We are delighted to have KLI alumna Barbara Fischer join the KLI again, this time as Group Leader, Evolutionary Biology! Barbara is an evolutionary biologist and data scientist with a background in mathematics and theoretical biology. She studies phenotypic evolution using theoretical and empirical approaches. Her work centers on the classical problem of adaptation vs. constraint in evolution: Why are some traits easily adapted by evolution, while others are not, with particular focus on the evolution of birth in humans. Currently, Barbara is an Elise Richter fellow at the Unit of Theoretical Biology, Department of Evolutionary Biology of the University of Vienna, Austria. (Click on title to continue....)

Hans-Jörg RHEINBERGER (MPIWG, Berlin), 2024-04-09 15:00 (CET). To join our colloquium please register with Zoom

We warmly welcome our new Writing-up Fellow Franziska Reinhard to the KLI! Franziska is currently a PhD researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Vienna. Her PhD project studies practices from origins-of-life research from a philosophy of science perspective, combining aspects of general philosophy science, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of the historical sciences. Franziska has completed a BA in Chemistry and Philosophy at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, and an MA in Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. (Click on title to continue...)

Laura MENATTI (KLI), 2024-04-04 15:00 (CET). To join our colloquium please register with Zoom

Isabella Sarto-Jackson discusses her book "The Making and Breaking of Minds" with Ricardo Lopes on The Dissenter, a popular YouTube channel. In her conversation with Ricardo, for the episode titled "Exploring the Influence of Social Interactions on the Human Mind," Isabella delves into various aspects of human psychology, environmental factors, niche construction, gene-culture coevolution, mechanisms, and limitations of neuroplasticity and more. (Click on title to read more!)

Jana SEMRAU (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg), 2024-03-25 15:00 (CET).

We are very happy to have our new Postdoctoral Fellow Olesya Bondareko at the KLI! Olesya has recently defended her PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on the integration between genomics and the social sciences including psychology, sociology, and social policy-oriented research. Olesya was born and grew up in Ukraine which continues to suffer from the Russian invasion. You can help Ukrainian medics save lives by donating to https://www.hospitallers.org.uk/ or https://www.leleka.care/. (Click on the title to know more about Olesya!)

What do authors of 'citation classics' feel about their papers? How did they come to write those famous papers and how did those papers affect their lives and careers? Are those findings still valid decades after their publication? Hari Sridhar's new website https://reflectionsonpaperspast.com features his interviews with authors of famous papers in Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour and Conservation, (154 interviews so far!) about back-stories of those papers and the authors' reflections on their impact, validity and relevance today, decades after their publication. (Click on title to read on!)

Save the dates!! Here's announcing the 2024 Spring-Summer Colloquium Series Our Spring-Summer colloquium series will feature our very own four post-docs of the 2022-2024 cohort – Laura Menatti, Hari Sridhar, Marina Knickel and Corey Bunce – along with talks by Brian McLoone (Department of Philosophy, Auburn University, USA), Jana Semrau (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany), Tudor Popescu (University of Padova, Italy), Juno Salazar Parreñas (Cornell University, USA), and Ievgeniia Ivanova (University of Stirling, UK). (Click on title to read more!!)

The Spring-Summer 2024 KLife Newsletter is here!! As always, there has been a flurry of activities at the KLI. We bring you news of successful collaborative efforts, new Fellows joining us, upcoming events to look forward to, and new publications. We hope you enjoy reading about these and more in this edition. (Click on the title to read more)

Guido Caniglia and Marina Knickel in the KLI team are excited to continue their work in the recently launched EU Horizon project PLUS Change. This project will develop strategies and decision-making processes to transform land use by prioritizing societal well-being, climate goals, and biodiversity conservation. (Click on title to read more)

Laura Menatti is invited to give a talk at the Institute for Practical Ethics, University of California San Diego, on the 14th of March. The talk is titled "Understanding the Current Health and Climate Crisis through the Concept of Salutogenesis" . For abstract and details, please read on.

The editors summarize issue 19(1)—which includes a thematic section on “Concepts of Agency”—out this month, with free reading links for articles.

In the spring of 2023, six KLI fellows (in alphabetical order) Anna-Katharina Brenner, Corey Bunce, Joyshree Chanam, Marina Knickel, Laura Menatti, and Hari Sridhar pooled their strengths in Philosophy of Science, Biology, Sustainability Science, and Social Ecology to work on an interdisciplinary project for climate change adaptation. Laura Menatti and Corey Bunce led the project, while Guido Caniglia, Scientific Director of the KLI, facilitated the smooth and successful execution of this interdisciplinary effort. The team was rewarded a grant from the SSH Centre (Social Science & Humanities for Climate, Energy and Transport Research Excellence) last summer to contribute a book chapter on adaptation to climate change to the SSH Centre’s multi-volume project on policy recommendations for the European Union. This January, they submitted their forthcoming chapter titled, “Adapting to Heatwaves: Reframing, understanding, and translating Strategies from India to the European Union”. Watch this space for more developments in the near future! (Click on the title to read more about this project.)

Brian McLOONE (Auburn University), 2024-03-05 15:00 (CET). To join our colloquium please register with Zoom

How do participants in arts–science collaborations reason together to overcome disciplinary boundaries and to co-create interventions? This article by Luana Poliseli and Guido Caniglia chronicles how inter- and transdisciplinary reasoning unfolded in such a collaborative project involving experts from the natural sciences, humanities, and the arts. It appears that embracing of differences rather than seeking consensus among diverse perspectives allows inter- and transdisciplinary reasoning to help navigate unpredictable situations effectively by capitalising on and leveraging differences. (Click on the title to read a summary article of this new paper!)

We are very happy to welcome our new Postdoctoral Fellow Andrea Gambarotto to the KLI! Andrea is trained in classical German philosophy and is inspired by Kant and Hegel. His research interest lies in complex systems theory, with a particular focus on the relation between teleology, agency and cognition in biological systems, and is influenced by the framework of biological autonomy. Andrea believes that bridging the classical philosophies of nature and current approaches in biological theory will help in advancing knowledge in both sides. (Click on the title to know more about Andrea!)

The 4th Meeting of the Vienna Science Studies Laboratory was held yesterday afternoon in the cozy ambience of Das Café in Vienna. The paper that was selected for this reading group’s discussion was Kelly et al. 2014 (The integration of social, behavioral, and biological mechanisms in models of pathogenesis). In a lively discussion, most participants contributed interesting points on various aspects of the paper, especially around the concepts of ‘lifeworlds’ and 'mixed mechanisms' in explaining diseases. (Click on title to read more on this report!)

What has Conspiracy Theories got to do with individual personality traits and socio-environmental factors?? Quite a lot actually, according to a new multi-author paper including Guido Caniglia, published in SN Social Sciences. (Click on title to read more…)

In her comprehensive book review, Isabella Sarto-Jackson draws attention to "Care and Cure: An Introduction to Philosophy of Medicine" by Jacob Stegenga, published in 2018. Isabella emphasizes the ongoing relevance of the book, especially in light of the heightened public interest in health and medicine following the recent global pandemic. Opening with the line, “It is the best of times and it is the worst of times to grapple with philosophy of medicine”, Isabella highlights the increasingly widening chasm that separates scientific progress in biomedical research and science skepticism and denialism: a tale of two contrasting narratives. While this book started as an introduction to the philosophy of medicine, Isabella suggests that the book serves as a fine place to catch up with contemporary discourse rather than relying on superficial internet searches. In her lucid, well-structured writing, Isabella gives a comprehensive and balanced review of this book. (click on title to read more...)