The Ramsey Lab

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

Historically, viruses were thought to primarily use host cell's translational machinery. New work from @harvardcellbio.bsky.social faculty Amy Lee reveals that a giant DNA virus encodes its own IF4F initiation complex, suggesting an unexpected evolutionary innovation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Book cover of “The Scope of Evolutionary Thinking” by Thomas A. C. Reydon, in the Cambridge Elements: The Philosophy of Biology series. Against a black background, the title is surrounded by Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations of marine organisms—radial, symmetrical forms in vivid blues, oranges, reds, and greens.

New Cambridge Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—fully #openaccess! @thomasreydon.bsky.social explores how evolutionary theory crosses over from biology into other fields, showing how these crossovers embody a broader style of reasoning: 'evolutionary thinking' bit.ly/48z3h36 #HPbio #evosky

Screenshot of the KU Leuven Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS) website showing details of a seminar titled CLPS Seminar: Auguste Nahas, Equilibrium Explanations and Teleology. The event is scheduled for October 3, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM (Europe/Brussels time) in room HIW1-01.20. Speaker: Auguste Nahas (IHPST, University of Paris 1-Sorbonne). Abstract Teleological explanations have two distinctive features that have been deemed problematic. First, they reverse the usual explanatory order of causal explanations by explaining a phenomenon in virtue of a consequence it brings about. Second, they involve normative considerations in so far as the goal sets standards of hypothetical requirement: there are good and appropriate ways of achieving a goal. Two possible strategies present themselves for making sense of these features. The eliminative strategy aims to show how these features may be translated without loss to an ordinary causal language that cites neither consequences nor normative facts. A naturalist strategy aims to show that these two distinctively teleological features are no impediment to its legitimacy as a form of explanation. Unfortunately, scholars intent on making sense of teleology are not always explicit about which strategy they are pursuing. A notable ambiguity in this area concerns negative feedback and equilibrium explanations, which have long been deemed candidates for teleology. However, it is not clear if these explanations fall into the eliminative or the naturalist strategy. In this paper, I review two prominent accounts of goal-directed behavior in terms of negative feedback and equilibrium seeking, to evaluate whether they lead to an eliminativist or reductive account of teleological explanation. I argue these modes of explanations can be rendered in two ways, one of which is fully eliminative, while the other preserves the consequence-explanatory character of teleology at the expense of its normative character.

If you are in Leuven tomorrow, join us for the first CLPS seminar of the academic year! Our speaker will be @augustenahas.bsky.social (IHPST, University of Paris 1–Sorbonne), who will present on negative feedback, equilibrium explanations, and their relationship to causation & #teleology #HPS #HPbio

A timetree of Fungi dated with fossils and horizontal gene transfers - Nature Ecology & Evolution Combining fossil-based and molecular calibrations with data on horizontal gene transfer events, the authors develop a time-calibrated phylogeny of Fungi. This timescale, which integrates analytic uncertainties, suggests an older age of crown Fungi (1,401–896 million years ago), as well as a minimum age for ancient interactions involving fungi and the algal ancestors of embryophytes in terrestrial ecosystems (1,253–797 Ma).

Combining fossil-based and molecular calibrations with data on horizontal gene transfer events, the authors develop a time-calibrated phylogeny of Fungi. This timescale suggests an older age of crown Fungi than previously thought (1,401–896 million years ago) 🧪🍄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Looking forward to speak at this @embo.org Workshop event meetings.embo.org/event/25-mul... to explore the origins of multicellular complexity along with great colleagues @multicellgenome.bsky.social @wcratcliff.bsky.social @viktri08.bsky.social I will be discussing synthetic multicellularity.

The CLPS at KU Leuven has landed on Bluesky🦋 ✨️

Follow the page to stay updated on the latest research!

#philsky #philbio #academicsky

Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda (KU Leuven) presenting joint work with Gianmaria Dani and Grant Ramsey and articulating the concept of 'ethospace' to expand on the theoretical toolkit for advancing the comparative study of behavior across the three of life.

