{"found":57800,"hits":[{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Falkenburg","given":"Philipp"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"00dd7e11-a802-44c1-9584-5c56d1f8d417","created":1706832000,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Vernetzungs- und Kompetenzstelle Open Access Brandenburg","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oabrandenburg","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/00dd7e11-a802-44c1-9584-5c56d1f8d417/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/feed/atom","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oabrandenburg","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Access Brandenburg","updated":1791992150,"use_api":false},"blog_name":"Open Access Brandenburg","blog_slug":"oabrandenburg","content_html":"
Wie muss wissenschaftliches Publizieren gestaltet sein, damit es den Interessen der Wissenschaft dient? Auf der 18. Berliner Open-Access-Konferenz vom 15. bis 18. September 2026 haben Teilnehmende aus 40 L\u00e4ndern gemeinsame Anforderungen formuliert. Ihre Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung fordert, Open-Access-Vereinbarungen mit Verlagen konsequent an der Selbstbestimmung der Wissenschaft auszurichten. Die Verlage werden dabei im Prinzip als Dienstleister angesehen, die den Interessen der Wissenschaft als Dienstnehmer Rechnung tragen sollten. Bisher, so der Eindruck, laufen die Rollen mitunter in die andere Richtung.
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Im Mittelpunkt der Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung der Konferenz stehen sechs Handlungsfelder mit konkreten Anforderungen an Wissenschaftsverlage, aus denen folgende Aspekte herausstechen:
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Ressourcen: Verlage d\u00fcrfen nicht von dauerhaft steigenden Budgets in den wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen f\u00fcr das Publizieren und der prinzipiellen stillschweigender wissenschaftlicher Arbeit f\u00fcr Begutachtung und Herausgeberschaft von Publikationen ausgehen. Entsprechend Arbeiten m\u00fcssen durch die Verlage transparent und wissenschaftlich anerkennbar abgebildet werden.
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Gerechte Teilhabe: Autor*innen ohne Publikationsmittel oder institutionelle Vereinbarungen sollen unmittelbar unter einer offenen Lizenz publizieren k\u00f6nnen, ohne individuell Geb\u00fchrenerlasse beantragen zu m\u00fcssen. Die Verlage m\u00fcssen eindeutig kommunizieren, wer unter welchen Bedingungen und unter den entsprechenden Umst\u00e4nden frei oder zu reduzierten Kosten publizieren kann. Diese Angaben m\u00fcssen Teil der von den Verlagen bereitgestellten Metadaten sein.
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Rechte der Autor*innen: CC BY soll die Standardlizenz sein. Publikationsvertr\u00e4ge d\u00fcrfen f\u00fcr offen lizenzierte Artikel keine ausschlie\u00dflichen Rechte verlangen. Sie m\u00fcssen die Autor*innen \u00fcber die m\u00f6glichen Folgen der jeweiligen Lizenzierungen und Publikationsvereinbarungen aufkl\u00e4ren, einschlie\u00dflich eventueller Planungen zur Verwertung f\u00fcr das Training von K\u00fcnstlicher Intelligenz.
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Offene Forschungsinformationen und Infrastrukturen: Vollst\u00e4ndige Angaben zu allen Publikationen, Kosten und Finanzierung sollen \u00fcber gemeinschaftlich getragene, also nicht-propriet\u00e4ren Infrastrukturen ohne Zusatzkosten und interoperabel verf\u00fcgbar sein.
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Qualit\u00e4t und Integrit\u00e4t: Offenheit sichert Forschungsintegrit\u00e4t dadurch, dass Pr\u00fcfverfahren und Qualit\u00e4tsstandards transparent sind. Die Standards m\u00fcssen ma\u00dfgeblich von der Wissenschaft mitgestaltet werden. Verlage werden aufgefordert, Open-Science-Standards zur Qualit\u00e4tspr\u00fcfung wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse einzuf\u00fchren. Open Peer Review soll nach M\u00f6glichkeit unterst\u00fctzt werden.
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Forschung mit K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz: KI-Werkzeuge der Verlage m\u00fcssen transparent sein. Von Verlagen f\u00fcr die KI-Nutzung durch Dritte bereitgestellte Inhalte m\u00fcssen in gleicher Weise durch die Forschenden selbst nutzbar sein. Generative KI sollte kritisch betrachtet und nur in kontrollierten Umgebungen eingesetzt werden.
