History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences最新文献

The social life of viruses: a queer sort of science. 病毒的社会生活：一种奇怪的科学。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-10-15 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00772-z

Timothy Gitzen

{"title":"The social life of viruses: a queer sort of science.","authors":"Timothy Gitzen","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00772-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-026-00772-z","url":null,"abstract":"A burgeoning microbiology field, sociovirology is the study of how viruses interact with one another and the effects such interactions have on social evolution. Challenging dominant narratives that viruses are individualistic pathogens, sociovirologists explore the social interaction of viruses through the language of cooperation, altruism, and cheating, social concepts with biological definitions. Viruses cannot self-replicate-they must rely on living cells to reproduce-and thus are commonly believed to be biologically nonliving. By focusing on virus-virus interaction and evolution, sociovirologists are displacing reproduction as a chief engine of aliveness and queering biology and the concept of life. I contend that in sociovirological publications, the aliveness of viruses is indexed through sociovirologists' use of language reserved for the interactions and social behaviors of life-forms alongside viruses' ability to evolve. This paper illustrates that by attending to social behavior and evolution, sociovirologists are proffering novel approaches to both viruses and the concept of life that displaces individual organism reproduction and vertical inheritance as normative of life with species reproduction and species evolution as normative for viruses even if nonnormative for biological understandings of life. Viruses are alive because, as species, they evolve despite an individual viral particle's fate.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149198272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Letter and landscape: early Soviet plant hunting in Transbaikalia and the relocations of Tibetan medicine between environments and epistemologies. 文字与景观：前苏联在外贝加尔山脉的植物狩猎和藏医在环境与认识论之间的重新定位。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-10-08 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00765-y

Maria Pirogovskaya

{"title":"Letter and landscape: early Soviet plant hunting in Transbaikalia and the relocations of Tibetan medicine between environments and epistemologies.","authors":"Maria Pirogovskaya","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00765-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-026-00765-y","url":null,"abstract":"The early decades of Soviet rule saw dramatic developments in medicine and public health. Many regions of the new state, particularly the so-called 'national peripheries', underwent extensive health reform. Vernacular medical practices, which were often embedded in religious doctrines, were to be eradicated. Paradoxically, a keen interest in alternative medical knowledge also emerged, resulting in institutionalised research in ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology and recruiting heterodox practitioners as research partners. This article discusses how Buryat Tibetan medicine of Transbaikal Buddhist monasteries became a lucrative source of ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological knowledge in Soviet natural science and medicine during the interbellum period. Mining this knowledge as an archive and a mapping tool to unlock the 'productive forces' of Eastern Siberia, Soviet scientists sought to fight 'pharmaceutical hunger' and to discover new items for state exports. The article draws on the documentation of scientific expeditions to Transbaikal Buddhist monasteries and natural habitats to reveal how attempts to adapt Tibetan knowledge for Soviet needs contributed to epistemological translations between heterodox and orthodox medicine, while also highlighting particular sites and environments and the people associated with them. Thus, it argues, the Soviet version of modern pharmacological science emerged as intrinsically local and heterogeneous.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149139388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Plant embryogenesis in medieval thought: Dino del Garbo's commentary on Hippocrates' De natura foetus. 中世纪思想中的植物胚胎发生：迪诺·德尔·嘉宝对希波克拉底《自然胎儿论》的评论。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-28 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00747-0

