Charbel El-Hani
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charbelelhani.bsky.social
Charbel El-Hani
@charbelelhani.bsky.social
440 followers 350 following 260 posts
I am Full Professor at the Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, working on history, philosophy and science teaching; philosophy of biology; ethnobiology; and ecology and conservation.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
scienceartnews.bsky.social
#Agenda

With
@batistaruan.bsky.social, Valentin Rineau, @ignacioq.bsky.social, Aleksandra Walczak, Guillaume Achaz, @k4tj4.bsky.social - @r3rto.bsky.social, Maël Montévil, @paulvilloutreix.bsky.social, Barbara Bravi, Cyril Rauch, Giuseppe Longo, Anton Robert, @charbelelhani.bsky.social , Ana Soto
November 9, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
gregpriest.bsky.social
Conrad Hal Waddington was born OTD in 1905.

His “epigenetic landscape” is a diagrammatic representation of the constraints influencing embryonic development.

On his 50th birthday, his colleagues gave him a pinball machine on the model of the epigenetic landscape.

🧪 🦫🦋 🌱🐋 #HistSTM #philsci #evobio
November 8, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
dialecticalsys.bsky.social
Marx as a philosophical biologist?

Chris Shambaugh on young Marx's account of organismal agency, its relation to human life to the critique of capitalism.

www.dialecticalsystems.eu/publications...
November 6, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
batistaruan.bsky.social
"Spherical cows and bipedal goats: perspectives on mathematical models in biology". 13 and 14/11/2025 (Salle Jaurès, ENS-PSL, rue d'Ulm, Paris). More info about the event: montevil.org/talks/2025--...
November 1, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
naomioreskes.bsky.social
If you think mis- and disinformation is no big deal , read this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Relative engagement with sources of climate misinformation is growing across social media platforms - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Relative engagement with sources of climate misinformation is growing across social media platforms
www.nature.com
October 24, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
carlbergstrom.com
Yet again, we can't afford to let LLMs become a source of epistemic grounding for society.
Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory
An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC
www.bbc.co.uk
October 24, 2025 at 5:21 AM
charbelelhani.bsky.social
outraspalavras.net/tecnologiaem...
IA e Universidade: Modos de (não) usar | Outras Palavras
Afã de “não ficar para trás” e pressões por desempenho induzem à adoção acrítica da nova tecnologia. Não vale a pena rechaçá-la. Mas é preciso resistir ao risco de que respostas fáceis nos privem do a...
outraspalavras.net
October 23, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
rosetrappes.bsky.social
Is #citizenscience exploitative? I gave a talk on this the other week and now you can check it out online. And hopefully soon I'll get around to writing the paper :)
mcps-philsci.bsky.social Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science @mcps-philsci.bsky.social · Oct 20
Our latest International PostDoc Forum recording is on our YouTube channel now. In this episode, @rosetrappes.bsky.social discusses whether or not citizen science is exploitative. 17 videos in this playlist if you want to do a deep dive.
#philsci
IPDF Autumn 2025. Rose Trappes, University of Bergen Basic
Is Citizen Science Exploitative? 24 Sept 2025
buff.ly
October 23, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
lmesseri.bsky.social
Can the human sciences exist w/out the human? Proposals for using AI as human research subjects suggest yes. But @mjcrockett.bsky.social and I respond with, ‘not so fast.’ In fact, silicon subjects say more about the problems of the research paradigm than the promises of AI. 🚨New article, thread 1/
AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science
Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
lmesseri.bsky.social
I hope you enjoy the paper! There are fun easter eggs hidden throughout, particularly the definition of AI that somehow made it past peer and editorial review and into the glossary. 13/
Artificial Intelligence (AI) domain of multidisciplinary academic inquiry that dates back to the mid-20th century. It has more recently become a successful marketing term deployed by large tech companies to describe a host of automated and semiautomated processes. Given that the purposely underdefined and hype-fueled meaning of AI has taken over more academic definitions, we limit our use of the term to capturing social trends and impulses rather than for referring to a scientific body of work.
October 21, 2025 at 3:47 PM
charbelelhani.bsky.social
www.uu.nl/en/events/de...