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F\u00fcr die Hochschulen und Bibliotheken in Brandenburg bietet die Erkl\u00e4rung damit unter anderem einen weiteren Bezugspunkt f\u00fcr die aktuelle Diskussion \u00fcber Publikationskosten und Transformationsvertr\u00e4ge. Gerade kleinere Hochschulen k\u00f6nnen beispielsweise hohe, unvorhersehbare APCs und Doppelzahlungen auch neben der wissenschaftsethischen Begr\u00fcndung kaum tragen. Entsprechend lie\u00dfe sich erg\u00e4nzen, das Vertragskonditionen und Infrastrukturzugang nicht nur an forschungsstarken Einrichtungen ausgerichtet sein sollten. Auch generell sind deren Teilhaberessourcen oft eingeschr\u00e4nkter, was den Bedarf f\u00fcr Ma\u00dfnahmen zum Teilhabeausgleich nahelegt.
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Offene, interoperable, eindeutige und qualitativ hochwertige Metadaten w\u00fcrden dar\u00fcber hinaus eine bessere Datengrundlage f\u00fcr das Publikationsmonitoring und damit auch f\u00fcr publikationsstrategische Gestaltungs- und Steuerungsentscheidungen bieten.\u00a0
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Schlie\u00dflich ist K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz auch an den Hochschulen des Landes Brandenburg ein zentrales und akutes Thema. Ihr Einsatz in und mit Forschung aus den Einrichtungen des Landes braucht einen Rahmen, der absichert, dass auch die Produzenten dieser Forschung davon profitieren und zugleich eine Kontrolle \u00fcber die Nutzung behalten.
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Aus unserer Sicht l\u00e4sst sich daraus ein klarer Auftrag ableiten: Vereinbarungen mit Verlagen sollten daran gemessen werden, wie sie bezahlbares Publizieren, verl\u00e4ssliche Rechte, transparente Nutzungsbedingungen und offene Infrastrukturen st\u00e4rken. Die Frage von Kosten und Zugang ist demzufolge nur ein Aspekt. Metadatenqualit\u00e4t, offene APIs, die Sicherung der Urheber- und Nachnutzungsrechte durch Autor*innen und, bei Daten, Erheber*innen sowie transparente Regelungen zur Auswertung der Inhalte durch K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz geh\u00f6ren mittlerweile ebenso in Verlags- uns Transformationsvertr\u00e4ge und sollten verhandelt werden. F\u00fcr die Messung und das Monitoring von Offenheit wird zugleich deutlich, dass neben der Zahl von an sich frei zug\u00e4nglichen Artikel weitere Kriterien differenziert und ber\u00fccksichtigt werden m\u00fcssen.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/v5wjf-1w335","guid":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/?p=10315","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"1ke97-06787","summary":"Wie muss wissenschaftliches Publizieren gestaltet sein, damit es den Interessen der Wissenschaft dient? Auf der 18. Berliner Open-Access-Konferenz vom 15. bis 18. September 2026 haben Teilnehmende aus 40 L\u00e4ndern gemeinsame Anforderungen formuliert. Ihre Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung fordert, Open-Access-Vereinbarungen mit Verlagen konsequent an der Selbstbestimmung der Wissenschaft auszurichten.","tags":["OA Brandenburg","OA News","OA Takeaways","Creative-Commons-Lizenzen","K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz"],"title":"OA-News: Berliner Open-Access-Konferenz formuliert Anforderungen an wissenschaftliche Verlage","updated_at":1791992259,"url":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/oa-news-berliner-open-access-konferenz-formuliert-anforderungen-an-wissenschaftliche-verlage/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Niemeyer","given":"Sandra"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"db0d8909-9e37-46d0-b16c-0551f575e86b","created":1749772800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Das Blog der TIB \u2013 Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek","doi":"https://doi.org/10.65527/tib","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/db0d8909-9e37-46d0-b16c-0551f575e86b/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blog.tib.eu/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blog.tib.eu/","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.65527","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"tib","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"TIB-Blog","updated":1791979016,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"TIB-Blog","blog_slug":"tib","content_html":" read this article in English\n
Eine neue Kollegin ben\u00f6tigt dringend ein spezielles Grafikprogramm oder das neueste Update f\u00fcr ein Statistik-Tool? Fr\u00fcher bedeutete das f\u00fcr die IT-Abteilung: Turnschuhe an und los. Also bildlich gesprochen, denn f\u00fcr die Installation musste man sich auf jeden PC einzeln aufschalten, um sie mit erh\u00f6hten Rechten zu starten. F\u00fcr beide Seiten kostete das unn\u00f6tig Zeit.
