The new governmental order in the US to replace the term "artificial intelligence" with "super intelligence" means many things including: companies will shoulder even less legal responsibility for any damage which they cause - it's the 'agent's doing;

More popular press on non-neuronal memories from @shilabanerjee.bsky.social. Interestingly enough, Banerjee notes the following: "Using the broadest definition of learning, our findings show that memory and learning can emerge from chemical networks in a cell, with no brain or neurons of any kind"

Learning without a brain – how bacteria store memories and remember the past like artificial neural networks

Bacteria use strategies similar to artificial neural networks to use the past to adapt to the future.

theconversation.com

new paper by Bechtel and Bich - The last‐step integrator thesis: Heterarchical control of the mammalian gastrointestinal tract physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

As simulations grow in complexity, a set of non-trivial issues emerge: diminished identifiability as free parameters become too numerous relative to exp. constraints & difficulties grasping causality. In our new 📄, we point to potential avenues to move #CellBio forward 👇 arxiv.org/abs/2608.06998

Simulating is not always understanding: When model complexity obscures biology

In cell biology, computational models of biological systems range from minimal representations with a handful of parameters to whole-cell simulations tracking thousands of molecular species across a c...

arxiv.org

The Ramsey Lab@theramseylab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New 📄 🚨! #CellBio is teeming with simulations comprising an extraordinarily high number of components. We argue that model complexity will not automatically lead to a better understanding of biological systems & discuss how modeling practices could be repurposed: arxiv.org/abs/2608.06998 #philsci

Looking forward to our SAPoLSN workshop –  'Philosophy meets the Life Sciences' – at Macquarie University in circa two weeks. sapolsn.com/event/2026-w...

2026 Workshop | SAPoLSN

Philosophy Meets the Life Sciences

sapolsn.com

Whither maladaptation? @imprintedgene.bsky.social reviews Philip Madgwick's 'Maladaptation: Natural Selection in the Wrong Direction?' for BioScience. academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

Adaptation: the good, the bad, and the ugly

Organisms appear remarkably well designed to live their lives. A seal, which seems all waddle and blubber on land, is transformed when it enters the water.

academic.oup.com

*NEW PAPER* On why selfish elements thrive when ecological conditions permit soft selection. With @martijnschenkel.bsky.social and Manus Patten. Now available for early view on @jevbio.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

The Ecological Theatre of Selfish Elements

Abstract. Some selfish genetic elements enhance their transmission to the next generation by interfering with and eliminating competing variants within the

academic.oup.com

Next year is the centenary of the publication of Elton's Animal Ecology - excellent idea for a Special Issue of @animalecology.bsky.social animalecologyinfocus.com/2026/06/30/2...

Celebrating 100 years since the publication of Charles Elton’s Animal Ecology

Reflections from our Executive Editor, Dr Nate Sanders Image of Charles Elton. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Nearly 100 years ago, a 27-year-old Charles Elton published Animal Ecology, a foundational b…

animalecologyinfocus.com

Interesting new paper on cellular memory - link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Of what is “cellular memory” the name? Perspectives across the life sciences - Biology & Philosophy

In contemporary life sciences, memory is increasingly attributed well beyond its paradigmatic uses in psychology and cognitive science.Immunological and epigenetic memory are among the best-known unco...

link.springer.com

Brilliant new article by Mazviita Chirimuuta link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A Mark of the Noncognitive - Biological Theory

Proponents of the idea of basal cognition clash with those seeking to restrict the term “cognitive” to systems showing human-like capacities. The impasse over the definition of cognition is unlikely t...

link.springer.com

Wired sets the frame that the model “escaped containment,” but from an accountability perspective, OpenAI left a door open by failing to properly isolate their system. Real headline: “OpenAI’s security failure leads to cyberattack against another AI company.”

We are delighted to invite you to the interdisciplinary workshop of @animalinvention.bsky.social on Agency between Biology and Philosophy. It will take place at UCL and online on 22-23 September. All info and registration details can be found here: www.animalinventiveness.com/post/interna...

New episode!!🎙️🎉 A conversation w/ Dr. Janet Browne about Charles Darwin. Darwin's ideas continue to reverberate across the intellectual landscape. But where did they come from? How did they grow out of his travels, his social circle, and his cast of mind? Listen: disi.org/the-origins-...

