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Mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral researchers shapes the development of future scientists and, by extension, the progress of science itself. Here we explain how scientific mentoring can be enhanced by incorporating history and philosophy of science (HPS). HPS can provide mentees with a vocabulary for interpreting scientific practice and help to foster creative and innovative biologists through attention to how and why science works. It can also encourage more conscious reflection among mentors on existing biological practices and spur the undertaking of new ones that ultimately contribute to the conceptual rigor and theoretical significance of life science inquiry. We provide concrete advice for experimenting with different strategies of incorporating HPS that range from slight modifications of widely used practices to more nonconventional ideas.
This introduction discusses the challenges plant life has represented in the history and philosophy of science, and outlines the topics dealt with by the contributors. Understanding plant life, behaviour, and nature reveals a crucial feature to deal with several corners of science and society, but also to deal with the environment.
<p>Background: Based on recent medical-historical research, the attempt is made to introduce three new philosophical categories for holistically assessing complementary medicine and delineate their characteristics, genealogy, and socio-economic background. Apart from modern, predominantly rational science and culture, the history and theory of medicine are able to reveal dimensions and traditions of thinking that in the modern age have obviously been neglected or forgotten. Summary: As an example, homoeopathy appears to be constituted by what may be called lógos-thinking, hómoion-thinking and iásthai-thinking, thus connecting with three powerful traditions of thinking that can be traced back to Ancient Greece and pre-Socratic times. By contrast, modern technological medicine seems to be mainly fixed on lógos-thinking. Other realms of modern civilisation, such as science, art, education, politics, philosophy, and religion, to a large extent also suffer from a lack of, or are oblivious to, hómoion-thinking and iásthai-thinking. Key Messages: The introduction of these new categories may serve as a key to a raised awareness towards the shortcomings and one-dimensionality of the present lógos-driven world-view and for the opening up of a qualitatively richer multi-dimensional world and life. </p>. Basierend auf aktueller medizinhistorischer Forschung wird hier der Versuch unternommen, drei neue philosophische Katagorien einzuführen, mit denen die Komplementärmedizin ganzheitlich beurteilt und ihre Charakteristika, Herkunft und ihr sozioökonomischer Hintergrund dargestellt werden können. Neben der modernen, vorwiegend rationalen Wissenschaft und Kultur, kann die Geschichte und Theorie der Medizin Dimensionen und Traditionen des Denkens aufzeigen, die in der Moderne offenbar vernachlässigt oder vergessen wurden. Die Homöopathie zum Beispiel scheint konstituiert zu sein von sogenanntem lógos-, hómoion- und iásthai-Denken, wodurch sie verbunden ist mit drei mächtigen Denktraditionen, die sich bis ins alte Griechenland in die Zeit der Vorsokratiker zurückverfolgen lassen. Im Gegensatz dazu scheint die moderne technologische Medizin hauptsächlich auf lógos-Denken fixiert zu sein. Auch andere Bereiche moderner Zivilisation, wie Wissenschaft, Kunst, Erziehung, Politik, Philosophie und Religion, leiden zu einem großen Teil unter einem Mangel oder Vergessen von hómoion- und iásthai-Denken. Die Einführung dieser neuen Kategorien mag als Schlüssel dienen zu einer erhöhten Bewusstheit bezüglich der Unzulänglichkeiten und Eindimensionalität des gegenwärtigen lógos-getriebenen Weltbildes und zur Eröffnung einer qualitativ reicheren multidimensionalen Welt und eines entsprechenden Lebens. Sur la base de recherches récentes en histoire de la médecine, il est proposé d’introduire trois nouvelles catégories philosophiques permettant d’évaluer de manière holistique la médecine complémentaire et d’en délimiter les caractéristiques, la généalogie ainsi que l’arrière-plan socio-économique. Au-delà de la science et de la culture modernes, principalement rationnelles, l’histoire et la théorie de la médecine sont en mesure de révéler des dimensions et des traditions de pensée qui, à l’époque moderne, ont manifestement été négligées ou oubliées. À titre d’exemple, l’homéopathie paraît être constituée de ce que l’on peut appeler la pensée lógos, la pensée hómoion et la pensée iásthai, s’inscrivant ainsi dans trois traditions de pensée puissantes que l’on peut faire remonter à la Grèce antique et à l’époque présocratique. À l’inverse, la médecine technologique moderne semble principalement fixée sur la pensée lógos. D’autres domaines de la civilisation moderne, tels que la science, l’art, l’éducation, la politique, la philosophie et la religion, souffrent eux aussi, dans une large mesure, d’un manque de pensée hómoion et de pensée iásthai, ou bien y demeurent indifférents. L’introduction de ces nouvelles catégories peut servir de clé pour accroître la conscience des insuffisances et de l’unidimensionnalité de la vision du monde actuelle, guidée par le lógos, et pour ouvrir l’accès à un monde et à une vie multidimensionnels, qualitativement plus riches.
