Morgan Thompson

AQI map showing most of MN in the red (unhealthy category).

It’s the most perfect summer day (70° & sunny) but my kids can’t go outside because the air is toxic to breathe due to wildfire smoke from Canada.

Wednesday-Saturday is a very long time to be trapped inside.

Climate change is here.

My first day at Donald Campbell’s archive was great! I found an unexpected letter from Karl Popper on Campbell’s Pattern Matching as Essential Distal Knowledge paper. Some interesting notes from Campbell while writing the paper. Triangulation was clearly a central focus at that time for Campbell.

This week @universitypress.cambridge.org has granted free access to all titles in the collection of Cambridge Elements in the Philosophy of Biology, edited by Grant Ramsey. There are many options to choose from! Happy reading! 📕👇 www.cambridge.org/core/publica... #philsci #HPbio #evosky #ISHPSSB2025

Sorry but personally if a miniature horse woke me up from anesthesia by banging out nonsense on a miniature keyboard it would send me into a liminal space between life and death from which I would never return

part 2/2

A U.S. surgeon trying to have a “peer to peer” consultation with a doctor at a health insurance company who is hiding his identity as her patient gets denied coverage. And it gets worse from there. You have to see it to believe it.

(1/2)

Call for Directors Academic Philosophy Data and Analysis, a long running project that collects and analyzes data on graduate experience and employment outcomes for philosophy PhDs, is seeking to expand its leadership. W...

“Academic Philosophy Data and Analysis (philosophydata.org), a long running project that collects and analyzes data on graduate experience and employment outcomes for philosophy PhDs, is seeking to expand its leadership…from 1 to 3 directors”

Please share!

#philsky

apda.ghost.io/call-for-dir...

Pathways to an Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics: lessons from the IPCC and IPBES Colin J Carlson, Christopher H Trisos, Ben Oppenheim, Shweta Bansal, Sara E Davies, Aïda Diongue-Niang, Victoria Y Fan, John D Kraemer, Rachel Golden Kroner, Lawrence O Gostin, David T S Hayman, Marion Koopmans, Torre E Lavelle, Carlos G das Neves, Zoe O’Donoghue, Laura M Pereira, Benjamin Roche, Matiangai Sirleaf, Kayla Zamanian, Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio, Alexandra L Phelan Pandemics pose a global threat to human wellbeing, justice, economies, and ecosystems and are comparable with other planetary crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss in terms of urgency and impact. The global community would benefit from a dedicated scientific synthesis body to assess pandemic risks and solutions. In this Personal View, we explore proposals for an Intergovernmental Panel on Pandemics and assess potential pathways to its creation. Learning lessons from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) might help national governments and international organisations to chart a course through important decisions about format, governance, operations, scientific scope and process, and ability to recommend policies that make the world safer.

🚨 Very, very big news. Today, a global coalition - including members of the IPCC, IPBES, and WHO expert advisors, as well as independent virologists, epidemiologists, and lawyers - started the process of creating an "IPCC for Pandemics."

🔓 www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
🧵 Five things to know 👉

Working on a paper on validity and robustness this summer and I was so pleased to find that Donald Campbell’s archive is here at Northwestern. Looking forward to exploring some of the archival correspondence and materials.

Phot of the Trans in Philosophy zine spotted on a table at the Diversity Reading List 10th Anniversary conference, under the conference program booklet.

Photo of co-editor Ding holding the zine, with a yellow cover, in front of four flying Pride flags at the San Francisco civic center plaza.

Photo of a dozen copies of the Being Trans in Philosophy zine on a circular table, in different colors arranged to create a trans pride, at the society for philosophy and psychology conference.

Photo of Maximiliana and co-editor Willow posing with copies of the zine. Maximiliana's shirt says “Black Trans Lives Matter.”

did you hear that you could read and print Being Trans in Philosophy today?! seriously, like woahhh!! being.transinphilosophy.org

the zine @diversityread.bsky.social 10th anniversary conference (happy bday!!) by @nonamename.bsky.social, SF pride @not.dingherself.com, & SPP @willow-starr.bsky.social

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya used sickle cell disease research as an example of something he would not call DEI and cut. It's being cut.

www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/n...

A metal vaginal speculum - an object with two blades open like the bill of a duck. It is resting on its packaging from Cambridge University Hospitals Sterile Services, labelled Speculum Vaginal Cuscoe Virgin. Packaged 24-09-23 Expires 23-09-24

Close-up on the label reading "speculum vaginal cuscoe virgin"

From our collection: Cuscoe [sic] speculum, size virgin, packaged September 2023.

"Virgin" is a size category sometimes given to vaginal speculums in the smallest size. This has understandably drawn controversy and campaigning.

NIH will reinstate 900 grants in response to court order Projects touching on sensitive topics such as DEI had been illegally terminated, judge found

Some more good news: NIH internal memos indicate that some grants will be restored after being illegally cancelled due to their content according to a legal ruling. It should restore funding for work on racial health disparities and transgender health. www.science.org/content/arti...

