Mariel Goddu

It’s funny that outside academic philosophy, if someone says they’re into metaphysics, it means they probably believe they have supernatural powers, but inside it means they probably spend all their time trying to figure out what sort of thing a table is

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

I had SO much fun talking to Paul for almost 2 hours about my new book on Schrödinger & molecular biology. Easily one of the most enjoyable podcasts I've ever done. Check it out!

P.S. CUP has made the PDF of my book free to download for 2 more weeks. Get it here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...

capacities –– (see philpapers.org/archive/KRIC..., if you're interested :)
–– and we're on the lookout for case studies of closely related species with different capacities (developed via different cog dev/learning trajectories) to include in our follow up papers!

Wonderful! Please let me know, if you do! I'm an ex-cog dev psychologist now working in philosophy of mind & cog sci; Beate Krickel @beakr.bsky.social & I are developing an approach to 'cognitive ontology' in terms of homology. Our framework uses cognitive development to individuate cognitive

Really wanna give this kid like 0.1 points for neatly boxing their answer

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity!

We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

Re: "evo-devo"- Since your participants are lab-reared, do you guys have data on the (behavioral) developmental trajectories of grasping/climbing skills in the two species?

I'm curious whether & how the physiological differences might observably affect learning/cognitive development

As a philosopher I come from a rich tradition of being annoying af

Phylogenetic comparative methods for studying adaptation: the adaptation-inertia framework Abstract. Phylogenetic comparative methods are a major tool for evaluating macroevolutionary hypotheses. Methods based on the mean-reverting stochastic Orn

How to use and interpret the #adaptationinertia framework of #phylogenetic comparative methods based on the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process to study adaptation:

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Pienaar et al. 2025

Cover of this week's Nature showing a brain rendering Cover caption from the journal: Brain development: Our ability to process information into complex emotions, behaviours and decisions relies on the rich diversity of cell types that make up the human brain. Uncovering the molecular and cellular events that take place during brain development could reveal not only the mechanisms that give rise to this diversity but also shed light on how this process might go awry in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. In this week’s issue, the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) builds on its previous work creating atlases of cell types in the adult mouse, non-human primate (NHP) and human brains to present cell-type atlases of the developing human, mouse and NHP brains. Across a suite of papers, nine of which are published in Nature, the researchers uncover the complex programs through which cell types emerge during brain development in humans and animals, revealing both the shared and unique features of the human brain. The latest work, along with future research directions, is summed up in a Perspective article by Tomasz Nowakowski and colleagues

New issue of Nature - with NINE studies on #brain #development from the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) 🧠🧪🔬

An amazing set of resources for all scientists working on the brain!

🧠 Immersive feature:
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

🧠 Perspective:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Book cover of "The Riddle of Organismal Agency: New Historical and Philosophical Reflections" (Routledge, 2024). The book belongs to the "History and Philosophy of Biology" series. The editors are Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, Jan Baedke, Guido I. Prieto, and Gregory Radick. The design features a geometric pattern of interlocking, multicolored triangles and rectangular prisms in shades of red, yellow, teal, white, and pink. The Routledge logo appears in the lower right corner.

"The Riddle of Organismal Agency" is now available as a paperback version! Edited by @alejandrofabregastejeda.com, Jan Baedke, Guido Prieto and Gregory Radick, the volume puts together reflections from #HistSci and #PhilSci on the topic of organismal agency.
#HPBio
www.routledge.com/The-Riddle-o...

13. Pumpkins Arranged Cookie-wise

12. Leviathan

11. Spooky Monads

10. How to Do Things with (S)words

9. Joint-carving

8. The (Possible) Ghost of the Notorious R.B.M.

(*the [Ruth] Barcan [Marcus] Formula is the "spookiest" formula in modal logic)

7. Jack-o'-lantern of Theseus

6. Pumpkumulation of Capital

5. Aristophanes' Third Gender

4. Pomunkulus*
(*homunculus pumpkin)

3. What is it like to be a bat?

2. The Trolley Pumpkin
("Participants are invited to arrange victims to produce different moral tensions")

1. Owl of Minerva

First annual Stanford Philosophy Jack-o'-lantern competition! What's your favorite? (individual entries below!)

Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined...

Are humans really the only rational animals? Our NEW PAPER 🎉 out in @science.org suggests otherwise! In a large collaboration led with my joint first author @hanna-schleihauf.bsky.social, we show that “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs” 🧵

Are humans the only rational animals?

For thousands of years, we’ve thought so.

Our new paper, out today in Science, suggests otherwise!
We present evidence that chimpanzees possess several core capacities for rational thought.

Check out Emily's thread: bsky.app/profile/emil...

The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Recent studies have shed further light on the evolutionary origins of chemical synapses, In this Review, Colgren and Burkhardt explore how ancient proteins were...

First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience

Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com
Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E

@jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social