Miguel Ohnesorge
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miguelohn.bsky.social
Miguel Ohnesorge
@miguelohn.bsky.social
2.1K followers 880 following 110 posts
History & Philosophy of Science @ Boston University
mohnesorgehps.com
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miguelohn.bsky.social
Miguel Ohnesorge @miguelohn.bsky.social · Nov 25
I designed a lecture course on measurement that I will teach at Cambridge in Spring 25 and, in extended form, at Boston University in Fall 25 (drive.google.com/file/d/1w3QE...). t focuses on perennial problems (quantification, scales, evidence) and methods. Happy about feedback. #philsci #philsky
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
A fantastic kickoff tonight of the Boston Network for History & Philosophy of Physics, organized by @miguelohn.bsky.social & featuring talk by Peter Galison on his work with the Black Hole Initiative. #HPS ⚛️
Miguel introducing speaker at first Peter Galison giving a talk
September 19, 2025 at 2:29 AM
miguelohn.bsky.social
New History & Philosophy of Physics network in Boston! Join us: open to locals and visitors. Check out the inaugural colloquium program & sign up to our mailing list and register for the inaugural lecture given by Peter Galison: www.bu.edu/cphs/boston-...

#philsci #histsci #philsky
September 3, 2025 at 2:12 PM
miguelohn.bsky.social
Now out as preprint in Philosophy of Science. l argue that two central desiderata for measures often conflict: quantitativeness and responsiveness to stakeholder values, forcing a choice between them. The conflict poses a challenge for recent work on "legitimate" measurement. doi.org/10.1017/psa....
August 31, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
tespiteri.bsky.social
This week, Cristian Larroulet Philipi joins us to talk about measurement in the human sciences: why it can be more philosophically complex than in the physical sciences, and how it raises pressing questions about the role of numbers in psychology, social science, and policy

#philsci #measurement
S5 E5 - Cristian Larroulet Philippi on Measurement in the Human Sciences
The HPS Podcast - Conversations from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science · Episode
open.spotify.com
August 14, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
erantal.bsky.social
My student, Sebastian Rodriguez Duque, has just successfully defended his dissertation on the role of ethical and social values in measurement. Next stop: two-year postdoc at Cambridge U supervised by @annaalexandrova.bsky.social . Congratulations, Dr. Rodriguez Duque! #philsky #philsci
yashaddad.bsky.social Yasmin Haddad @yashaddad.bsky.social · Aug 11
Huge congratulations to my dear & brilliant friend Sebastian on his thesis defence today, "Values in psychosocial measurement". It's been a privilege to be a part of this journey, Dr. Duque! 🤍 #philsci @erantal.bsky.social
August 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
katysduncan.bsky.social
@naomioreskes.bsky.social's brilliant @rigb.org lecture: how military secrecy delayed plate tectonic theory for 3 decades - a narrative that remains ever relevant to science today...

⚒️ 🧪 #histsci #skystorians #science #academicsky #STS #geoscience @miguelohn.bsky.social
Rethinking the origin of plate tectonics - with Naomi Oreskes
YouTube video by The Royal Institution
youtu.be
August 13, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
A lovely meal the other day in Porto with newlyweds 🎊 Miguel & Maria, where Maria introduced us to a few traditional Portuguese desserts such as "Bacon Pudding" & "Camel Drool" 😂 🐫🐪
A young couple smiling in a restaurant, where the woman is dividing the desserts for everyone to sample.
July 25, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
miguelohn.bsky.social
Join us for this free online event to discuss the meaning, limits, and prospects of assigning numbers to the social and natural world. All online with free registration. #philsci #philsky #histsci #sts #histtech #sociology
erantal.bsky.social Eran Tal @erantal.bsky.social · Jul 6
Onilne workshop on quantification! The Society for the Study of Measurement is delighted to host an event on the philosophy, sociology, and history of quantification across the sciences on August 9. Free with registration. #philsci #philsky #histsci #histtech #sts #sociology 🧪 tinyurl.com/5rn7p7sk
Quantification in History, Philosophy, Sociology, and Practice – The Society for the Study of Measurement
tinyurl.com
July 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
Excited to be heading to the International Society for the History, Philosophy, & Social Studies of Biology (aka ISH) conference in Porto (my 1st!). Check out the great program & these talks by members of our #PhiGeo research group ⬇️ #HPS #ISHPSSB2025