Pain Management for In-Office Uterine and Cervical Procedures

Here’s some good news: the US American College for Obstetrics and Gynecologists recommends pain management for IUD insertion and procedures like colposcopy biopsies. Previously they didn’t typically involve analgesics or anesthetics. (Currently writing a paper on this)

www.acog.org/clinical/cli...

There’s a lot to say about why gynecological pain is something women, nonbinary, and trans folks are expected to bear or cope with. But I’m glad to see some recognition that these procedures are painful, that patients deserve pain management for them, and that there are effective strategies.

Pain Management for In-Office Uterine and Cervical Procedures

Here’s some good news: the US American College for Obstetrics and Gynecologists recommends pain management for IUD insertion and procedures like colposcopy biopsies. Previously they didn’t typically involve analgesics or anesthetics. (Currently writing a paper on this)

www.acog.org/clinical/cli...

Mazviita Chirimuuta wins the 2025 Lakatos Award! The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is pleased to announce the 2025 Lakatos Award winner Mazviita Chirimuuta, who receives the award for her book “The Brain Abstracted:…

🏆 We are pleased to announce the 2025 Lakatos Award winner Mazviita Chirimuuta, who receives the award for her book “The Brain Abstracted: Simplification in the History and Philosophy of Neuroscience”

Congratulations! 👏

👉More about the award: www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/b...

NEW: NSF will be kicked out of their building. Announcement will be made tomorrow by HUD Sec. and Governor of VA. HUD will take over the NSF building over the next two years.

NSF staffer: "There is no planning for NSF, no identified future location, appropriation for a new building or a move."

A curious Yellow-nosed Albatross chick standing amidst green vegetation with a scenic view of mountain slopes and the ocean in the background, under a bright, partly cloudy sky.

Oh hi there, this Atlantic Yellow-Nosed Albatross chick wants you to have a wonderful day.

#WorldAlbatrossDay

THIS IS HUGE! An HIV PrEP drug in the form of a twice-yearly subcutaneous injection has JUST been APPROVED by the FDA. Lenacapavir was 99.9% EFFECTIVE at PREVENTING HIV in clinical trials. Let’s talk about that! 🧪🧵⬇️

Just another anecdote: I made more as a postdoc (Wissenschaftliche Arbeiterin) in Germany than the posted salaries of UK Lecturer (entry level) positions that I was applying to a few years ago.

In a swift response to this morning's hearing, District Court Judge William G. Young has just ruled that the directives that led to 100s of grant terminations at the NIH are arbitrary and capricious.

The directives + subsequent terminations are illegal, he said.

"They are of no force and effect."

Robin Zheng’s “Yellow Fever” paper is always an interesting discussion with undergraduates. I’ve also been reading Shannon Sullivan’s Physiology of Racist and Sexist Oppression. Relevant chapters on racial health disparities and white (women’s) racial discomfort from an affective perspective.

This is all so ludicrously dumb. You can't master calculus in two weeks. AI provides students with no useful insight into how to study beyond what deep down they already know: You have to go to class, read, do the work, try to understand.

Why Hospital Policies Matter in States That Ban Abortion Our first-of-its-kind data analysis found that a seismic split emerged in how medical institutions in Texas' two largest metro areas, Houston and Dallas, treated miscarrying patients — and in their…

One Texas doctor said hospitals should worry less about hypothetical legal consequences of the abortion ban and more about the threat to patients’ lives: “I think you're risking legal harm the opposite way for not intervening and putting somebody at risk.”

Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions The Trump administration has announced that it is revoking guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions to women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.

The Trump administration has announced that it is revoking guidance to the nation’s hospitals that directed them to provide emergency abortions to women when they are necessary to stabilize their medical condition.

something that stands out about this is just how cheap it is for us to have world-leading scientific capacity

we spent ~6.75 trillion last year, and the combined budgets for NIH, NSF and NASA are barely more than 1% of that

what an incredible waste to lose it all for a drop in the bucket

Congress moves to loosen toxic air pollution rules The House and Senate both voted to loosen regulations on air pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are associated with higher cancer risk.

By @alejandrabee.bsky.social

The House and Senate both voted to loosen regulations on air pollutants like dioxin and mercury, which are associated with higher cancer risk.

Immense solidarity to the organizers of this Hamburg vigil for Lorenz A. and the alarmingly many Black people killed in Germany owing to endemic patterns of structural racism, from police violence to medical negligence. Only (!) thanks to this protest I learned about the death of Valérie Iyobor 1/n

The Professors Are Using ChatGPT, and Some Students Aren’t Happy About It

I understand the overworked prof better than most, but as institutions, schools are going to have to play a longer game—widespread adoption of these tools by profs is going to devalue what they are selling. Destabilizing education is part of their overall fascist project.