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Damit ist jetzt Schluss. Wir haben die \"Turnschuhadministration\" abgeschafft und durch OPSI (Open PC Server Integration) ersetzt. Eine L\u00f6sung, die nicht nur uns die Arbeit erleichtert, sondern vor allem unseren Kolleginnen und Kollegen vor den Bildschirmen mehr Freiheit gibt.
\nDas opsi-WebGUI ist eine grafische Schnittstelle zur Admininistration von opsi-Umgebungen. Quelle: Wikimedia-Userin HeikeJurzik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opsi-WebGUI.png unter der Lizenz CC BY-SA 4.0 International\n
Software shoppen
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Ein Herzst\u00fcck unserer neuen Strategie ist der \"Softwarekorb\" mit seinem einfachen aber genialen Prinzip: Vergleichbar mit einem App-Store bietet er Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t per Klick. Wer ein Programm ben\u00f6tigt kann schnell den Softwarekorb \u00f6ffnen, die Software ausw\u00e4hlen und selbst\u00e4ndig installieren. Niemand muss eine E-Mail schreiben und auch nicht warten, bis ein Admin Zeit hat, sich auf den Rechner aufzuschalten. Au\u00dferdem ist jedes Programm im Korb von uns vorkonfiguriert, sicherheitsgepr\u00fcft und sofort einsatzbereit.
Wir haben uns bewusst f\u00fcr OPSI entschieden. Als Open-Source-L\u00f6sung passt es perfekt zu unserem Auftrag an der TIB. Warum? Wir sind unabh\u00e4ngig und kontrollieren die Infrastruktur selbst. So sind wir nicht von den Preismodellen gro\u00dfer Tech-Giganten abh\u00e4ngig. Wir wissen genau, was OPSI im Hintergrund tut, ganz ohne Telemetrie und G\u00e4ngelung, was Transparenz schafft. Egal ob spezialisierte Bibliothekstools oder kleine Open-Source-Helfer, wir k\u00f6nnen ganz flexibel fast alles paketieren und zentral bereitstellen.
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Updates und neue Tools landen sofort oder beim n\u00e4chsten Systemstart automatisch auf dem Rechner. Ganz ohne \"Aufschalten\" und die Arbeit muss auch nicht unterbrochen werden. Indem wir unsere Software-Verteilung selbst in die Hand nehmen, statt uns auf propriet\u00e4re Blackbox-Systeme zu verlassen, sch\u00fctzen wir die digitale Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t unserer Bibliothek und Forschungseinrichtung.
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We love Free Software \u2013 eine Blogreihe der TIB
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Freie Software und Open-Source-Software (FOSS) ist weit mehr als nur eine technische Alternative zu kommerziellen L\u00f6sungen \u2013 sie steht f\u00fcr Offenheit, Transparenz, nachhaltige digitale Infrastrukturen und digitale Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t. Freie Software, die gemeinschaftlich betreut, entwickelt und verteilt wird, st\u00e4rkt die Unabh\u00e4ngigkeit von einzelnen Anbietern, Einrichtungen behalten die Kontrolle \u00fcber ihre Systeme, Daten und Weiterentwicklungen.