Thousands of scholars across Europe faced discrimination for their heritage, especially Jewish heritage, throughout the 1930s. Hundreds of these persecuted academics worked in science and healthcare, often as primary researchers within a medical sub-specialty. In response, in 1933 British professors founded the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL) with two objectives: raising funds to provide maintenance grants for displaced scholars and connecting scholars to academic placements worldwide. In this article, I analyze the stories of nineteen physicians fleeing fascist persecution in Europe through their 712 leaves of correspondence within the archive of the SPSL. I selected two medical subspecialties, to compare whether the well-funded field of oncology would have greater success placing refugees compared to the less academically-elevated field of orthopedic surgery. Through the first analysis of two complete medical subspecialty records from the SPSL archives, I examine how the SPSL faced difficulties deciding which colleagues to help financially and triaged levels of support. I also situate the experiences of the analyzed applicants within the context of British interwar medicine and academia, including British skepticism of foreign research and overlaps between SPSL leadership and the British eugenics movement. When funding ran low, the SPSL still assisted scholars through different channels, whether referring to other aid organizations, sending support letters to potential employers, or simply staying in contact. The surge in applications in 1938, five years after the organization's foundation, hindered scholars' chances as persecution increased and funding tapered. Importantly, the British medical establishment distrusted the overall research quality of many fleeing scholars and felt even less confident admitting medical practitioners who were not also researchers. Ultimately, medical scholars from fascist Germany and Austria who applied to the SPSL had a similar experience to other aspiring refugees seeking British assistance before 1939: they could not rely on Britain to support their immigration and predominantly settled elsewhere.
I argue that the current proliferation of generative artificial intelligence (AI) represents a new stage in a longer historical process of distancing humans from their unique individual psyches and of reducing participation and cultural diversity in music. The argument consists of six parts: (1) reiterating the uniqueness of individual psyches, which are often obscured by cultural norms, but are in the fact a vital source of cultural variation, and require for their proliferation that humans commune with their own psyches and enter into meaningful interaction with others; (2) presenting the presentational/participatory axes of music-making and music ontology, and arguing that the underlying psychology of music is participatory; (3) introducing a new rhetorical device, PECULIAR, which like WEIRD points at presentational forms of music-making as the outlier rather than the norm; (4) describing in brief the historical process through which music-making became less participatory, initially through elitist institutions and later through trade and commerce, and how mass media endangers musical diversity; (5) considering how generative AI technologies detach humans from their individual psyches and lead to the loss of cultural diversity; (6) arguing that AI will accelerate the reduction in musical participation and diversity, and suggesting ways for researchers to investigate the effects of these new technologies on cultures and minds. Finally, I suggest we should be mindful of the substantial social and spiritual benefits of musical participation, and find creative ways to encourage it.
This article proposes a conceptual analysis of Chang's notion of complementary science through a case study on the revival of phage therapy. Complementary science urges historians and philosophers to recover and extend Kuhn losses - prematurely abandoned systems of practice. The revival of phage therapy, which involves aligning not only epistemic but also material, social, regulatory and clinical elements, reveals the need to extend Chang's framework with Ankeny and Leonelli's notion of repertoires. This conceptual shift proves broadly fruitful. For complementary science, it highlights the normative and ethical dimensions involved in identifying Kuhn losses and foregrounds its transdisciplinary nature. It also clarifies how established repertoires can function both as ambivalent inspirations and entrenched obstacles for emerging ones. Finally, it helps reframe the historical trajectory and contemporary assessment of phage therapy, showing a plurality of benefits and of possible developments independently of its full reintegration into the Western pharmacopoeia. More generally, the article illustrates the value of an integrated history and philosophy of science attentive to the interlinked material, epistemic and social elements involved in scientific practices.