#philbio #hpbio #philsky #evosky #behavior🧪

Mark Oliver Casper (University of Kassel/ University of Göttingen) discussing points of intersection between enactivism and behavioral biology & strategies for modelling behavioral complexity in response to the Motley Crue Argument.

#evosky #philbio #philsky #4Ecognition

Auguste Nahas (@augustenahas.bsky.social) from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University makes a case for choice as a topic of philosophical concern and distinguishes among five conceptual roles at play, with implications for the study of choice across the tree of life.

#hpbio #evosky #philsky #philbio

Anton Killin (University of Bielefeld) on aesthetic behaviour & cognition.
While the aesthetic is often applied to humans & often to a Western, post-Kantian context, evalutative coevolutionary approaches suggest more promising avenues for research across the tree of life.

#philbio #evosky #philsky

Kristin Aleklett (@kaleklett.bsky.social) from Lund University deep diving into the challenges and opportunities for studying the behvioral ecology of fungi. Tinbergen's 4 Qs are applicable, but some are trickier than others (e.g., development)

#evosky #fungi #philsky #behaviouralecology #philbio 🧪

Kirsty Wan (@micromotility.bsky.social) starts the second day of the workshop with a tour de force overview of the behavioral complexity of single-celled organisms and ways to study and model it. #evosky #cellbio #HPbio

Bengt Autzen (University College Cork) on plants, sensitivity and optimal choice, arguing that is possible to recognize a form of risk-sensitivity in pea plants but its relation to optimal foraging theory needs to be further examined. 🌱

#evosky #philsky #philbio #hpbio #plantbehavior 🧪

Gianmaria Dani (KU Leuven) argues that perception, integration & conditioned response should be seen as 3 different steps in the process of classical conditioning & discusses the implications for plant associative learning. Beware of pseudoconditioning!🌱

#evosky #philbio #hpbio #philsky #hpbio 🧪

Silvia Guerra (University of Padova) on goal-directed behavior in pea plants. Plants are able to perceive elements in the environment, the features of potential supports and to modulate their behavior according to context.

#evosky #philsky #philbio #hpbio #plantbehavior 🌱🧪

Linda Grohmann (University of Wuppertal) argues that comparative research in behavior and cognition represents a double bind—a dilemma arising from the conflicting demands of providing definitions while presenting experimental results.

#evosky #hpbio #philbio #philsky 🧪

Nedah N. Nemati (Columbia University) on rethinking behavioral similarity in comparative neurobiology. "Biology will not straightforwardly provide answers to structure without invoking notions of function".

#philsky #hpbio #evosky #behavior #neuroscience 🧪

Susana Colinas Fischer (University College London) on what #Celegans can teach us about adapting existing behavioral frameworks to the study of new organisms. Interesting insights on how reward and punishment are integrated in the context of learning.

#evosky #philbio #hpbio #behavior🧪

Tobias Starzak (Ruhr University Bochum) analyzing the loci of disagreement in animal minds research across principles of interpretation, new experimental approaches and concept selection.

#hpbio #philsky #evosky #philbio #animalbehavior🧪

@alejandrofabregastejeda.com introduces the workshop’s rich, interdisciplinary program and the phylogenetic scope emerging from comparative studies of behavior. Two exciting days are ahead!

#hpbio #evosky #philbio #philsky 🧪

The 'Behavior Across the Tree of Life' Workshop has finally kicked off! Here Gianmaria Dani maps the problem space for the event. How should we address behavior beyond animals and avoid the risks of anthropomorphic projection?

#hpbio #philsky #evosky #philbio 🧪

If these topics pique your interest, you can browse the program here 👇📆 hiw.kuleuven.be/clps/events/...

Poster for a workshop organized by the Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, titled “Behavior Across the Tree of Life: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges.” The poster features circular images of lichens, bacteria, ants on a leaf, and a carnivorous plant with prey, symbolizing diverse behaving forms of life. Event details: 26–27 September 2025, Council Room (Raadzaal), Institute of Philosophy. Invited speakers: Kristin Aleklett, Silvia Guerra, Tobias Starzak, Kirsty Y. Wan. Organizers: Gianmaria Dani, Alejandro Fábregas-Tejeda, and Grant Ramsey. KU Leuven logo appears at the top, with a QR code at the bottom right.