ishpssb2025.icbas.up.pt/wp-content/u...
Phi-Geo at ISH Porto Matilde Carrera Boston University, USA Defining Ancestry: Conceptual Clarity to Minimize Harms [Virtual] Organized: Conceptual Challenges in the Field of Human Evolution, 14:30-16:00 Monday, 21 July, 2025 Conceptual Challenges in the Field of Human Evolution Organized: Conceptual Challenges in the Field of Human Evolution, 14:30-16:00 Monday, 21 July, 2025 Federica Bocchi University of Copenhagen, Denmark Relationship-Building and the Limits of Participatory Science Organized: Participation in Conservation in Postcolonial and Settler Colonial Contexts — Session 1, 14:30-16:00 Monday, 21 July, 2025Organized: Participation in Conservation in Postcolonial and Settler Colonial Contexts — Session 2, 16:30-18:00 Monday, 21 July, 2025 Matthew Brewer Boston University, USA Classification, Uniqueness, and Analogical Reasoning: Lessons from Biology and Geology [Virtual] Individual: Classification, 11:00-12:30 Tuesday, 22 July. 2025 Aja Watkins University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA Criteria for Soil Classification Organized: How Does Dirt Become Soil? Categorizations of Soil in the Agricultural Sciences — Session 1. 14:30-16:00 Wednesday, 23 July, 2025Organized: How Does Dirt Become Soil? Categorizations of Soil in the Agricultural Sciences — Session 2, 16:30-18:00 Wednesday, 23 July, 2025 Alisa Bokulich Boston University, USA Reconstructing, Extinct Life: Analogues, Homologues, & Biomechanical Models Organized: Evolutionary Reconstruction and Explanation, 16:30-18:00 Wednesday, 23 July. 2025
July 19, 2025 at 4:44 PM
miguelohn.bsky.social
Join us for this free online event to discuss the meaning, limits, and prospects of assigning numbers to the social and natural world. All online with free registration. #philsci #philsky #histsci #sts #histtech #sociology
erantal.bsky.social Eran Tal @erantal.bsky.social · Jul 6
Onilne workshop on quantification! The Society for the Study of Measurement is delighted to host an event on the philosophy, sociology, and history of quantification across the sciences on August 9. Free with registration. #philsci #philsky #histsci #histtech #sts #sociology 🧪 tinyurl.com/5rn7p7sk
Quantification in History, Philosophy, Sociology, and Practice – The Society for the Study of Measurement
tinyurl.com
July 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
jamesowenweatherall.com
Very excited for this summer school on my forthcoming book with Chris Smeenk, The Aims and Structure of Cosmological Theory!!

The book is very nearly finished. Let us know if you'd like to give feedback on a draft.

www.usi.ch/en/education...
Summer School: The Aim and Structure of Cosmological Theory
A number of challenging questions arise in contemporary cosmology, and philosophers can contribute constructively to answering them. Over the past century cosmologists have debated whether, for exampl...
www.usi.ch
June 23, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
📣 My latest coauthored paper with Wendy Parker "Understanding Data Uncertainty" is finally forthcoming in /Studies in History & Philosophy of Science/:
philarchive.org/rec/BOKUDU
#philsci #philsky 🧪 #Data
Alisa Bokulich & Wendy Parker, Understanding Data Uncertainty - PhilArchive
Scientific data without uncertainty estimates are increasingly seen as incomplete. Recent discussions in the philosophy of data, however, have given little attention to the nature of uncertainty estim...
philarchive.org
June 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
eugenechua.bsky.social
Co-organized with @wmyrvold.bsky.social, the 2025 Foundations of Thermodynamics workshop will be held in NTU from 16-18 July 2025. We have a great slate of participants and I am very much looking forward to it!

