I finally wrote something new! This one's short, and full of images-- most notably, a "lost" image of the Burgess critter Sidneyia bearing the feeding appendages of a radiodont (a relative of Anomalocaris), published in 1918. Cambrian buffs, this one's for you... www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2026...

All the better to catch you with, my dear — Extinct

In which Max presents a lost picture from the history of paleontology: Charles Walcott’s “Sidney crab” complete with massive claws (actually the appendages of a large radiodont)

extinctblog.org

More new stuff-- Do you love colloquial writing about the history of geology and evolutionary biology? Loren Eiseley? Puzzles about historical myths? Of course you do! Click that link! www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2026...

"Long live Lyell and his doctrine of uniformitarianism!" — Extinct

In which Max finishes wrestling with a question that has always bugged him: how did uniformitarianism come to be associated with the view that nature’s laws are invariant in time and space? —Part 2 of...

extinctblog.org

Hey! We're still here, and we've got some new stuff on the Extinct blog... This one's for the Lyell stans out there www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2026...

Lyell, interrupted — Extinct

In which Max wrestles with a question that has always bugged him: how did uniformitarianism come to be associated with the view that nature’s laws are invariant in time and space? (It’s interesting, I...

extinctblog.org

Even though our Bluesky account has gone dark (my fault), there are still things happening on the Extinct blog! Most recently, an update of an old essay on actualistic reasoning in the historical sciences, featuring some recent work on Otodus megalodon... www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2026...

From the Archive: Comparisons with Teeth — Extinct

A deep cut: in which Max examines the durability and challenges of actualistic reasoning in paleontology

extinctblog.org

Overheard in North Minneapolis (my 4-year-old son talking to my 2-year-old daughter): "Lucky for us, Farrah, Dunkleosteus is extinct"

Agostino Scilla and the true nature and origin of fossils. #histsci 🧪⚒️ paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/a...

Agostino Scilla and the true nature and origin of fossils.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century and throughout the seventeenth century a great debate about the true nature of and the origin of fossils started in Italy, the cradle of Leonardo and Aldro…

paleonerdish.wordpress.com

My new Gould paper is out today in Paleobiology (OA)! It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my historical work on Stephen Jay Gould’s early career, which explores the curious position of punctuated equilibria in his early vision for evolutionary paleontology www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...

Max’s New Gould paper — Extinct

My new paper in Paleobiology (OA), on some lesser known aspects of the early history of punctuated equilibria, is available to read online. It is, in effect, a synthesis of some of my older work on ...

extinctblog.org

#Lancaster! Join Alison Bashford tonight, Nov 12 at 5pm, @globalaffairslu.bsky.social (with @victorianhand.bsky.social) as she discusses her new book, Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic. #HistSTM #HSTM #HistSci #BookTour #Palmistry buff.ly/jsJZ7Kp

why is James Watson's Times Obit 20,000 words longgggg to unnecessarily intellectualize this, it shows how much the public understanding of science is still organized by the concept of discovery. but that isn't the whole reason

I was just reading about the new documentary, The Marbles, and I thought it was time to repost this. It's an old post in which I ask whether some arguments developed for reuniting the Parthenon Marbles work for natural history specimens, like fossils... www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2023...

From the Archive: Lords of Marble and the Spear — Extinct

In which Max asks what an argument for repatriating a fossil might look like in the absence of demonstrable illegality in the acquisition of that fossil

extinctblog.org

Bluesky sleuths & Ediacaran enthusiasts! I need your help... I found something very weird. It involves Reg Sprigg, discoverer of the Ediacaran fauna, who for 40 years complained about Nature rejecting his discovery announcement. But, the thing is ... (Read on!) www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

What the Actual Hell is Going On (Or, the Great Reg Sprigg Nature Letter "Rejection" Mystery...) — Extinct

In which Max blows your little mind

extinctblog.org

Some trilobite poetry for a lazy Sunday (of a rotten year, of a depressing decade). Courtesy of May Kendall, a satirist and radical sociological thinker, originally writing for Punch magazine

Excited our paper "Are We in a 6th Mass Extinction?" accepted in 2022 is now out @ BJPS! It began as UROP project w/ undergrad Gloria, expanded to a COVID lockdown project w/ Phi-Geo group, Sect 5 became kernel Federica's dissert & Sect 7 Aja's dissertation. Read ⬇️ doi.org/10.1086/722107 #HPS ⚒️

Reminder: the Handbook of the Historiography of the Earth and Environmental Sciences (Springer, 2024), ed. by Elena Aronova, @hallucigenia.bsky.social & Marco Tamborini, is #OpenAccess. Download the PDF here: link.springer.com/referencewor... #histsci #HPS

