Essays
The game of folly
Have you ever thought about human affairs as games? Imagine you can play games with our serious stuff like work, politics or science, but also with some less serious stuff like food and love. This […]
Biology
What are viruses?
“Have humans evolved beyond nature – and do we even need it?” asked a recent article on a popular portal. The real-life answer arrived few weeks later, in the form of the global Covid-19 pandemic. […]
Biology
Viruses are part of evolution
An interview with Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe Conducted by Dr Predrag Slijepcevic, Brunel University London Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe is best known for his work on the modern version of the panspermia theory – life in the […]
Philosophy
The Astrobiological Cat
Published in the December 2019/January 2020 issue of Philosophy Now A little-known magazine, Bioastronomic News, published, in one of its 1995 issues, a memorable debate between two famous scientists. The echo of the debate still […]
Philosophy
Flora or Mona Lisa?
Published in the August/September 2019 issue of the Philosophy Now magazine The boundaries between the parts and the whole are almost non-existent on the canvases of the Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593). Arcimboldo composed portraits […]
Biology
The Honeybee Algorithm
In the philosophy of science there is a segment, not so familiar, but with sufficient identity that it deserves the name: evolutionary epistemology (EE). One of the goals of EE is to explain how biological […]
Biology
Cosmic “Looney Tunes”
We suffer from the feeling of cosmic loneliness. Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, summed up our geeky nature by asking a simple question: Where is everybody? All predictions […]
Philosophy
Rock’n’roll is dead but Mr Tambourine man is not
Dedicated to Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) an epitome of a rebel Lynn at Boston University c. 1980; Boston University Archives (courtesy of Dorion Sagan) The exuberant rebellion of youth against all sorts of conformity, ordinarily […]
Biology
Technical intelligence of insects
Is the man technically the most intelligent species on the planet? Judging by our technologies, from the Internet through building skills to the military industry, medicine and artificial intelligence, there is no doubt that Homo […]
Biology
Microbes have their own version of the internet
Originally published on The Conversation 4th August 2017. Republished on: IFL Science Phys.org Netzpiloten Inkl InnerSelf News Republic Highlighted and commented on: Usbek & Rica French magazine that explores future: “An original and dizzy view of […]