Attendance is free and there will be a Zoom option. Details here: bit.ly/3SxvSNi
June 3, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
@miguelohn.bsky.social is staying with us for week, so today took him on hike to top of Great Blue Hill to see weather observatory where they've continuously used same historic instruments since #19thC, such as this Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder. Then walked along @neponsetgreenway.bsky.social
View from top of GBH Observatory with crystal ball of the Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder in foreground & trees& pond far below in distance. Miguel hiking up GBH View of downtown Boston in distance from GBH Lower Mills section of Neponset River and old Bakers chocolate factory.
June 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
ennofischer.bsky.social
Apply to join a team of wonderful colleagues at Philosophy at TU Dresden. I am advertising a 3-year PhD position in philosophy of science/philosophy of physics as part of the DFG project 'Progress through Principles', deadline 28.06.2024. For details: tinyurl.com/3eb2f667
#philsci #philsky
Job ad for position in DFG project: "Progress through Principles: An Epistemology of Foundational Assumptions Guiding Contemporary Physics"
May 19, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
katysduncan.bsky.social
The only possible way to round off the @ri-science.bsky.social Geophysics conference was to stick the attendees in Faraday’s lab 🤷🏻‍♀️ Thank you all so much for coming! @miguelohn.bsky.social @alisabokulich.bsky.social
7 people behind the glass wall of Faraday’s original laboratory, surrounded by his apparatus
May 14, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
gabrieltarziu.bsky.social
Had a fantastic time yesterday at Ri as part of the "Decoding our Planet" workshop beautifully organised by @katysduncan.bsky.social and @miguelohn.bsky.social
More info here: www.aip.org/history/deco...
May 13, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
davidmpyle.bsky.social
Thank you @katysduncan.bsky.social and @miguelohn.bsky.social for convening such a wonderful discussion meeting on #histsci and #geophysics at @ri-science.bsky.social, and a great keynote from @naomioreskes.bsky.social
Photo of workshop convenors Miguel Ohnesorge and Katy Duncan in the Royal Institution lecture theatre Naomi Oreskes starting her keynote talk, ‘Re-thinking the origins of plate tectonics’ at the Royal Institution
May 13, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
A wonderful talk tonight by @naomioreskes.bsky.social at the @ri-science.bsky.social on how Navy secrecy of oceanographic data impeded rise of plate tectonics.
Naomi giving talk at historic Royal Institution lecture hall: Slide text: • 1920s, Vening Meinesz had pioneered precision measurement of gravity at sea. • Dutch "East Indies" • Large band of negative gravity anomaly, along the line of the Java trench. • Coincided with zone of major earthquakes, & a parallel narrow zones of active volcanoes
May 12, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
rhiggitt.bsky.social
I'm glad to be one of the contributing museum professionals at this
williamthomas.bsky.social Will Thomas @williamthomas.bsky.social · May 9
On Monday, the Royal Institution is hosting a workshop on the #histsci of geophysics, with a livestreamed keynote by @naomioreskes.bsky.social on plate tectonics.

Read @katysduncan.bsky.social on how she and @miguelohn.bsky.social put the event together, and see who's presenting here:
May 9, 2025
Workshop Program: Decoding Our Planet: The Making of Geophysics
www.aip.org
May 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
williamthomas.bsky.social
On Monday, the Royal Institution is hosting a workshop on the #histsci of geophysics, with a livestreamed keynote by @naomioreskes.bsky.social on plate tectonics.

Read @katysduncan.bsky.social on how she and @miguelohn.bsky.social put the event together, and see who's presenting here:
May 9, 2025
Workshop Program: Decoding Our Planet: The Making of Geophysics
www.aip.org
May 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
katysduncan.bsky.social
Think you know the history of plate tectonics? Think again 🌍
@naomioreskes.bsky.social explores why the US military shrouded this science in secrecy & what this reveals about scientific progress, politics and power…