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Bei der TIB dreht sich alles um Infrastruktur f\u00fcr die Forschung und seit etwa zehn Jahren zunehmend auch um eine vielf\u00e4ltige, aktive und dauerhafte Mitarbeit in internationalen Freie-Software-Projekten. Diese Arbeit wird von vielen Teams der TIB fast lautlos geleistet. In unserer Blogreihe \"We love Free Software\" wollen wir das Mikro aufdrehen und beteiligte Kolleg:innen direkt zu Wort kommen lassen. Wir wollen wissen: Warum macht ihr das und was macht ihr da genau? Wie tr\u00e4gt eure Arbeit zur Resilienz von Forschungsergebnissen bei? Was ist der besondere Stress, aber vielleicht auch der Lohn f\u00fcr dieses Engagement? Und welche Missverst\u00e4ndnisse wolltet ihr schon immer mal richtigstellen? \n
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.65527/x5cv3-p7c13","guid":"https://blog.tib.eu/?p=34206","image":"https://blog.tib.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/We-Love-Free-Software_16-9-scaled-e1790150652175.png","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"fghnd-5xd70","summary":"read this article in English Eine neue Kollegin ben\u00f6tigt dringend ein spezielles Grafikprogramm oder das neueste Update f\u00fcr ein Statistik-Tool? Fr\u00fcher bedeutete das f\u00fcr die IT-Abteilung: Turnschuhe an und los. Also bildlich gesprochen, denn f\u00fcr die Installation musste man sich auf jeden PC einzeln aufschalten, um sie mit erh\u00f6hten Rechten zu starten. F\u00fcr beide Seiten kostete das unn\u00f6tig Zeit. Damit ist jetzt Schluss.","tags":["OPENNESS","We Love Free Software","Lizenz:CC-BY-4.0-INT","Open Source","Opsi"],"title":"Ganz ohne Turnschuhe: Administration mit OPSI","updated_at":1791979158,"url":"https://blog.tib.eu/2026/10/14/ganz-ohne-turnschuhe-administration-mit-opsi/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Jivkova","given":"Katrin"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"1e54953c-587a-4743-89af-ebd2cb45660c","created":1789516800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/pensoft","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/1e54953c-587a-4743-89af-ebd2cb45660c/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blog.pensoft.net/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blog.pensoft.net/","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"pensoft","status":"active","subfield":"2303","title":"Pensoft Blog","updated":1791877355,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Pensoft Blog","blog_slug":"pensoft","content_html":"
Researchers have created a detailed, animated 3D model of the Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), a spectacular bird that has not been confirmed in the wild since 1956. The model, built from a museum specimen and the only known film footage of the living bird, is freely available to scientists, educators and the public.
\n\n\n\n3D model of an Imperial Woodpecker mid-flight with wings extended. The left wing (A) has been labelled and colour-coded according to feather type present in the model. The right wing (B) exposes the underlying 3D armature that drives the motion and articulation of the wing. Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
The Imperial Woodpecker was the largest woodpecker on record, reaching more than 60 centimetres in length. It lived in the old-growth pine forests of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and is presumed extinct following widespread logging of its habitat. Around 100 preserved specimens exist in museums worldwide, and the only moving images of the species are a few seconds of grainy film shot in 1956.
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\"The Imperial Woodpecker hasn't been seen in the wild for nearly 70 years. Creating a digital specimen let us re-capture a glimpse of the bird's real likeness and behaviour in a way that's easy to access and share.\"
\nThe Research Team
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From museum skin to moving bird
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The reconstruction began with a female specimen held at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology, which houses the world's largest collection of Mexican birds. The team photographed the specimen 288 times from every angle and used photogrammetry, a technique that turns overlapping photographs into a 3D surface, to capture its shape with sub-millimetre accuracy. Measurements of the head, bill, body, wings and tail were taken throughout to keep the digital bird true to the original.
\n\n\n\n3D model of an Imperial Woodpecker ascending a tree. The model is shown fully rendered with colour derived from 3D specimen scans and photographs (A), with the underlying mesh exposed in the image to the right (B). Below, still frames of a live female Imperial Woodpecker in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico show the bird climbing (C) and mid-flight (D). Video frames reproduced from Lammertink et al. (2011, fig. 1). Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
Feathers proved the greatest challenge. Because it is difficult to see individual feathers on a specimen, the team modelled individual feather shapes on those of the Pileated Woodpecker, the largest living woodpecker in North America, then resized and adjusted them to match the known proportions of the Imperial Woodpecker. Wing patterning was drawn from scientific illustrations and checked against the available visual record.
\n\n\n\nWing-tip displacement over the course of the animation sequence, tracked from the tip of the terminal phalanx. Graphs show displacement in the mediolateral (x) axis, the dorsoventral (y) axis and the anteroposterior (z) axis, each measured in metres, plotted against animation frame number. Peaks and troughs in each axis correspond to discrete wingbeat cycles, with intervening plateaus reflecting periods of soaring where wing-tip movement is minimal. Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
Using the open-source software Blender, the researchers then built a digital skeleton to drive the model's movement. Ten primary, ten secondary and twelve tail feathers were each individually modelled and rigged, so that they can spread, bend and fold independently. To the team's knowledge, this makes the model one of the first open, specimen-based bird reconstructions to combine a photogrammetric body with individually animated feathers.
