Marshall Abrams
@marshall0i.bsky.social
4.7K followers 14K following 650 posts
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
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marshall0i.bsky.social
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
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/content/cisa... In my new role at @stanfordcisac.bsky.social, I'm recruiting for a postdoc to define how benefits of risky research should be evaluated. w Tony Mills of @notredame.bsky.social . #philsci #biosecurity #scipolicy
CISAC Fellowship Program
cisac.fsi.stanford.edu
marshall0i.bsky.social
#philsci #histsci
kevinjkircher.com
Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.
sites.stat.columbia.edu
marshall0i.bsky.social
#hpbio
rafamarcondes.bsky.social
Starting the evo unit in intro bio next week and my first lecture is all about the history of evo bio, from Aristotle to Darwin. I like that topic, but ultimately I'm giving that lecture reflexively, bc that's how evo is always taught. Why is THAT tho? (1/2)
marshall0i.bsky.social
Wow. That is a very different look--for each of them.
marshall0i.bsky.social
#hpbio
devoevomed.bsky.social
These three figures get me every time: Our conceptualization of heredity; the explanations which have the most explanatory force. I cannot overstate the importance of this book to #DevoEvo; it wrote us back into evolution; archetypes and all. (Re-reading for my foundations of DevoEvo class)....
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
mcps-philsci.bsky.social
Two-year postdoc w/ Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science! Scholars in all areas of #philsci, inclusive of philosophical approaches to logic&math, are eligible. This is understood broadly to include issues in the history&practice of particular sciences.Deadline 5 Dec 2025.
buff.ly/MhR4PcK
Two-Year Post-Doctoral Associate, Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota - PhilJobs:JFP
An international database of jobs for philosophers
philjobs.org
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
celsoneto.bsky.social
Interested in the social implications of genomics and its philosophical aspects?

Our project has numerous activities coming up! Follow the blusky account to stay up-to-date.

#philsky #STS #popgen #metascience #philsci #HPbio
hugeraproject.bsky.social
Hello BLue-Sky, are you interested in the study of the social implications of genomics? Our project brings together philosophers, social scientists, and geneticists to address this question. Follow us here and sign-up for our mailing list at Hugera.org/contact/ #philsky #STS #metascience
Contact - HUGERA
The HUGERA team welcomes new collaborators and partners, within and outside academia. Most of our activities, such as lectures and workshops, are open. To know more about our activities, join our mail...
Hugera.org
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
Question for the #phylogenetics hive mind. What freely available phylogenetics programmes are out there that will work on iPads with morphological character based data? This is for a 200 level evolutionary biology lab working with bird skulls.
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
ohdearz.bsky.social
Ohio State just advised all staff and students not to attend the SACNAS (Society for the advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) annual meeting of 6000+ scientists -- which is in Columbus, OH this year! -- saying it may be exclusionary, even though it is open to all.
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
wkhuber.bsky.social
Do you like theoretical biology, mathematical&conceptual modelling and want to apply yourself to cutting-edge research at all levels of biology, from molecules to ecosystems?

Come to EMBL! Scope includes physics-based models, emergence, statistics, ML/AI
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...
marshall0i.bsky.social
i.e. HG *should* be known for contributions to philosophy of probability and statistics.
marshall0i.bsky.social
What does "complemented by" mean? I think that HG wrote some illuminating intervening sections of the book. Some of these refer to RvM in the 3rd person. (Also: I've been in conversations that questioned whether some passages in _Probability, Statistics, and Truth_ might be due to HG.)
marshall0i.bsky.social
On further thought, it's misleading to say that Geiringer is known for adding to von Mises works. She did, but that's not what she's known for. The author of _Mathematical Theory of Probability and Statistics_ is listed as von Mises, but it was "translated and complemented by" Geiringer (iirc).
marshall0i.bsky.social
Mathematician Hilda Geiringer was born OTD 9/28/1893. In philosophy of science, best known for translating and adding to her husband Richard von Mises' books on probability and statistics, in biology for seminal work on genetic linkage. www.bbc.com/future/artic... #philsci #evobio #probability #math
The woman who reshaped maths
She fled the Nazis, only to face a new challenge: being accepted in academia.
www.bbc.com
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
nataliajagielska.bsky.social
And that's how you integrate digital elements into an exhibition. Part of the temporary "China's Dinosaur World" at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, China. Closing this November.

Video source: Shanghai Let's Meet
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
larrycebula.bsky.social
Here's a simple classroom exercise to teach #history students to leverage two databases together, in this case old death certificates and digital newspapers. It works well but could use some refinement. #HistoryTeachers do you do anything similar? #AcademicSky #sschat docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Copy of Spokane's Dead of 1909
Exploring Spokane’s Dead Instructions This is an exercise in leveraging digital sources. Using death records from the WA State Archives, Digital Archives we will explore Spokane death certificates in...
docs.google.com
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
carlbergstrom.com
Left unchecked, openAI and other infotech providers will destroy any remnants of the American education system that manage to escape the Trump administration.

Read the full thread.
benpatrickwill.bsky.social
OpenAI's VP for education recently said the company wanted to become "core infrastructure" for schools and universities. Any infrastructure, though, always depends on habituating users to its technical affordances - so I've been trying to track how it's doing that 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...
Welcome to Campus. Here’s Your ChatGPT.
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
alisabokulich.bsky.social
Just 2 weeks left to submit for 2025 Du Châtelet Prize in Philosophy of Physics
Topic: Physics in the writings of women 1700-1900
Deadline: October 10, 2025, 11:59 PM GMT
<10K words, blinded, unpublished; prize is open to grad students & scholars w/in 5 years of PhD
www.duchateletprize.org
#HPS
An 18thC engraving of Emile Du Chatelet in a traditional dress and choker necklace depicted in an oval frame with a globe and books in background.  There is an inscription below her portrait "C'est ainsi que la Verité Pour mieux etablir sa puissance a pris les traits de la beauté, et les graces de l'eloquence." © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
marshall0i.bsky.social
Being unfunny ... we feed dry food and leave it out all day. Our theory has been that requests for additions to a non-empty bowl are requests for fresher food, i.e. food that's been kept in the air-tight sealed-up bag and canister. Occasionally, they seem to think the whole bag is stale, though.
Reposted by Marshall Abrams
yoshinariyoshida.bsky.social
3 year PhD position at U of Copenhagen for a philosophical analysis of animal models in translational neuroscience. Those with MA in HPS, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, STS, etc. are welcome to apply. Application deadline is Oct 31 #HPS #STS employment.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...
PhD Project in Philosophy of Science: Philosophical Perspectives on Animal Models in Translational Neuroscience
employment.ku.dk
marshall0i.bsky.social
(Today I photocopied handwritten essays so I'd have stylistic baselines for typed essays. I'm thinking of billing Sam Altman for the time.)
marshall0i.bsky.social
But now ... If it helps my students think through aspects of a set of ideas, to some extent, *and an LLM can't do it*, then maybe it's a great new teaching tool!