The same dataset can be analysed in different justifiable ways to answer the same research question, potentially challenging the robustness of empirical science1-3. In this crowd initiative, we investigated the degree to which research findings in the social and behavioural sciences are contingent on analysts' choices. We examined a stratified random sample of 100 studies published between 2009 and 2018, in which, for one claim per study, at least five reanalysts independently reanalysed the original data. The statistical appropriateness of the reanalyses was assessed in peer evaluations, and the robustness indicators were inspected along a range of research characteristics and study designs. We found that 34% of the independent reanalyses yielded the same result (within a tolerance region of ±0.05 Cohen's d) as the original report; with a four times broader tolerance region, this indicator increased to 57%. Of the reanalyses conducted, 74% reached the same conclusion as the original investigation, 24% yielded no effects or inconclusive results and 2% reported the opposite effect. This exploratory study indicates that the common single-path analyses in social and behavioural research should not be simply assumed to be robust to alternative analyses4. Therefore, we recommend the development and use of practices to explore and communicate this neglected source of uncertainty.
For the past 150 years, Science has become central to public issues, arbitrating all aspects of human life and defining what is natural and rational. Teaching the history of science by emphasising its dynamics as a social institution and the resulting stakes in global, national, and local politics is crucial for understanding the contemporary world. This article describes a course in this discipline that challenges traditional Western perspectives to ask pertinent questions across all time periods and societies. Presented as a guided tour, the course encourages students to critically engage with science as well as its history.
This article examines how hacker culture, often conceptualized as immaterial and virtual, is in fact materially and spatially constituted through its entanglement with physical places. Focusing on Las Vegas and DEF CON, this article shows the emergence of hackerspectacle, a place-bound mode of interfacing that enables the dual-direction seepage of form and power: subcultural acts leave material residues in policies and design, while the city's spectacle economy filters back to script hackers' style, memory, and self-understanding. The article traces how a three-decade coupling between DEF CON and Las Vegas co-produces both the conference and the city. By intervening in hotel systems, accessing controls, and displaying infrastructures, hackers appropriate Las Vegas's visual language and spatial affordances to craft their placed identity. Conceptually, this case advances STS discussions on the materiality of digital cultures. Empirically, it shows a city-level co-construction. The article also diagnoses a drift from subversion to absorption as DEF CON mirrors Las Vegas's streamlining, commercialization, and surveillance. The article is based on original archival research, ethnographic work, and media analysis. It draws on DEF CON programs, hacker zines, public and anonymized interviews, news coverage, and visual materials, and it situates hacker practices within Las Vegas's legal, architectural, and economic history. It also offers a generalizable template for studying how technocultures take place, literally, and will interest readers of infrastructure studies, digital materialities, urban technopolitics, and the socio-spatial dynamics of subcultures.
This article examines how oral histories of twentieth-century human genetics in Brazil reveal the politics of memory of fieldwork. Through a comparative analysis of interviews with prominent geneticist Francisco M. Salzano and technician Girley V. Simões, who worked with him for most of his career, this study explores the narrative strategies each employed to establish their historical accounts. Attending reflexively to the oral history encounters, the analysis examines how each narrator negotiates professional identity and moral legitimacy in light of changing ethical norms surrounding research with Indigenous communities. Simões's vivid recollections foreground invisible forms of technical and logistical labor, offering him the opportunity to recast his position as one of active knowledge-making. Salzano's controlled and diplomatic accounts, by contrast, illustrate how the senior scientist curated memory to stabilize his professional legacy and defend disciplinary ethics in the wake of controversy. Contrasting Salzano and Simões's approaches to describing their shared experiences drives home the complex social and political realities of narrating fieldwork, as well as the political valences of remembering and documenting these histories in the present.
The study of imagination has progressed due to its operationalization through a variety of behavioural tasks, initially designed for human participants and later adapted to non-human animals. However, this behavioural data has proven insufficient for inferring the level and scope of imagination in animals. To better understand human imagination, and its possible manifestations in animals, we trace here the evolutionary origin of the default mode network (DMN), which is central to human imagination. We show that the evolution of the DMN involved significant neural innovations at the base of the mammalian lineage: the emergence of the neocortex and a substantial reorganization of the hippocampus. These two structures underwent parallel evolution, including the emergence of a 3D organization, the establishment of a canonical microcircuit, a significant development of pyramidal neurons, and the emergence of dedicated compartments of granular neurons. We suggest that previous studies have underestimated the importance of hippocampal modifications in shaping the mammalian brain, especially considering its central role in studies of memory consolidation, replay and human imagination more generally. Looking beyond mammals, we expect to find a functionally similar network in birds, convergent with the mammalian DMN. We end with a discussion of findings that could be construed as indicators of imagination within and outside the mammalian clade and the relations of our extraordinary human imagination to language.