📅 7pm 12th May @ri-science.bsky.social
🎟️ Tickets www.rigb.org/whats-on/ret...
Rethinking the origins of plate tectonics
Naomi Oreskes explores how our understanding of the planet has been shaped by money.
www.rigb.org
April 29, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
alisabokulich.bsky.social
Fantastic program now out for #HPS conference "Decoding Our Planet: The Making of Geophysics", bringing together scholars from history of science, #geophysics, & philosophy of science to explore how modern geophysics
took shape in #19thC & 20thC, at the Royal Institution in London 12 May
Decoding Our Planet: The Making of Geophysics How did we come to understand the origin and basic physical processes of our planet? Answering this question requires us to understand the origins of modern geophysics, the science investigating everything from gravity and magnetism to earthquakes, climate change, and plate tectonics. The best place to answer this question is at the Royal Institution, where most major geophysicists discoursed, debated, and corresponded. In this workshop, we bring together leading scholars from history of science, and geophysics, and philosophy of science to explore how modern geophysics took shape in the nineteenth and twentieth century. This event is held in conjunction with Discover200 - a celebration of the Ri's 200 year history of its Discourse series, CHRISTMAS LECTURES, and the isolation of Benzene We are incredibly grateful to the Freer Trust, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (University of Cambridge), and individual attendees for their generosity in funding this event. Thank you! All talks are in the Conversation Room (see attached floorplan) unless otherwise specified. Talks are 25 minutes and 10 minutes Q&A. Lightning talks are 5 minutes, with a group 10 minute Q&A. Schedule 9:00 - 9:30am Breakfast and Registration Tea, coffee and pastries Mezzanine 9:30 - 9:40am Welcome and Introduction Conversation Room 9:40 - 10:50am Session 1 Alisa Bokulich Boston University Pablo Lima University of Seville The Philosophical Culture of the U.S. Coast Survey & the Rise of Geophysics: 1816-1874 The Making of Oceanography: Natural Models and Cross-scalar Reasoning in the Mediterranean Sea 10:50 - 11:10am Coffee Break Tea, coffee and biscuits Mezzanine 11:10am - 12:20pm Session 2 Katy Duncan Royal Institution Influence and Instrument: The Fair Weather Problem in Atmospheric Electricity (1850-1930) Gregory Good West Virginia University The Astronomical (and other) Backgrounds of Geophysics 12:20 - 12:55pm Lightning Talks Gabriel Târziu LMU Munich Rethinking the Importance of Model Hierarchies in Climate Science David Pyle University of Oxford Sensing the Unquiet Earth - Frank Perret and the Monitoring of Restless Volcanoes Nanina Föhr LMU Munich A Committee for the Ages: The Coordination of Geologic Time Measurement in the First Half of the zoth Century James Ladyman University of Bristol Triangulation - Geophysics and the Scientific Method Xiaoyue Hu Peking University The International Geophysical Year and the Development of Solar-Terrestrial Physics in China (19505-1980s) 10 minute Q&A 12:55 - 1:55pm Lunch Break Mezzanine Selection of sandwiches, crisps, fruit, tea and coffee 1:55 - 3:05pm Session 3 Teru Miyake Nanyang Technological University Untangling Seismology: The Göttingen Group 1907-1914 Miguel Ohnesorge University of Cambridge Quantification in Geophysics 3:05 - 3:15pm Short Break (uncatered) 3:15 - 3:50pm Museum & Archive Lightning Presentations Charlotte New Royal Institution Joshua Nall Whipple Museum, Department of HPS, University of Cambridge Anne Barrett Imperial College London Rebekah Higgitt National Museums Scotland Alexandra Rose Science Museum London 10 minutes Q&A 3:50 - 4:10pm 4:10 - 5:20pm Robert-Jan Wille Utrecht University Amelia Urry University of Cambridge 5:20 - 5:40pm 5:40 - 6:45pm Round-up and Close Free Time Meet in designated spot (TBC) before heading into theatre. 7:00pm Keynote Coffee Break Tea, coffee and biscuits Mezzanine Session 4 The Geopolitics of Atmospheric Physics 'Deep Uncertainty' in the Cryosphere Lecture Theatre Naomi Oreskes Harvard University There will be a short book signing after the keynote 8:30pm Speakers' Dinner Rethinking the Origins of Plate Tectonics Library There will be an opt-in tour of the building and exhibitions on the 13* May - details to follow.
April 28, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
annaalexandrova.bsky.social
Congratulations @jakobortmann.bsky.social ! This started as the MPhil dissertation in Cambridge HPS, right?
April 15, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Miguel Ohnesorge
rhiggitt.bsky.social
Only a *little* while since the end of the project, I'm delighted that the Board of Longitude book is available for order (publication date 17 April), and that it is a relatively modest £32 in paperback! #histsci www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
The Board of Longitude | History of science and technology
www.cambridge.org
April 8, 2025 at 1:17 PM