Marshall Abrams
@marshall0i.bsky.social
Philosopher of science, occasional scientist. Phil of:
ev biol, probability, modeling, stat inference. Book: Evolution and the Machinery of Chance. Activity here as private citizen, not as rep of nor supported by employer. https://marshallalmostsurely.com
ev biol, probability, modeling, stat inference. Book: Evolution and the Machinery of Chance. Activity here as private citizen, not as rep of nor supported by employer. https://marshallalmostsurely.com
Pinned
Marshall Abrams
@marshall0i.bsky.social
· Jun 13
My book Evolution and the Machinery of Chance came out two years ago; I haven't posted a summary here 'til now. It's for philosophers of science and biologists interested in questions about the nature and role of #probability in evolutionary processes, esp. #naturalselection. 🐋🌱 #philsci #evobio 1/9
Many Long COVID trials have reported negative results in 2024 and 2025. In our Comment for @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social we argue that inadequate outcome measures might have played a role. (1/12)
November 11, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
Have you registered for #AAHPSSS2025 yet? The conference will be held in hybrid format at the University of Queensland, 3–5 December 2025. It’s a small community, which makes it a great opportunity for really good feedback and collaboration.
#HPS #philsky #philsci
More: @aahpsss.bsky.social
#HPS #philsky #philsci
More: @aahpsss.bsky.social
2025 Conference
2025 AAHPSSS Conference The 2025 conference of the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (AAHPSSS) will be held in a hybrid format at the Universit…
aahpsss.net.au
November 10, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Have you registered for #AAHPSSS2025 yet? The conference will be held in hybrid format at the University of Queensland, 3–5 December 2025. It’s a small community, which makes it a great opportunity for really good feedback and collaboration.
#HPS #philsky #philsci
More: @aahpsss.bsky.social
#HPS #philsky #philsci
More: @aahpsss.bsky.social
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
Some of you may know #philsci #philbio Subrena Smith, Prof of #philosophy at UNH. Her family in Jamaica lives in one of parishes hardest hit by Hurricane Melissa: Westmoreland. She & David are raising funds to support them w/ generators, supplies, truck water in to them, etc. Please donate if can!
November 8, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Some of you may know #philsci #philbio Subrena Smith, Prof of #philosophy at UNH. Her family in Jamaica lives in one of parishes hardest hit by Hurricane Melissa: Westmoreland. She & David are raising funds to support them w/ generators, supplies, truck water in to them, etc. Please donate if can!
Oops…“Principal components (PC) axes
identified by a PCA are not necessarily the most informative biologically. Nevertheless, paleoanthropologists frequently interpret proximity in PC space as indicative of morphological and thus evolutionary affinity or relatedness”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
identified by a PCA are not necessarily the most informative biologically. Nevertheless, paleoanthropologists frequently interpret proximity in PC space as indicative of morphological and thus evolutionary affinity or relatedness”
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Principal Components Analysis fails to recover phylogenetic structure in hominins
Objectives Paleoanthropologists often utilize geometric morphometrics and principal components analysis (PCA) to interpret shape variation within the hominin fossil record. It is common practice to in...
www.biorxiv.org
November 8, 2025 at 10:18 PM
We're hiring in history of science at UW Madison! TT Assistant Professorship with a focus on water. Joint appointment between the History and Integrated Liberal Studies depts, and part of a university-wide hiring cluster on earth/sustainability science. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/profess... #STS #HSMT
Professor of History - Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...
jobs.wisc.edu
November 8, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
Join us for "How Science is Changing," a free interdisciplinary panel discussion! Scholars from across North America discuss the evolving nature of science.
🗓️ Nov 20th, 6 PM
📍 @cincymuseum.bsky.social w/ @philsci.bsky.social
Free, open to all, parking included! RSVP:
🔗 forms.gle/3Ei7GM91LTmy...
🗓️ Nov 20th, 6 PM
📍 @cincymuseum.bsky.social w/ @philsci.bsky.social
Free, open to all, parking included! RSVP:
🔗 forms.gle/3Ei7GM91LTmy...
November 8, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Join us for "How Science is Changing," a free interdisciplinary panel discussion! Scholars from across North America discuss the evolving nature of science.
🗓️ Nov 20th, 6 PM
📍 @cincymuseum.bsky.social w/ @philsci.bsky.social
Free, open to all, parking included! RSVP:
🔗 forms.gle/3Ei7GM91LTmy...
🗓️ Nov 20th, 6 PM
📍 @cincymuseum.bsky.social w/ @philsci.bsky.social
Free, open to all, parking included! RSVP:
🔗 forms.gle/3Ei7GM91LTmy...
Thinking only of Rosalind Franklin today, and what was stolen from her (and so many other female scientists alongside her).
