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

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....

*3 days left* to apply for workshop on philosophy and history of geophysics at Royal Institution London on 12 May, featuring the fantastic @naomioreskes.bsky.social @alisabokulich.bsky.social @terumiyake.bsky.social & @geocosmohistory.bsky.social. For more info & application: shorturl.at/Lq9TX

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

Here with an additional picture of @alisabokulich.bsky.social's talk, shot by @leticiacastillo.bsky.social :

We *do* have a picture, thanks to @leticiacastillo.bsky.social!!

My PhD-thesis is now available at repository.cam.ac.uk/items/8dc621....
It retells how we learned to model and measure Earth's shape and test the particle-to-particle nature of gravitation.
Thanks to many kind people who supported me and this project (cf. acknowledgements!).
#philsci #histsci

Very exited for this philosophy of physics workshop at Duke next week, which is dedicated to celebrating Nancy Cartwright's "How the Laws of Physics Lie" and this year's Du Châtelet Prize winners Marta Bielinska & Caspar Jacobs. #philsci #histsci

It took me five years of studying planetary figures to find this cartoon. I wish Cambridge HPS would allow for cover images in Ph.D. dissertations!
(Peanuts, March 16, 1959, after Vanguard satellite data showed Earth's surface is not in equilibrium and, hence, not an ellipsoid)

Had a great time at the American Institut of Physic's Early Career conference last weekend. Heard great talks and gave one myself (in front of Niels Bohr's blackboard!), in which I argued that the foundations and practice of modern statistics owe great debts to 19th-century geodesy.