Tomorrow we kick off the workshop "Behavior Across the Tree of Life"! We have a stellar lineup of philosophers & scientists who will discuss theoretical and methodological challenges for building a cross-kingdom comparative behavioral biology. Exciting developments to follow! #philsci #evobio #HPBio

PhD Project in Philosophy of Science: Philosophical Perspectives on Animal Models in Translational Neuroscience

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...

Cover page of the book chapter titled "Conceptual Foundations of Cell Mortality" by Pierre M. Durand and Grant Ramsey. The page includes a table of contents with sections: Introduction; Microbes, Cells, Death, and Mortality; Two Kinds of Microbial Cell Death: Endogenous and Exogenous (with subsections on distinguishing causes and endogenous microbial death); Conceptualizations of Programmed Cell Death; Endogenous Death, Programmed Cell Death, and Microbial Cell Fate (with a subsection on alternative terms for programmed cell death in microbes); and Toward an Overarching Framework of Cell Mortality, followed by References. Durand, P.M., Ramsey, G. (2025). Conceptual Foundations of Cell Mortality. In: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/82_2025_328

Do notions like “programmed #cell death” (PCD) and the endogenous–exogenous death distinction apply to microbes? In our new chapter, we argue that an evolutionary concept of PCD extends across the tree of life, including microbial taxa 👇📃 link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #evosky #HPbio #philsci 🦠 🔬

Book cover of “Modelling Evolution” by Walter Veit, in the Cambridge Elements: The Philosophy of Biology series. Against a black background, the title is surrounded by Ernst Haeckel’s illustrations of marine organisms—radial, symmetrical forms in vivid blues, oranges, reds, and greens.

New Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—free to download until October 6! Walter Veit examines the role of models in evolutionary biology: their types, testability, and interrelations 👇📕 www.cambridge.org/core/element... #philsci #HPBio #evobio

I am quite excited to share a new preprint on the prospects for a 'metaphilosophy of science'—a second-order inquiry into the concepts, assumptions, aims, and methods that underpin philosophy of science itself. 👇📃 philsci-archive.pitt.edu/26661/ 1/3 #philsci #philsky #HPS #HPbio #metaphilosophy

Cover page of the book chapter titled "Conceptual Foundations of Cell Mortality" by Pierre M. Durand and Grant Ramsey. The page includes a table of contents with sections: Introduction; Microbes, Cells, Death, and Mortality; Two Kinds of Microbial Cell Death: Endogenous and Exogenous (with subsections on distinguishing causes and endogenous microbial death); Conceptualizations of Programmed Cell Death; Endogenous Death, Programmed Cell Death, and Microbial Cell Fate (with a subsection on alternative terms for programmed cell death in microbes); and Toward an Overarching Framework of Cell Mortality, followed by References. Durand, P.M., Ramsey, G. (2025). Conceptual Foundations of Cell Mortality. In: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/82_2025_328

Do notions like “programmed #cell death” (PCD) and the endogenous–exogenous death distinction apply to microbes? In our new chapter, we argue that an evolutionary concept of PCD extends across the tree of life, including microbial taxa 👇📃 link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #evosky #HPbio #philsci 🦠 🔬

Second HPS of Biodiversity Meeting Use this form to submit your abstract

Call for Abstracts
#HPS of Biodiversity
April 30 — May 2, 2026
Copenhagen, Denmark
Abstracts of 200-500 words should be submitted through: tinyurl.com/hpsbio. The deadline for submissions is Friday, November 7, 2025. Co-organized by @federicabocchi.bsky.social

Cobblestone pathway leading to the red-brick Institute of Philosophy building at KU Leuven in Belgium (home of the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science), framed by ivy-covered walls, arched windows, and lush greenery with purple wisteria flowers in the foreground.

Hello, #AcademicSky! We are the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS) at KU Leuven. Our senior and junior researchers focus on #logic, #epistemology & #philsci. We’re here to share our work and connect with logicians and philosophers of science worldwide—help us spread the word! #philsky