Tessera

SPAN@socphilneuro.bsky.social · 3w ago

SPAN was a very good conference the first time around, so I encourage scholars to submit to its second meeting. Follow @socphilneuro.bsky.social for their updates:

We're very happy to announce that SPAN2027 will be held at NYU on May 20-22, 2027. The conference will be hosted by the NYU Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness 🧠 A call for proposals will come soon!

John Graham Dalyell said of a planarian worm that it "is privileged to multiply its species in proportion to the violence offered to its otherwise delicate frame. It may almost be called immortal under the edge of the knife." New research addresses neurogenesis during planarian regeneration:

Combinatorial mechanisms specify cellular location and neurotransmitter identity during planarian neurogenesis - Nature Communications

During regeneration, new neurons need to be made in a way that reproduces both neuronal diversity and organization. Here the authors show that a combination of factors works cooperatively to direct ne...

nature.com

David Colaço@davidcolaco.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The International Symposium on the Connection Between Physics and Metabolism in Brain Functions is soon, with talks on: Quantum Biology Physical Approaches to Brain Metabolism Mechanodiseases Clinical Translation and Patient Perspectives And me closing on metabolism and cognition Please share

October 9th, I will give the closing lecture at the 3rd International Symposium on the Connection Between Physics and Metabolism in Brain Functions. It will take place in Barcelona. Registration is open. Junior scholars can apply for travel scholarships #philsci, #cogsci, #neuroskyence, #philsky

David Colaço @davidcolaco.bsky.social · 4w ago

Hivemind: does anyone here have experience with (and ideally recommendations for) hosting services for academic podcasts? If so, please respond to this post or contact me directly.

The sign on the back entrance to the office:

Shiladitya Banerjee@shilabanerjee.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A thread on bacterial learning and memory:

1/ Can a single bacterium learn? No brain, no neurons, just one cell deciding what to do next. Our new paper says yes, and the cell's internal machinery turns out to compute exactly like a recurrent neural network. 🔗 journals.aps.org/prxlife/abstract/10.1103/5zbg-8vll

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

The Philosophy of Memory Organization @phomode-vp.bsky.social keeps a set of teaching resources, including sample syllabi, here. www.phomo.org/teaching-res... This includes a course I have taught a couple of terms ago on "Topics in Philosophy of Memory" at LMU Munich. #cogsci #philsky #philsci

Teaching resources | The Philosophy of Memory Organization

A repository of teaching resources for courses that bear on philosophical issues about memory.

phomo.org

David Colaço@davidcolaco.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is the main case I discuss in "Detecting Phenomena in Datasets: Is the Rest Noise?" link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

My chapter in this anthology deals with this case: #philsci

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 2mo ago

Psychological Science special issue call 📣 Ever had your research denigrated bc it's "only descriptive", "what's the mechanism though?" and "but what are the theoretical implications?" Now has come your time to shine. Send your best descriptive work! www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

Psychological Science invites submissions that advance psychological science through careful description of psychological phenomena. Psychological research often focuses on explaining and predicting phenomena before we have a sufficiently detailed understanding of them. It can be difficult to build strong theories on incomplete empirical foundations of the phenomena themselves. Careful descriptive research helps establish shared empirical reference points developed around well-characterized phenomena. As such, descriptive research contributes to psychological science both by improving our understanding of the phenomena themselves and by providing a stronger foundation for future theory-building, explanation, and prediction.

We are interested in manuscripts that:

Deepen our understanding of psychological phenomena, including what they look like, how they vary, and how they unfold;
Draw on a variety of sources of evidence and methods, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches; research conducted in naturalistic settings; intensive, longitudinal, or small-sample designs; and open or large-scale datasets;
Provide necessary context for interpreting what is being described, including who is represented in the data, the settings and circumstances in which phenomena occur, and the broader social contexts in which they are situated; and/or
Make a substantive contribution to psychological science through the quality, depth, or significance of the description provided.
The deadline for submitting regular manuscripts is April 15, 2027. Registered Reports will also be considered. The deadline for submitting Stage 1 Registered Reports is November 15, 2026. Authors should indicate in the “Comments to Editor” box during submission that the manuscript is intended for the “Descriptive Research in Psychological Science” special issue.