Very honoured that Toshiyuki Nakagaki has reviewed my book 'Slime Mould and Philosophy' for the The Quarterly Review of Biology: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

Lab-created ‘SpudCell’ marks ‘stunning’ step toward building life from scratch | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Lab-created ‘SpudCell’ marks ‘stunning’ step toward building life from scratch

A synthetic cell can now grow and divide—but it’s still far from alive

science.org

➡️ New article out! ⬅️ What Lives? A Meta-Analysis of Diverse Opinions on the Definition of Life by Reed Bender, Karina Kofman, Blaise Agüera y Arcas & Michael Levin (@blaiseaguera.bsky.social, @drmichaellevin.bsky.social) Open access: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

What Lives? A Meta-Analysis of Diverse Opinions on the Definition of Life - Biological Theory

The question of "what is life?" has challenged scientists and philosophers for centuries, producing an array of definitions that reflect both the mystery of its emergence and the diversity of discipli...

link.springer.com

The special issue of Biological Theory "Continually Discovering Complexity: Essays in Honor of William Bechtel" is finally out with all the contributions, including ours! @lauramenatti.bsky.social #philbio #philmed @biologicaltheory.bsky.social link.springer.com/journal/1375...

Biological Theory

Biological Theory is devoted to theoretical advances in the fields of evolution and cognition with an emphasis on the conceptual integration afforded by ...

link.springer.com

Delighted to see this new paper appear, led by @singhal.bsky.social with @birchlse.bsky.social and me - out now in TiCS 👇🏽

Ishan Singhal@singhal.bsky.social · 4mo ago

If our experiences unfold like a stream over time, how would this stream unfold in other animal species? Together with @birchlse.bsky.social and @anilseth.bsky.social, a review of temporal illusions and a path for temporal phenomenology in animals! a 🧵/n www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

www.quantamagazine.org/are-memories...

Are Memories Transferable — or Edible? | Quanta Magazine

In the 1960s, worm-training experiments and their strange implications captivated the nation. Columnist Claire L. Evans follows the neuroscientists who attempted to recapture the magic.

quantamagazine.org

Mindscape 342 | Rachell Powell on Evolutionary Convergence, Mind, and Morality. Do social structures, like eyes and fins, arise independently from evolutionary pressures? #MindscapePodcast www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026...

asabpsgbwinter.github.io/2026/

Re-reading Bateson and Gluckman's Plasticity and Robustness. Poignant and masterful prose: “...no phenotype is such that only genes are needed for its development in the sense that they could, like Japanese flowers, be dropped into water and open up” (Bateson and Gluckman 2011, p. 12).

A first co-authored piece with the brilliant @hamishlinehan.bsky.social: Natural Born Historians open.substack.com/pub/thememor...

Natural Born Historians

Hamish Linehan (University of Stirling) and Matthew Sims (Macquarie University)

open.substack.com

#hpbio!

Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda@alejandrofabregastejeda.com · 5mo ago

It is publication day for The Organism-Environment Pairing (@mitpress.bsky.social)! This 📗 has been deeply formative for me as a scholar, and it owes so much to so many wonderful people. I truly hope it finds many readers! mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282... #booksky #philsci #histsci #philsky #evosky

I'm very excited to take part in the workshop 'Lineages, Complexity, and Evolution' at the Universidad de Oviedo. I'll be presenting a paper that Pierrick Bourrat and I have been working on. Looking forward to engaging with some fantastic philosophers of biology.

I'm extremely excited to be taking part in this workshop at the University of Murcia next week! embodiedcomparativepsychology.square.site

The Institute of Philosophy I at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, seeks applications for 1 PostDoc position (3 yr) and 2 PhD positions (4 yr) in the Project BOTLEG – Botanical Legacies: Towards a New History and Philosophy of Virtual Herbaria”, PI Dr. Jan Baedke. cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1...

Botanical Legacies: Towards a New History and Philosophy of Virtual Herbaria | BOTLEG | Project | Fact Sheet | HORIZON | CORDIS | European Commission

This project sets the foundation for a more inclusive, theoretically sound, and socially just botany of the 21st century. Herbaria hold ca. 400 million preserved plant specimens worldwide. They are vi...

cordis.europa.eu

This brilliant monograph is now available! Huge congrats to Alejandro Fábregas Tejeda. mitpress.mit.edu/978026205282...

An insightful new(ish) paper by Mazviita Chirimuuta on the structuralist foundations of AI. Chttps://philosophymindscience.org/index.php/phimisci/article/view/11992

There are still three more days to register for what will undoubtably be a fantastic workshop at the University of Cambridge organised by Marta Halina and Mariel Goddu www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/49983/

The Unfolding World: Causal & physical cognition in humans and other animals - CRASSH

Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

crassh.cam.ac.uk