Marilena Panarelli

{"title":"Plant embryogenesis in medieval thought: Dino del Garbo's commentary on Hippocrates' De natura foetus.","authors":"Marilena Panarelli","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00747-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-026-00747-0","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the Recollectiones in Hippocratem De natura foetus, a unique Latin commentary on the Hippocratic embryological treatise, composed in the early fourteenth century by the Florentine physician Dino del Garbo. While the original Hippocratic text is concise, Dino expands it significantly, offering a rich and systematic exploration of the analogies between plant and animal generation. His commentary stands out not only as the sole known Latin interpretation of this Hippocratic work, but also as an exceptional instance of botanical inquiry within the medical-philosophical framework connected to the Bolognese medical school. Focusing on passages that address plant embryonic development, the study highlights Dino's systematic use of analogies between animal and vegetal reproduction, particularly through his discussion of seed-based generation and vegetative propagation. Philosophical works such as the Pseudo-Aristotelian De plantis and, though not explicitly cited, Albert the Great's De vegetabilibus appear to inform the broader conceptual background of the commentary. His reflections on seed anatomy, sexual differentiation, and the distribution of the vegetative soul reveal an effort to reconcile observations in plant science with a rigorous philosophical approach. By integrating Hippocratic empiricism with Aristotelian natural philosophy, Dino del Garbo offers a rare contribution to medieval plant science-one that bridges medical theory, botanical physiology, and metaphysical inquiry.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13619805/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149076784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Benefit assessment of anti-ageing medicines in the European Union: regulatory obstacles and pluralistic alternatives. 欧盟抗衰老药物的效益评估：监管障碍和多元替代方案。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-25 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00759-w

Guillermo Marín Penella, Roberto López-Mas

{"title":"Benefit assessment of anti-ageing medicines in the European Union: regulatory obstacles and pluralistic alternatives.","authors":"Guillermo Marín Penella, Roberto López-Mas","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00759-w","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-026-00759-w","url":null,"abstract":"Anti-ageing medicine is a new movement in healthcare that has as a focus the development of anti-ageing drugs. These medications, like any novel technological product, must be regulated, demonstrating safety and efficacy. In the European Union, the standard of proof for this purpose is the methodology known as randomised controlled trials, which creates a regulatory environment where such pharmaceuticals face an obstacle related to the resources needed to complete the studies. This situation leads to undesirable consequences related to prolonged wait times, the discouragement of research, and difficulties in achieving certain social benefits. As a possible solution, we propose a regulatory alternative based on evidential pluralism, according to which a combination of evidence of correlation and mechanistic evidence can be sufficient to demonstrate causal relationships, regardless of the methodology used. In this way, as different methods could be employed, the authorisation of medicines targeting this condition would not be hindered, and many of the undesirable social consequences surrounding these products may be resolved.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149066599","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Letter correspondence regarding article "Studying asphyxiation in the lab: the role of experimental evidence in cause-of-death inquiry". 关于“在实验室中研究窒息：实验证据在死因调查中的作用”一文的通信信函。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-24 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00764-z

Theodore C Chan, Gary M Vilke

引用次数: 0

On the notion of false advertising: A reply to the letter by Theodore C. Chan and Gary M. Vilke on our article "Studying asphyxiation in the lab: the role of experimental evidence in cause-of-death inquiry". 关于虚假广告的概念：对Theodore C. Chan和Gary M. Vilke就我们的文章“在实验室中研究窒息：实验证据在死因调查中的作用”所写的信的答复。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-24 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00762-1

Enno Fischer, Saana Jukola

引用次数: 0

Universalism and individuality as a structural tension in modern medicine. 现代医学中普遍主义与个性的结构张力。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-22 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00757-y

Fiorela Alassia

{"title":"Universalism and individuality as a structural tension in modern medicine.","authors":"Fiorela Alassia","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00757-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-026-00757-y","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the structural tension between universalism and individuality in modern medicine. By universalism, I refer to the epistemological commitment to producing general, abstract knowledge about health and disease through classifications, generalizable models of physiological process, statistical evidence, and standardized therapeutic protocols. By individuality, I refer to the biological uniqueness of each patient as a concrete organism possessing a singular configuration of traits and circumstances. The central argument is that modern medicine has historically depended on universalist forms of knowledge, while clinical practice must always apply such knowledge to biologically unique individuals. This generates a persistent tension between the abstract-conceptual level of biomedical research and the concrete level of the individual patient at the clinical encounter. After clarifying the notion of biological individuality in medicine and reconstructing the historical emergence of universalism as a foundational principle of modern medicine, the paper analyzes three contemporary domains in which this tension becomes especially salient: external validity in evidence-based medicine, the constitution of reference classes, and the epistemic challenges of clinical practice. Recognizing this tension is necessary for a more precise understanding of both the possibilities and the limits of medicine in its engagement with biologically unique patients.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149026812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

New visual culture of science: analysis of graphical abstracts in the life science journal "Cell". 科学的新视觉文化：生命科学期刊《细胞》的图形摘要分析。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00763-0

