Philosophers of science have become increasingly interested in biology over the past few decades. At first, the focus was on evolution but, as this series of articles demonstrates, the philosophy of biology now encompasses a wide range of topics. The subjects covered in this series include philosophical bias, synthetic biology, regeneration, stem cells, microbiology, immunology, big data, and the use of drawing to better understand a biological process.
Collection
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Cell Biology
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Developmental Biology
By thinking about experimental techniques in terms of six broad approaches – perturbation, visualization, substitution, characterization, reconstitution, and simulation – researchers may be able to generate more reliable inferences.
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Cancer Biology
Ideas about causality from philosophy can help scientists to better understand how cancerous tumors grow and spread in the body.
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Neuroscience
Historical texts offer researchers in neuroscience, philosophy and literature the opportunity to work together to explore mysteries of the mind and human behavior.
The interactions between communities of microbial species and their human hosts raise questions about the nature of health and disease.
Understanding how data were collected and processed is an essential element of big data biology.
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Immunology and Inflammation
Discussions about biological individuality and immunogenicity continue the long history of dialogue between philosophers and immunologists.
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Cell Biology
Drawing may be a way to better understand a biological process and to explore and develop scientific ideas.
Scientists should be aware of the non-empirical assumptions that influence all kinds of research.
Philosophy may help to explore the potential impacts of synthetic cells.
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To understand how regeneration works across the different scales of living systems, we first need to identify the essential components underlying this process.
Helga GrollAssociate Features Editor
