Biological Interest Group

Meeting time: Friday mornings throughout the semester at 10:30–11:45 am.
Meeting place: Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science library,
737 Heller Hall.

The biological interest group (BIG) reads and discusses works of mutual interest in the history and philosophy of biology. We select readings for a variety of reasons: to keep up on the most exciting developments in the field, to help participants scrutinize literature relevant to their research projects (faculty or graduate student research), to provide feedback on works in progress being written by BIG participants (graduate students, faculty, and Center visitors), to revisit classic articles in the literature, and sometimes just to have fun discussing a topic related to biology.

Our meetings are informal and some participants need to arrive late or leave early because of scheduling conflicts. All faculty from the University of Minnesota and area colleges and universities and graduate students are welcome to attend whenever they would like (without invitation) and without giving advanced notice. Undergraduates are included by invitation. (If you know of an undergraduate who is well-suited and possibly interested, please contact Ken Waters so an invitation can be extended.)

Discussion topics for Spring 2013

January 25: Zuk, M. 2013. "Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet, and How We Live" Introduction and Chapter 10 (pdf)

February 1: Wagner, A. 2012. "The role of randomness in Darwinian evolution"
Philosophy of Science 79: 95-119. (pdf)

February 8: Hopkins, M.J. and S. Lidgard. 2012. "Evolutionary mode routinely varies among morphological traits within fossil species lineages" PNAS 109: 20520–20525. (pdf)

February 15: Woodward, J . 2010 “Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation” Biology and Philosophy 25: 287–318. (pdf)

February 22: Fawcett, T.W. and A.D. Higginson. 2012 ."Heavy use of equations impedes communication among biologists" PNAS 109: 11735–11739. (pdf)
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1205259109

March 1: Chris Pincock (Ohio Sate) visiting.
Pincock, C. 2012."Mathematical models of biological patterns: Lessons from Hamilton’s selfish herd" Biology & Philosophy 27(4): 481–496. (pdf)

March 8: Niklas, K.J. and S.A. Newman. 2013. "The origins of multicellular
organisms" Evolution & Development 15: 41–52. (pdf)

March 15: No Meeting

March 22: No Meeting SPRING BREAK

March 29: Frank, S.A. and M.R. Rosner. 2012 "Nonheritable Cellular Variability Accelerates the Evolutionary Processes of Cancer" PLoS Biology 10(4):e1001296. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001296

April 5: Marie Kaiser (Geneva) visiting
Kaiser, M.I. "An Ontic Account of Reductive Explanation in Biology" (draft paper) (pdf)

April 12: Marie Kaiser (Geneva) visiting
Knuuttila, Tarj and Loettgers, Andrea. 2011 "The productive tension. Mechanisms vs. templates in modeling the phenomenon", in: Paul Humphreys and Cyrille Imbert, Models, Simulations, and Representations, Routledge: New York/London. (pdf)

April 19: Joyce Havstad (UCSD) visiting
Havstad, Joyce C. "The Classification of Proteins" draft paper. (pdf)

April 26: Rinaldi, A. 2007. "Naturally better" EMBO reports 8: 995-999; (pdf)
Ball, P. 2001." Life’s lessons in design" Nature 409: 413-416. (pdf)

May 3: Crabtree, G.R. 2013. Our fragile intellect. Part I. Trends in Genetics 29: 1–3; (pdf) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2012.10.002
Crabtree, G.R. 2013. Our fragile intellect. Part II. Trends in Genetics 29: 3–5. (pdf) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2012.10.003

Discussion topics for Fall 2012

September 7: Teaching Genetics
Redfield, R.J. 2012. “Why Do We Have to Learn This Stuff?”—A New Genetics for 21st Century Students. PLoS Biol 10(7): e1001356. (http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001356)

September 14: Sterner, B. "Warranting Causal Generalizations in Systems Biology" (forthcoming) (pdf)
Guest: Beckett Sterner (MCPS visiting fellow)

September 21: Darwin's Beagle Voyage
Guest: Paul Brinkman North Carolina Museum of Natural History
Darwin, C. 1845. Journal of Researches (or Voyage of the Beagle); chapters 5 (pp. 81–105) and 7 (pp.123–141) . Available online: http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F14&viewtype=side&pageseq=1
(also available from Google books)
Optional: Brinkman, P. 2010. Charles Darwin’s Beagle Voyage, Fossil Vertebrate Succession, and ‘‘The Gradual Birth & Death of Species’’Journal of the History of Biology 43: 363–399. (This article is what his HST talk at 3:35 pm in 131 Tate will be based upon.) (pdf)

September 28: Human egalitarianism
Gavrilets, Sergey 2012. On the evolutionary origins of the egalitarian syndrome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109: 14069-14074. (pdf)

October 5: Behavioral biology
Guest: Marta Halina (MCPS visiting graduate student)
Halina, M. (draft paper) "Animal Mindreading: Moving Beyond the Theoretician’s Dilemma" (pdf)

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions the group will take two weeks during the semester to explore how Kuhn’s ideas apply to different eras and areas of interest to the Biological Interest Group.

October 12: Kuhnfest event: Darwinian Revolution
Smocovitis, V.B. 2005. ‘‘It Ain’t Over ‘til it’s Over’’: Rethinking the Darwinian Revolution. JHB 38: 33–49 ( http://www.jstor.org/stable/4331918)
Ruse, M. 2009. The Darwinian revolution: Rethinking its meaning and significance. PNAS 106: 10040–10047 (http://www.pnas.org/content/106/suppl.1/10040.full)

October 19: Kuhnfest event: Darwinian Revolution
Bellon, R. 2011. "Inspiration in the Harness of Daily Labor: Darwin, Botany, and the Triumph of Evolution, 1859-1868." Isis 102: 393–420. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/full/10.1086/661591)

October 26: 5-275 Moos Tower (Developmental Biology Center)
*** Note change of location***
Matson, Clinton K. and Zarkower, David (2012) "Sex and the singular DM domain: insights into sexual regulation, evolution and plasticity" Nature Reviews: Genetics 13: 163–174. (pdf)

November 2: Modeling
Two chapters from Long, J. 2012. Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach us about the History of Life and the Future of Technology. New York: Basic Books. (ch1pdf, ch3pdf)

November 9: Molecular Genetics and Morality
McKaughan, D.J. 2012. "Voles, vasopression, and infidelity: a molecular basis for monogamy, a platform for ethics, and more?" Biology & Philosophy 27: 521-543. (pdf)

November 16: NO MEETING

November 23: THANKSGIVING NO MEETING

November 30: Meyer, J.R. et al. 2012. Repeatability and Contingency in the Evolution of a Key Innovation in Phage Lambda. Science 335: 428–432. DOI: 10.1126/science.1214449 (pdf)

December 7: Murmann, J. P. (forthcoming) "Scaffolding in Economics, Management, and the Design of Technologies" (pdf)
Guest: Peter Murmann (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, & Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)

Previous BIG discussion topics

For more information: contact Janet McKernan or Ken Waters