological Theory 19:151–167. DOI: 10.1007/s13752-023-00452-2 (pdf opens in new tab)
October 4: Schneider, T. 2024. The Microbiome Function in a Host Organism: A Medical Puzzle or an Essential Ecological Environment? Biological Theory 19:44–55 (pdf opens in new tab)
October 11: Ross, L.N. forthcoming. Cascade versus Mechanism: The Diversity of Causal Structure in Science. British Journal for Philosophy of Science. https://doi.org/10.1086/723623
Lauren Ross, UC Irvine will be visiting.
October 18: No Meeting
October 25:
November 1: Aleta Quinn, University of Idaho will be visiting
November 8:
November 15: No Meeting
November 22:
November 29: No Meeting, Thanksgiving
December 6:
December 13: Felipe De Brigard, Duke University will be visiting