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Two animations bring the model to life: a looping flight sequence and a short clip of the bird climbing a tree trunk and drumming against the bark. Both are grounded in the 1956 film footage, supplemented by behavioural video of the Pileated Woodpecker and published data on woodpecker wingbeat timing.
\n\n\n\nFour phases of the wingbeat cycle of C.imperialis, shown in dorsal view (A) and lateral view (B). Beginning with the wings fully extended at the top of the upstroke (1), the wingtips sweep downward through the downstroke to their lowermost point (2), before the wings fold and draw back towards the body (3) and finally extend again as they rise to complete the upstroke (4). Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
A tool for science and for public awareness
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Beyond its visual appeal, the model is designed as a reproducible scientific resource. Researchers can use it to estimate body volume and surface area, compare shape with living relatives, or run simulations of flight and feather movement. The authors note it could also inform the design of bird-inspired flying robots.
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The team hopes the work will also reach audiences far beyond the laboratory:
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\"The Imperial Woodpecker might be the last bird species to have gone extinct in continental North America, but arguably 99.9% of people have never heard of it.
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If a digital specimen can increase public awareness of extinct species by even a fraction of a percent, that's millions of people who have an idea for what extinction can erase from the planet.\"
The study also highlights the cultural dimension of the species. The Imperial Woodpecker features in the traditions of Indigenous communities of the Sierra Madre Occidental, yet few, if any, museum specimens are held in Mexico. The authors suggest that freely shared digital models may help to offset these geographic and institutional barriers, while acknowledging that whether such work can contribute to the repatriation of biological and cultural heritage remains an open question.
\n\n\n\nImperial Woodpecker 3D Model.\n\n\n\n
The researchers are candid about the model's limits. It is based on a single female specimen, and aspects such as soft tissue and flight kinematics rely on informed estimation from living relatives. They hope future work will digitise further specimens to capture variation between sexes and individuals.
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\"The fact that this was created by such a small team will hopefully be a proof of concept that results in more museum specimens being brought to life and shared with the larger scientific community.\"
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The model, skeleton and animations are available to view and download through Sketchfab.
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Original source
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Medina J, Campbell R, Martin J, McCormack JE, Irschick DJ (2026) A digital specimen of the extinct Imperial Woodpecker: integrating museum scans, historical film and animated feather articulation. Natural History Collections and Museomics 3: e204314. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.3.204314
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/md4k6-6ws10","guid":"https://blog.pensoft.net/?p=21198","image":"https://blog.pensoft.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/SciComm-PR-2026-Instagram-2026-10-12T134510.698.png","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"wafkr-erj39","summary":"Tweet Researchers have created a detailed, animated 3D model of the Imperial Woodpecker ( Campephilus imperialis ), a spectacular bird that has not been confirmed in the wild since 1956. The model, built from a museum specimen and the only known film footage of the living bird, is freely available to scientists, educators and the public.","tags":["Natural History Collections And Museomics","Animated Model","Bird","Digital Resource","Extinct Species"],"title":"Imperial Woodpecker returns to life as a detailed digital specimen","updated_at":1791965110,"url":"https://blog.pensoft.net/2026/10/14/imperial-woodpecker-returns-to-life-as-a-detailed-digital-specimen/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/041qv0h25","name":"Deutsches Arch\u00e4ologisches Institut, Zentrale"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"von Schr\u00f6der","given":"Asta","url":"https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5852-771X"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"d21c5e78-88bc-432c-a20b-4e8a8ead1693","created":1752796800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Wissenslabor f\u00fcr naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen und objektzentrierte Daten","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/winoda","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/d21c5e78-88bc-432c-a20b-4e8a8ead1693/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://winoda.de/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://winoda.de","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"winoda","status":"active","subfield":"1209","title":"WiNoDa Knowledge Lab","updated":1791878400,"use_api":false},"blog_name":"WiNoDa Knowledge Lab","blog_slug":"winoda","content_html":"\n
Seit etwa anderthalb Jahren arbeite ich jetzt mit Obsidian, und ganz ehrlich? ich habe die Umstellung nie bereut. (Zu meiner gro\u00dfen \u00dcberraschung ist mein Blogpost dazu einer der meist gelesenen, wenn nicht sogar insgesamt der erfolgreichste Post in diesem Blog. Wow.) Es hat etwa ein halbes Jahr gedauert, bis ich alles zu meiner Zufriedenheit und f\u00fcr meine Zwecke eingerichtet hatte, aber ich habe schon lange nichts mehr an meinem Setup ge\u00e4ndert. Wahrscheinlich sollte ich mal etwas aufr\u00e4umen, aber dazu ist gerade keine Zeit\u2026 Im folgenden stelle ich Euch kurz vor, welche Erweiterungen (Plugins) f\u00fcr mich wirklich unverzichtbar geworden sind.