This paper reconstructs a forgotten episode in the early history of quantum logic by examining the work of Polish philosopher Zygmunt Zawirski. In the early 1930s, Zawirski developed an original system of many-valued logic explicitly designed to interpret quantum mechanics. Anticipating later views by Reichenbach and Putnam, Zawirski argued that the indeterminacy and probabilistic structure of quantum theory required a departure from classical two-valued logic. Drawing on Łukasiewicz's many-valued logic and Post's formal constructions, he built a system of truth-functional operators capable of representing probabilistic conjunction and disjunction. This article offers a technical and conceptual reconstruction of Zawirski's logic, based on his 1934 monograph and recent interpretations by Garbacz. While the system's practical limitations have been noted, its philosophical ambition and originality remain significant. Zawirski's logic not only constitutes the first formal system of quantum logic but also anticipates contemporary debates on the empirical foundations of logic and the relation between logic and probability. By recovering his overlooked contribution, this paper broadens our understanding of early responses to quantum theory and highlights the role of Polish logicians in shaping 20th-century philosophy of science.
In recent years, rewilding theories and initiatives have gained momentum as a credible solution to the loss of ecological diversity and stability. However, rewilding remains a controversial theory that draws our attention to the multiple links between intervention, history, and the value of nonhuman capacity for self-organization. Tracing the history of practices and theoretical frameworks of some emblematic projects and proposals in this field, we focus on the shortcomings and theoretical challenges of functional approaches, including notions of functional equivalence, and the difficulties posed by counterfactual reference points. At the heart of this analysis are the contradictions that some of these approaches pose with the crucial goal of rewilding, which is, in principle, to preserve immanence and spontaneous organization. By way of conclusion, the recommendation to deepen reflection on the past for a genuine and ethically sound incorporation of the feral into everyday life is presented.
By offering an organic reading of the tenth-century medical miscellany BnF, Lat. 7028, this article questions assumptions about the erratic and rudimentary nature of early medieval medicine, highlighting the compiler's purposeful selection and manipulation of contents. Following the tenets of the ancient sect of Rationalists, as described in Celsus' De medicina, the compiler gathered a consistent yet non-linear compendium, blending texts about the mythological Greek origins of medicine, anatomical parts, natural philosophy and different sets of therapeutical options, encompassing regimen, medications, and surgery. The Greek-Latin monk Johannes Philagathos is arguably the intellectual author of this eclectic miscellany, which he assembled thanks to networks of people and books that circulated between Byzantine and Ottonian areas. While preserving ancient and late antique medical traditions and visual models, this manuscript witnessed the reception of medicinal drugs from eastern lands and their inclusion in recipes, a few centuries before the flourishing of the School of Salerno.
Evidence-based medicine (EBM), with meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials as its gold standard, has been criticized for failing to represent the individuality and variability of disease. Precision medicine (PM) has been proposed as an alternative to EBM's "averaging approach", leveraging genomic and other biological information at the individual level. However, PM is still an emerging and changing concept. It is unclear what constitutes acceptable evidence, when the number of patients with a specific condition approaches one. Despite large investments, PM´s overall capacity to predict and improve treatment responses remains limited. This raises the question of whether PM has failed, or whether another strategy can improve the situation. Here, we examine the implications of functional precision medicine (FPM), a strategy aiming to bridge the gap between genomic information and phenotypic complexity through functional testing of treatments on patient-derived organoid (PDO), an advanced form of cell culture. We unpack how observed treatment effects in such personalized models are emerging as a means to predict treatment efficacy in individual patients. Drawing on exploratory interviews with scientists at the forefront of clinical implementation, we examine the philosophical implications of FPM in the contexts of cystic fibrosis and cancer. We unpack how the "functional approach" addresses biological complexity by black boxing many mechanistic details and focusing on phenotypic responses in PDOs. Moreover, we show that, to work as personalized models, they paradoxically must be validated by developing the same type of population-based evidence they aim to reduce reliance on.
In his writings on the philosophy of science, the German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) constantly claimed that his approach to psychology was characterised by the modern 'Galilean' mode of thought, as opposed to the medieval 'Aristotelian' mode of thought of the rest of the field. In this paper, we examine what Lewin meant by this opposition and how it fits into the disciplinary discourse of psychology and philosophy of science in the first half of the 20th century. We show that Lewin was one of the earliest figures to raise Galileo up to cult status as the pioneer of modern scientific thought: Lewin's invocation of Galileo predates that of Husserl and Koyré, who are often seen as the originators of the 20th-century image of Galileo. We also show that Lewin's opposition of 'Galilean' and 'Aristotelian' thought was a move in controversies of the time about the 'crisis of psychology', and that Lewin intended his opposition above all as an attack on his rival Karl Bühler (1879-1963).
