Philosophy, Biology, and Society
I am publishing a paper, "Formal Epistemology in a Tropical Savanna," in this book edited by Evelyn Brister and Bob Frodeman. (The paper was the basis for a talk prepared for the Feminist Epistemologies, Methodologies, Metaphysics and Science Studies (FEMMSS) cognate session at PSA 2018. Though I could not attend due to ill health--an unexpected bout with …
Continue reading "“Field Philosophy” Edited by Evelyn Brister and Robert Frodeman"
To mark the centenary of one of the worst disease epidemics ever, I will be speaking as part of a panel organized by the Univesity of Texas Institute for Historical Studies. My talk's title: "One Hundred Years Later: Unknowns of the 1918 Flu Epidemic." Here's the poster for the event. Here is the visual aid I'll …
Hugh Desmond has asked me to publicize the following conference at KU Leuven: Whether in terms of geographic range or ecological dominance, the human species seems to be extraordinarily successful. Yet, how should such claims of extraordinary success be understood? What were the causes of this success, and moreover, what are the ethical implications? On …
Continue reading "Conference: Human Success: Evolutionary Origins and Ethical Implications"
This is the first update on the original 18 February post on measles outbreak 2018. Changes have been made for: Chad, Costa Rica, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Madagascar, Philippines, Ukraine, Vietnam. Country Data (Cases and deaths in 2019, unless otherwise stated.) Australia: 11 cases in January in New South Wales according to a government report; 1 …
Continue reading "Worldwide Measles Outbreaks 2019: Update 25 February"
I would like to draw attention to a recent blog post by Professor Raina MacIntyre of the University of New South Wales (with whom I have occasionally collaborated). MacIntyre points out the complexity of any attempt to eliminate measles completely partly because of how infectious it is: elementary herd immunity calculations show that the required minimum …
In response to the surge of measles outbreaks in the U.S. this year, Lauren Gardner, who is in the process of moving to Johns Hopkins from the University of New South Wales, and I are doing a risk analysis that combines the geography of hotspots of vaccine avoidance (from Olive et al. 2018) with international …
CNN has a comment from Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the recent measles outbreaks in Washington and Oregon. This was a predicted disaster waiting to happen, given that these two states are in the top five nationally for the percentage of children who have nonmedical exemptions from compulsory vaccinations. Last year Peter Hotez and several collaborators …
Donald Trump would probably be very happy if the conclusion of a new study on the migration of Monarch butterflies is true. According to this study, a large number of these butterflies, which used to return to México each winter have now abandoned that destination to settle down in Florida instead. (At least, that is …
Continue reading "Have Monarchs Switched from México to Florida?"
The last post was unexpectedly pertinent. Within hours of posting, two women have finally entered the Sabarimala temple according to this report. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that led the priests to shut down the temple for an hour for purification; this report also notes how the allegedly secular Congress party has joined the chorus against the two …
For India, we start the year with Hindus backed by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party blocking women from entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala in violation of a Supreme Court judgment. (All the women wanted to do is to worship at the shrine.) This has gone on for months. In response to repeatedly …
Sahotra Sarkar 