\nScreenshot meiner Obsidian Plugins, Stand August 2026\n
1. Backup und Versionierung
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Eines der wichtigsten Plugins \u00fcberhaupt: \"Git\" von Vinzent: https://github.com/vinzent03/obsidian-git integriert einen vollautomatisierten Git-Workflow in den Obsidian vault. Vorteil: regelm\u00e4\u00dfiges Backup aller \u00c4nderungen. Mir sind schon zu oft Dateien verloren gegangen, oder Computer kaputt, oder kein Zugang mehr zum Arbeitsrechner\u2026. Nat\u00fcrlich braucht man irgendwo einen Git-Account, aber die sind (noch) kostenlos und einfach zu bekommen (z. B. bei GitHub, GitLab, oder bei der europ\u00e4ischen Alternative Codeberg). Das Setup war gut dokumentiert, und einmal aufgesetzt habe ich nie wieder einen Gedanken daran verschwendet.
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Faktisch habe ich zwei Git-Projekte aufgesetzt, eins f\u00fcr meinen gesamten Vault als Backup, und eins f\u00fcr nur den Ordner mit den Skript-Dateien f\u00fcr meine Online-Kurse, die ich mit externen Peer-Reviewer:innen teilen wollte. Kommentare und Feedback konnten wir \u00fcber Git-Issues und ein-zwei Video-Calls abwickeln. Das lief gut, aber nat\u00fcrlich hilft es, ein grunds\u00e4tzliches Verst\u00e4ndnis von Versionskontrollsystemen zu haben. Full disclosure: ich kann (und m\u00fcsste/sollte) zu Git und den entsprechenden Workflows selbst noch eine ganze Menge lernen, aber f\u00fcr die genannten Zwecke reicht mein Wissen vollst\u00e4ndig aus. (Eine alte Version aus dem Git-Verlauf wieder herzustellen k\u00f6nnte ich aus dem Stand nicht, aber es ist tr\u00f6stlich zu wissen, dass es ginge. Irgendwie. Das kann ich dann herausfinden, wenn es so weit ist.)
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2. Projektmanagement
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Ein absoluter Game-Changer ist f\u00fcr mich der relativ neue \"Project Manager for Obsidian\" von StepanKropachev: https://github.com/stepankropachev/obsidian-pm. Endlich kann ich die \u00dcbersicht \u00fcber meine Aufgaben behalten, ohne andauernd das Tool wechseln zu m\u00fcssen! (Disclaimer: bisher nutze ich ihn haupts\u00e4chlich in meinem privaten vault, um die anfallenden Aufgaben bei der Sanierung unseres Hauses nachzuverfolgen. F\u00fcr die aktuellen Aufgaben im Rahmen des WiNoDa-Projekts haben wir hier im Team andere L\u00f6sungen gefunden, und ich denke, das Plugin w\u00fcrde nicht ausreichen, um ein gro\u00dfes, verteiltes Team zu koordinieren. F\u00fcr meine eigenen Aufgaben wird dieses Plugin mir die Arbeit jedoch erheblich erleichtern und mir helfen, den \u00dcberblick dar\u00fcber zu behalten, wo ich gerade stehe.) Project Manager erm\u00f6glicht es, Aufgaben, Unteraufgaben, Meilensteine, Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten, Zeiterfassung etc direkt im Vault zu pflegen. Die Ansicht kann tabellarisch, als Gantt-Chart oder \u00fcber Kanban Board erfolgen. Das Board ist individuell konfigurierbar, das Gantt-Chart intuitiv anpassbar, man kann Personen und tags vergeben und der Erledigungsstatus wird farbig angepasst. Alles was ich brauche, ohne Kontextwechsel, offline und lokal. Hier erz\u00e4hlt der Entwickler selbst, was er gemacht hat: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1sg3jcw/i_built_a_native_project_manager_for_obsidian/
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Der \"Project Manager\" erg\u00e4nzt f\u00fcr mich das Plugin \"Task List Kanban\" von ErikaRS (https://github.com/erikars/task-list-kanban), welches in Dokumenten erstellte Aufgaben (formatiert als Checkliste und mit einem entsprechenden hashtag versehen) automatisch in ein Kanban-Board \u00fcberf\u00fchrt. Das ist \u00fcberaus praktisch, um bspw. aus verschiedenen Protokoll-Dokumenten, Gespr\u00e4chsnotizen oder konzeptionellem Geschreibsel alle ToDos an einer zentralen Stelle zusammenzuf\u00fchren. Da es ordnerbasiert funktioniert, wird es aber zuk\u00fcnftig einfach nur noch im Protokoll-Ordner leben.