This week we welcome Prof. Steven Shapin to the pod!🎙️ We explore his journey through interdisciplinary spaces, revisit Leviathan and the Air-Pump 40 years on, and explore how credibility, trust and expertise are shaped by the fragmentation of expertise and (recent) political & cultural challenges

S5 E11 - Steven Shapin on the Social Life of Scientific Knowledge

Podcast Episode · The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · 19/10/2025 · 50m

podcasts.apple.com

#HPBio #histsci #histSTM #evobio #HPS

Quarterly Review of Biology@qrb.bsky.social · 10mo ago

The Quarterly Review of Biology turns 100! We are celebrating our anniversary with free-to-read articles from the archives, through 2026. Learn more: ow.ly/xXli50X7Z5B

A wonderful present arrived in the mail today: @melissacharenko.bsky.social's new book Climate by Proxy! #HPS

Physicists have long been enamored with “beautiful” models—but this seems to have changed in high-energy physics. In his new paper, Martin King argues that experimental contexts strongly determine the pursuitworthiness of “ugly models” 👇📃 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #philsci #philphysics #HPS

Don’t miss our Annual Lecture Series with Angela Potochnik! 📅 Tomorrow, October 10th ⏰ 3:30pm EDT 📍 CL-1008 Title: "Causes Don’t Push" Can't make the talk? Join on Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/94976944388 #ALS #CenterPhilSci

So, back in February I posted the first part of a reading list in the history of geology, intended mostly for people in philosophy and HPS who want to gain a footing in the subject. Here, 8 months later, is Part 2. (You can find the link to Part 1 within...) www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

A History of Geology Reading List, Part 2 — Extinct

In which Max has finally completed his two-part reading list for people interested in learning more about the history of geology

extinctblog.org

Call for papers: Ian Hacking and the Philosophy of Psychiatry. Deadline: 1st February 2026. Guest editors: Şerife Tekin and Jonathan Y. Tsou. Submit your work! think.taylorandfranc... #philsky #philpsy #philsci

🎉 can’t wait to dig into this book - and to add it to my syllabus for philosophers-to-be. The glimpses I’ve seen are full of exciting ideas, and I’m sure the full thing is even richer. #sts #philsci 🙌 to @adrian-currie.bsky.social and @phieveigl.bsky.social for pulling this into existence

Adrian Currie@adrian-currie.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Book launch for “Methods in the Philosophy of Science: a user’s guide”. Ftf in Exeter and online on the 29th of Sept feat Sophie Veigl, Kerry McKenzie, Hasok Chang, and me. It should be fun! (the book will be open access in July, contact me in the meantime) www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai... #philsci

I had a rich and wide-ranging conversation w/ Professor Philip Kitcher for the podcast this week. We discuss his intellectual journey, interventions in creationism, sociobiology & the genome project, his philosophical evolution, and vision for philosophy serving the common good. A real privilege.

S5 E8 - Philip Kitcher on Philosophy for Science and the Common Good

Podcast Episode · The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · 11/09/2025 · 48m

podcasts.apple.com

Florentino Ameghino, the father of Argentinian paleontology, was born #OTD 1854. He became a national icon for his role in creating national science and culture. 🧪⚒️ wp.me/p3ihHu-Af #histsci

Florentino Ameghino, the father of Argentinian paleontology.

Florentino Ameghino was born on September 18, 1854. He came from a family of Italian immigrants who settled in 1854 in the town of Lujan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the extraction and exportati…

wp.me

For Day 16 #sciArtSeptember prompt rift: my portrait of #geologist & oceanographic #cartographer Marie Tharp (1920-2006), whose pioneering, thorough & complete ocean floor maps with Bruce Heezen, made using realms of echo sounder data, revealed the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.⁠ 🐡⚒️🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci ⁠ After studying

CFP on Recent Work in Philosophy of the Historical Sciences special issue Revue Philosophique de Louvain. Abstract 500 words to charles.pence@uclouvain.be & daniel.swaim@marquette.edu, by October 1, 2025. Accepted abstracts full papers due July 1, 2026 pencelab.be/en/events/rp... #HPS #paleosky

Our International Postdoc Forum is a virtual seminar series for early career researchers to share their work w/commentary by MCPS community members. Excited to welcome @rosetrappes.bsky.social (University of Bergen, Norway) at 1215 CT Wed 24 Sept. Sign up for Zoom link. buff.ly/MSAXLgY

In a few weeks, I'll be starting a new role as Research Associate in Natural History Humanities at Cambridge, based at the @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. As part of @camglamresearch.bsky.social, my project will be about 'Re-Excavating the Cambridge School of Geology, 1850–1914'.

Nice obit of Mark Norell in the NYT: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...

Mark Norell, Who Studied Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds, Dies at 68

nytimes.com

Day 13 #SciArtSeptember prompt bottleneck, I’m interpreting literally with Japanese #geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) 🧪🐡👩🏻‍🔬 #histsci who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched 🧵