Kana Ariga

{"title":"New visual culture of science: analysis of graphical abstracts in the life science journal \"Cell\".","authors":"Kana Ariga","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00763-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-026-00763-0","url":null,"abstract":"Driven by the shift towards online journal publishing, many academic journals have introduced graphical abstracts (GAs) since the 2000s to convey the primary findings of research papers. This study investigated this visual culture in life sciences by analyzing GAs with focus on content, representation, and background. In total, 333 GAs were collected from articles published in the journal Cell in 2021 and analyzed. Among these, 295 GAs (88.6%) explained the results and models and succinctly presented the key findings, and 251 GAs (75.4%) used a layout that divided the area into two or more sections. New graphics that were not present in the main text were featured in 222 GAs (66.7%), indicating substantial investment in their creation. The GAs shared commonalities with modern infographics commonly seen on the internet, which emphasize clarity. The increased used of GAs may be attributed to the need for \"instant comprehension,\" which is an epistemic virtue reinforced by authors, readers, and journals and driven by the scientific self of \"surviving researchers and journals\" in a competitive scientific environment.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13582142/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148984071","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Measurement in the Ultimatum and Dictator Games: Construct validity, standardization and the problem of coordination. 最后通牒与独裁者游戏的测量：结构效度、标准化与协调问题。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-16 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00725-6

María Jiménez-Buedo

{"title":"Measurement in the Ultimatum and Dictator Games: Construct validity, standardization and the problem of coordination.","authors":"María Jiménez-Buedo","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00725-6","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-026-00725-6","url":null,"abstract":"The ultimatum game (UG) and the dictator game (DG) are two of the most prominent tools in experimental and behavioural social sciences. Originally designed to study bargaining behaviour and decision-making in economics, these simple yet versatile scripts have come to be viewed by many as reliable instruments for measuring prosocial preferences, such as altruism, generosity, or sensitivity to social norms. Proponents of the measurement view have argued that the UG and DG serve as standardized \"social thermometers,\" capable of revealing cultural and contextual differences in normative behaviour across diverse populations. For instance, the UG has been used to demonstrate the influence of institutional contexts and cultural norms on fairness expectations, while the DG has been described as a straightforward measure of altruism. In this paper, we critically examine the idea that the UG and DG function as robust measuring devices, raising key questions about their validity as tools of measurement. We argue that the constructs these games are purported to measure-ranging from prosociality to norm compliance-are often imprecisely defined and vary across studies, and this severely limits the sense in which the DG or the UG can be interpreted as measuring devices. By analysing the ontological and methodological challenges surrounding these games, we contend that the UG and DG are better understood as tools for exploratory experimentation rather than as reliable instruments for systematic measurement.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13582031/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148984084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Topographical constraints, ecological units, and system memory. 地形约束、生态单元和系统记忆。

IF 1 3区哲学

History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Pub Date : 2026-09-15 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-026-00761-2

Colby J Clark

{"title":"Topographical constraints, ecological units, and system memory.","authors":"Colby J Clark","doi":"10.1007/s40656-026-00761-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40656-026-00761-2","url":null,"abstract":"Most philosophers that study constraints consider them noncausal. But Ross (2023, 2024) posits an account that attributes causality to one category of constraint (i.e., \"causal constraints\"). In this essay, I extrapolate and add to Ross' account to argue that topographical features causally constrain complex ecological dynamics. Topographical features possess four defining characteristics that are common to all constraints and satisfy the two criteria to qualify as causal (on the interventionist account of causal explanation). I refer to these as topographical constraints. Furthermore, I suggest that the existence of topographical constraints compels a reimagination of the ecological unit question as it appears in the philosophy of ecology. The ecological unit question asks what method adequately delimits the boundaries of organizational units (e.g., populations, communities, ecosystems, etc.). I propose the topographical-ecological unit delimitation (TEUD). The TEUD is a novel method to integrate topographical constraints into descriptions of ecological units, which enhances understanding of both openness and historical contingency. Finally, I demonstrate how the TEUD is applicable to contemporary spatial resilience research that studies system memory.","PeriodicalId":56308,"journal":{"name":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences","volume":"48 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148978713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0