Rosalind Franklin and the damage of gender harassment
Spurred by a recent report on sexual harassment in academia, our columnist revisits a historical case and reflects on what has changed—and what hasn’t
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
I'm so grateful to receive this gracious & thoughtful review of my book that I want to quote the whole thing, but I'll content myself w/ a screenshot and point you to the rest at doi.org/10.1558/jsrn...
There is nothing better than hearing that you achieved the goals you set out to achieve. 🌱🐋 🌎 📗
There is nothing better than hearing that you achieved the goals you set out to achieve. 🌱🐋 🌎 📗
November 6, 2025 at 7:15 PM
I'm so grateful to receive this gracious & thoughtful review of my book that I want to quote the whole thing, but I'll content myself w/ a screenshot and point you to the rest at doi.org/10.1558/jsrn...
There is nothing better than hearing that you achieved the goals you set out to achieve. 🌱🐋 🌎 📗
There is nothing better than hearing that you achieved the goals you set out to achieve. 🌱🐋 🌎 📗
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
If you know an undergrad that would like to spend the summer doing research in my philosophy of biology lab, encourage them to apply to the U’s SPUR program. Includes a $5,000 stipend and subsidized housing to work in my lab.
Details and how to apply here:
tinyurl.com/SPUR-PhilBio...
Details and how to apply here:
tinyurl.com/SPUR-PhilBio...
The Philosophy of Biology Lab: Entangled Lineages, Classification, and Individuality - Office of Undergraduate Research
tinyurl.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:13 PM
If you know an undergrad that would like to spend the summer doing research in my philosophy of biology lab, encourage them to apply to the U’s SPUR program. Includes a $5,000 stipend and subsidized housing to work in my lab.
Details and how to apply here:
tinyurl.com/SPUR-PhilBio...
Details and how to apply here:
tinyurl.com/SPUR-PhilBio...
🧪🦋Found this really old book in the @romtoronto.bsky.social entomology collection. Probably from the 1800s. Looks like the draft of an early Canadian entomology textbook. Trying to figure out the author & year. Any thoughts?🪰🐛 (E.M. Walker was the 1st curator @ROM, might be his?)
November 5, 2025 at 10:43 PM
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
November 5, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
HAHR author Rick A. López discusses his research on the history of botany in Mexico with the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast. newbooksnetwork.com/rooted-in-pl...
Rick A López, "Rooted in Place: Botany, Indigeneity, and Art in the Construction of Mexican Nature, 1570-1914" (U Arizona Press, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:30 PM
HAHR author Rick A. López discusses his research on the history of botany in Mexico with the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast. newbooksnetwork.com/rooted-in-pl...
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
New Element in the #PhilBio series—free to download until Nov 17! Is disease an objective biological fact or a value-laden construct? Peter Takacs argues for a hybrid view that unites both sides under an evolutionary notion of dysfunction👇 www.cambridge.org/core/element... #philsky #philsci #evosky
November 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM
New Element in the #PhilBio series—free to download until Nov 17! Is disease an objective biological fact or a value-laden construct? Peter Takacs argues for a hybrid view that unites both sides under an evolutionary notion of dysfunction👇 www.cambridge.org/core/element... #philsky #philsci #evosky
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
The thematic issue I co-edited with @javiersuarez.bsky.social "Complicating the Concept of Lineage" is online. Includes papers by Javier & @phieveigl.bsky.social, @lucielaplane.bsky.social, François Papale, Kate MacCord and me. See reply for links to articles:
doi.org/10.1007/s137...
doi.org/10.1007/s137...
Complicating the Concept of Lineage: A Topical Collection - Biological Theory
Biological Theory -
doi.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:35 PM
The thematic issue I co-edited with @javiersuarez.bsky.social "Complicating the Concept of Lineage" is online. Includes papers by Javier & @phieveigl.bsky.social, @lucielaplane.bsky.social, François Papale, Kate MacCord and me. See reply for links to articles:
doi.org/10.1007/s137...
doi.org/10.1007/s137...
For anyone interested, new paperback of The Riddle of Organismal Agency, eds. Fábregas-Tejeda, Baedke, Prieto, Radick, is $11 less at Routledge than at Amazon, bn.com, has free shipping, and looks like it will arrive sooner. Don't know about other Routledge books. #hpbio.
November 3, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
Call for papers: Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate". Deadline: March 31, 2026. Guest editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili & myself, @unibe.ch. Looking forward to your contributions!
philevents.org/event/show/1...
#philsci
philevents.org/event/show/1...