This article examines Redcliffe N. Salaman's (1874-1955) efforts to establish a national system for producing virus-free seed potatoes in 1930s Britain. It explores how scientific authority was mobilized to reshape agricultural practices and assert regulatory control over seed production. Although Salaman's proposals were never fully realized, they laid the groundwork for enduring strategies to improve potato crop health by protecting seed from infectious agents and their insect vectors. Salaman's work drew on both traditional horticultural knowledge and emerging microbiological techniques, spanning field and laboratory settings. He exemplifies how diverse modes of science making shaped a period of increasing professionalization and institutionalization in the biological sciences. By tracing interactions between scientists and other actors - including growers, seedsmen and government officials - the article shows how plant virus control was gradually redefined from a craft-based practice to a scientific domain. This article contributes to the early history of virology from an agricultural perspective, as well as to broader historiographical debates on the role of science in agriculture, the professionalization of expertise and the construction of regulatory authority in twentieth-century Britain.
Micro-fragmented adipose tissue (mFAT) is a promising autologous biologic in regenerative medicine because it provides a mechanically processed adipose-derived product that preserves native extracellular matrix architecture and a cellular milieu rich in mesenchymal stem cells, pericytes, growth factors, cytokines, and extracellular vesicles. Mechanistically, mFAT is hypothesized to act largely through paracrine signaling that dampens inflammation, supports vascular stabilization, and promotes cartilage and soft-tissue repair; in vitro data suggest modulation of osteoarthritic synovial macrophage signaling, including reductions in chemokines such as CCL2 and CCL3. Preparation involves liposuction harvest followed by closed, sterile mechanical processing without enzymatic digestion or cell expansion, aligning with "minimal manipulation" concepts relevant to regulatory frameworks. Preclinical animal studies generally demonstrate favorable effects on synovial inflammation and cartilage matrix markers (e.g., glycosaminoglycan content) with limited adverse events. Clinically, the strongest body of evidence is in knee osteoarthritis, where multiple prospective and retrospective studies report improvements in pain and function from months to several years after single injections, though response rates vary and study designs are heterogeneous. Evolving data support potential benefit in hip osteoarthritis and select tendon conditions, but cohorts remain small. Overall, mFAT appears safe and potentially effective, yet larger, standardized, long-term randomized controlled trials and comparative studies versus platelet-rich plasma and bone marrow aspirate concentrates are needed to clarify indications, dosing, durability, and mechanisms in vivo.
The tension between human free will, on the one hand, and divine foreknowledge and sovereignty, on the other, has been addressed differently in different Islamic and Christian traditions. This article examines whether these differences are reflected in how lay Christians and Muslims think about free will, control, blame, and punishment, both when answering abstract questions about God and free will, and when making judgments about concrete situations. We find that despite theological differences among Christian denominations, Christians have similar attitudes in both abstract and concrete contexts, suggesting that lay religious experience is not fully penetrated by theological differences. Muslims differ from Christians: In agreement with the "Qur'an," they embrace both free will and divine sovereignty when answering abstract questions, but they deemphasize free will when making concrete judgments. These findings reveal the complexity of the interplay between theological reflection and lay moral and religious cognition, and show that the tension between free will and divine foreknowledge and sovereignty is not just a challenge for philosophers and theologians, but is part of lay believers' religious experience.
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is frequently characterized as a purely empiricist enterprise. Previous discussions explicitly excluded rationalism from the epistemological analysis of EBM, restricting the discussion to empiricist frameworks. This article argues that such exclusion is untenable and that EBM is better understood as an integrated epistemic system in which empiricist and rationalist dimensions are interdependent and inseparable. A commentary with critical epistemological analysis of EBM, drawing on post-Kantian philosophy of science, to examine the rational structures embedded within EBM's methodology and clinical application. EBM possesses a clear empiricist dimension in its reliance on systematic observation, controlled experimentation, and measurable outcomes. However, core elements of EBM such as the hierarchy of evidence, risk-of-bias assessment criteria, the inferential architecture of meta-analysis, and the translation of population-level estimates into individual clinical decisions are rational constructs that precede and organize empirical observation rather than emerging from it. Clinical expertise, integral to Sackett's canonical definition of EBM, operates primarily as a rational faculty. The empiricism-rationalism dichotomy was shown to be fundamentally inadequate, once that all knowledge arises from the interaction between sensory input and conceptual categories. Characterizing EBM as an exclusive applied empiricism is a philosophical misreading. EBM functions as an integrated epistemic system whose strength lies in the disciplined combination of experience and reason. Recognizing this complex nature provides conceptual tools to better understand both the achievements and the limitations of EBM in clinical practice.