First activity in my period as visiting researcher in the Netherlands. It was the colloquium of the Descartes Centre, University of Utrecht, where I am currently as a Senior Fellow. Very happy with how it went.
Descartes Centre Colloquium with Charbel El-Hani (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil)
This colloquium revolves around Transformative transdisciplinarity: Navigating from philosophy to practice.
www.uu.nl
October 21, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
cdutilhnovaes.bsky.social
Congrats @davidludwig.bsky.social and @charbelelhani.bsky.social 🥳 it’s an amazing book that should be widely read!
davidludwig.bsky.social David Ludwig @davidludwig.bsky.social · Oct 20
The open access pdf has been out for a while but so much more exciting to hold the physical book in my hands!
October 20, 2025 at 9:45 AM
charbelelhani.bsky.social
Estamos de volta, We-MNF com uma manifestação da mais pura beleza, entre o romance e a distopia! Quer saber mais? Assista ao episódio!

youtu.be/OLUOan-JjUg
It's raining today - Scott Walker - We-MNF: Reação e comentário
YouTube video by We-MNF
youtu.be
October 19, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
kohngregory.bsky.social
Wonderful article by @olivia.science. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...
AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education
Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.
www.project-syndicate.org
October 18, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
davidludwig.bsky.social
There are still a few days to submit an abstract to this great @tapuya.org Special Issue on "Transdisciplinary research for socio-environmental challenges" that grew out of our Global Epistemologies and Ontologies (GEOS) Project.
October 10, 2025 at 11:52 AM
charbelelhani.bsky.social
We-MNF volta essa semana com uma faixa maravilhosa de M. Efekt, melodia linda, vocal magistral e um solo de guitarra matador de Radim Hladík. Diretamente da Tchecoslováquia em 1977!

youtu.be/kAM35JjIUHI
Ej, Padá, Padá Rosenka - M. Efekt - We-MNF: Reação e comentário
YouTube video by We-MNF
youtu.be
September 30, 2025 at 12:53 PM
charbelelhani.bsky.social
We-MNF com duas novidades, em português e com o primeiro convidado, Maestro Vinícius Vivas, que trouxe um clássico dos Beatles para a nossa conversa!

youtu.be/5_zu1Jt2ao4
Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles - We-MNF: Reação e Comentário, com Vinicius Vivas como convidado.
YouTube video by We-MNF
youtu.be
September 23, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
filosofemas.bsky.social
Finally! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/w...?
Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years in Prison for Plotting Coup in Brazil
www.nytimes.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
letcesar.bsky.social
Boa fala do Dino. Nos EUA foi dada anistia, e não houve pacificação - muito pelo contrário!
September 11, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
deborahleao.bsky.social
Dear friends from other countries:

please join the Brazilians as we celebrate this groundbreaking decision.
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · Sep 11
A majority of Brazil's Supreme Court judges have voted to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro of plotting to overturn the 2022 election. https://cnn.it/3VIY1Cn
September 11, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
roto-rub.bsky.social
New semester, new lecture series 🎉Starting next month, we welcome amazing scholars to give online talks in the history and philosophy of life sciences. Find all dates and registration links here: rotorub.wordpress.com/roto-lecture...
We look forward to seeing you there 🤗
#PhilSci #HistSci #HPBio
Overview of the ROTO Lecture Series in the winter semester 2025/2026. The talks will be: - "Race Reification and Population Descriptors in Human Genomics" by Celso Neto (University of Exeter) - "Understanding plant holobionts through complexity science" by César Marín (Universidad Santo Tomás) - "What is Dialectical Biology?" by Chris Shambaugh (University of Oregon) - "Learning from Partial Overlaps Between Knowledge Systems" by Charbel El-Hani (Federal University of Bahia) - "21st century eugenics, scientific racism and the role of academia in promoting political ideology" by Rebecca Sear (Brunel University London) - "The Organism and the System: Boundary Crossings in 20th Century Science" by Libby O’Neil (Mississippi State University)
September 10, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
wdet.bsky.social
For decades, fossil fuel companies championed the myth of a personal carbon footprint. @naomioreskes.bsky.social sat down with @thenomadicheart.bsky.social to explain how we can move beyond guilt and toward more meaningful climate solutions 🌎
The Metro: The carbon footprint myth and where real climate solutions begin - WDET 101.9 FM
Oil companies sold us the carbon footprint myth. Experts explain how to move beyond guilt and toward collective climate solutions.
wdet.org
September 4, 2025 at 4:00 PM
charbelelhani.bsky.social
If you don't know Rodriguez, you should! What a great experience! And We-MNF opens the door for it!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFu9...
Sandrevan Lullaby + Lifestyles - Rodriguez - We-MNF: Reaction and commentary
YouTube video by We-MNF
www.youtube.com
September 7, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Charbel El-Hani
olivia.science
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI (black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf. Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al. 2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 AM