#philsci
Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate"
Call for Papers: Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate
Guest Editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili and Frederick Britt (University of Bern)
Topical Collection Description:
It has...
philevents.org
November 1, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Call for papers: Synthese Topical Collection "Meta-Level Reflections on the Scientific Realism Debate". Deadline: March 31, 2026. Guest editors: Matthias Egg, Mahdi Khalili & myself, @unibe.ch. Looking forward to your contributions!
philevents.org/event/show/1...
#philsci
philevents.org/event/show/1...
#philsci
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
New internship opportunity!
The American Philosophical Society and CSHL invite applications for a joint summer internship program for undergraduates working on junior or senior research projects related to the history of the life sciences.
More info here: apply.interfolio.com/174285
The American Philosophical Society and CSHL invite applications for a joint summer internship program for undergraduates working on junior or senior research projects related to the history of the life sciences.
More info here: apply.interfolio.com/174285
October 29, 2025 at 8:45 PM
New internship opportunity!
The American Philosophical Society and CSHL invite applications for a joint summer internship program for undergraduates working on junior or senior research projects related to the history of the life sciences.
More info here: apply.interfolio.com/174285
The American Philosophical Society and CSHL invite applications for a joint summer internship program for undergraduates working on junior or senior research projects related to the history of the life sciences.
More info here: apply.interfolio.com/174285
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o... (gift link)
Opinion | Why Even Basic A.I. Use Is So Bad for Students
www.nytimes.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:27 PM
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o... (gift link)
October 29, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
What is it like #inside a #honeybee hive? You would see several parallel combs covered with workers, doing their jobs. It would be dark. This is a view, in red light, which we can see but bees cannot. From an installation at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor. #BlueSkyArtShow #insects #photography
October 25, 2025 at 10:34 PM
What is it like #inside a #honeybee hive? You would see several parallel combs covered with workers, doing their jobs. It would be dark. This is a view, in red light, which we can see but bees cannot. From an installation at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor. #BlueSkyArtShow #insects #photography
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
New England Journal of Medicine & Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) to begin publishing “public health alerts”
“...will basically serve to be a way to convey the info. that once was shared in the MMWR,” to be published in new section of NEJM Evidence as needed w/ free access🛟
“...will basically serve to be a way to convey the info. that once was shared in the MMWR,” to be published in new section of NEJM Evidence as needed w/ free access🛟
NEJM and public health group are launching rival to CDC’s MMWR publication
Two institutions are coming together to create an alternative to the CDC’s vaunted Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
www.statnews.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:03 AM
New England Journal of Medicine & Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) to begin publishing “public health alerts”
“...will basically serve to be a way to convey the info. that once was shared in the MMWR,” to be published in new section of NEJM Evidence as needed w/ free access🛟
“...will basically serve to be a way to convey the info. that once was shared in the MMWR,” to be published in new section of NEJM Evidence as needed w/ free access🛟
Not #philbio, but could be of extra interest to some folks there (here).
Myself and Alastair Wilson wrote an updated version of our 2016 primer to quantitative genetics in the wild: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... Happy to share a copy if interested. It is also on research gate
Quantitative Genetics in Natural Populations
Phenotypes evolve under natural selection if, and only if, they are genetically variable. While evolutionary ecologists have long studied natural sele…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 21, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Not #philbio, but could be of extra interest to some folks there (here).
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
New paper in @philscijournal.bsky.social! Sacha Ferrari, Wouter Lammers & Sylvia Wenmackers built an agent-based model to explore how the structure of scientific #networks shapes the public uptake of science—especially under uncertainty & affinity bias👇 doi.org/10.1017/psa.... #philsci #philsky #HPS
October 20, 2025 at 3:32 PM
New paper in @philscijournal.bsky.social! Sacha Ferrari, Wouter Lammers & Sylvia Wenmackers built an agent-based model to explore how the structure of scientific #networks shapes the public uptake of science—especially under uncertainty & affinity bias👇 doi.org/10.1017/psa.... #philsci #philsky #HPS
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
yoooooo does anyone have a PDF of
- Julius Schaxel, Vergesellschaftung in der Natur. Jena: Urania, 1931.
or institutional access? would love to get a better sense of what’s in the book!
- Julius Schaxel, Vergesellschaftung in der Natur. Jena: Urania, 1931.
or institutional access? would love to get a better sense of what’s in the book!
need these Julius Schaxel diamat biology hardcovers bad
October 16, 2025 at 3:40 PM
yoooooo does anyone have a PDF of
- Julius Schaxel, Vergesellschaftung in der Natur. Jena: Urania, 1931.
or institutional access? would love to get a better sense of what’s in the book!
- Julius Schaxel, Vergesellschaftung in der Natur. Jena: Urania, 1931.
or institutional access? would love to get a better sense of what’s in the book!