My chapter in the book "Scientific Mistakes and Mistaken Science: Malfunction, Error, Failure" is now available online: My chapter is titled: "Detecting Phenomena in Datasets: Is the Rest Noise?" (This is microwave oven case) #philsci #philsky link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Detecting Phenomena in Datasets: Is the Rest Noise?

When detecting scientific phenomena, researchers often aim to separate datasets into signal and noise. This signal-noise distinction captures that not all data one collects are relevant to this phenom...

link.springer.com

Matthew Sims@philosobio.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New work by Héloïse Athéa and Guillaume Montagnac on memory definitions and concepts. From their abstract (and relevant to me): --We argue that cellular memory is heuristically productive and can be understood as a “definition as a hypothesis.”--

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

jen liu@uilnej.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If anyone is interested in what data centers, this work provides first- and second-hand experiences of it, along with historical, social, and political context for the building of AI infrastructure:

In re: to recent news about the Meta data center, Sheila Tahir and I are sharing our zine, "Ghosts in the Cloud: A Southern Gothic Approach to Studying AI Infrastructure" based on a trip to the hypderscaler construction site in spring 2026.

David Colaço@davidcolaco.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The syllabus for my course Philosophy of Scientific Communication is now available here. Please share to anyone who might be interested in teaching a course like this (and kindly give me an acknowledgment if you use it): drive.google.com/file/d/1LDKY...

Colaco Philosophy of Scientific Communication Syllabus.pdf

drive.google.com

Several people seemed interested in my Philosophy of Scientific Communication course, so here is my schedule of readings. Thanks to everyone for their help; I hope to get to additional topics mentioned using these as the anchors:

My @lmu-mcmp.bsky.social colleauges have launched a new diamond open access journal, The Journal of Mathematical Philosophy: mathematicalphilosophy.org/mathphil/abo... If you have work in areas of mathematical philosophy (broadly understood), consider submitting:

mathematicalphilosophy.org

Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy@lmu-mcmp.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I had a good time speaking as an MCMP fellow on metabolism, cognition, and computation. The Summer School Students have things to say about cognition, computation, and computationalism. #philsci, #cogsci, #philsky

We had a wonderful 2026 Summer School for Widening Participation in Mathematical Philosophy at @lmu.de! Many thanks to the terrific participants from all over the world and to the fantastic lecturers Dunja Šešelja [Bochum], Xueyin (Snow) Zhang [Berkeley], and @sabinaleonelli.bsky.social [@tum.de]!

Melissa Jacquart @mjacquart.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Philosophers of the PSA #philsci @philsci.bsky.social: 2 reminders of deadlines on August 1st from the PSA Outreach and Engagement Committee! PSA Outreach & Engagement Prize, and AAAS | SciLine Workshop!... 1/4

International Symposium on the Connection Between Physics and Metabolism in Brain Functions

Discover emerging research on quantum biology, mechanobiology and cognition through expert-led sessions connecting science, medicine and innovation.

formacion.sjdhospitalbarcelona.org

For those interested in memory transfer (the topic of my book): #16mmfilmography (avgeeks.bsky.social) hosts The Way Out Men, a documentary that features James V. McConnell studying his cannibal worms (featured at 9:45): 16mmfilmography.org/film/the-way... #hps #philsky

The Way Out Men (Part One) — 16mm Filmography

16mmfilmography.org

This Friday, I will be helping with the @lmu-mcmp.bsky.social Summer School for Widening Participation in Mathematical Philosophy. I will speak on "Thinking about metabolism when modeling cognition":