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Export & Layout
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Eine Herausforderung (f\u00fcr mich) bleibt der Export in ein Format, mit dem \"andere\" Menschen arbeiten k\u00f6nnen. Auch wenn Markdown sich immer mehr verbreitet \u2013 Word bzw. docx bleibt das am weitesten verbreitete Textverarbeitungsprogramm/Textformat. Und das default-Exportformat von Obsidian ist PDF \u2013 das ist nicht immer ideal. Mit dem Plugin \"Enhancing Export\" von mokeyish (https://github.com/mokeyish/obsidian-enhancing-export) kann jedes Obsidian file in Word, verschiedene Markdown flavours, HTML, Latex etc exportiert werden. Zuvor muss man allerdings auf dem lokalen Rechner Pandoc installieren. Ich fand das Aufsetzen ein bisschen komplizierter, aber eigentlich war alles gut erkl\u00e4rt.
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Ich exportiere h\u00e4ufig Dokumente als .docx, um sie in Word zu layouten. Nicht immer werden alle Formate richtig erkannt, man sollte also schon sorgf\u00e4ltig pr\u00fcfen, ob \u00dcberschriften, Listen etc richtig \u00fcbernommen wurden. Aber dann ist es f\u00fcr mich einfacher, das Dokument zu formatieren, Farben, Logos, Seitenzahlen etc hinzuzuf\u00fcgen und vor allem mit anderen zur Weiterbearbeitung zu teilen. Ich bin immer noch sicher, dass das mit Hilfe von css-basierten Formatvorlagen auch direkt in Obsidian geht , aber ich hatte bisher keine Zeit, mich damit zu besch\u00e4ftigen. Mache ich irgendwann.
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Sonstiges
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Kleinere Plugins, die es mir etwas angenehmer machen:
MathLive und BulkRename habe ich nur einmal benutzt \u2013 um eine Formel besser darstellen zu k\u00f6nnen bzw. um einen ganzen Ordner voll Dateinamen zu standardisieren. Das war hilfreich, aber ich brauche das nicht oft. Nun denn. Nutzt Ihr auch Obsidian? Wie habt Ihr Euer Setup konfiguriert?
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/rsne9-z6161","guid":"https://winoda.de/?p=15029","image":"https://winoda.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Obsidian-Plugins-1024x788.jpg","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"wdvy3-w7w47","summary":"Seit etwa anderthalb Jahren arbeite ich jetzt mit Obsidian, und ganz ehrlich? ich habe die Umstellung nie bereut.","tags":["WiNoDa Knowledge Lab Journal","Markdown","Obsidian","Tools"],"title":"Markdown 3 \u2013 Mein Obsidian-Setup","updated_at":1791963012,"url":"https://winoda.de/2026/10/13/markdown-3-mein-obsidian-setup/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9265-9069"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"61ce553a-bafd-4aba-a952-d3bab5e85bcc","created":1788652800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Regular nonsense about tech and its effects \ud83d\ude43","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/shkspr","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/61ce553a-bafd-4aba-a952-d3bab5e85bcc/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/feed/DOI","filter":"category:-1982","generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog","issn":"2753-1570","language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"shkspr","status":"active","subfield":"1712","title":"Terence Eden's Blog","updated":1791885603,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Terence Eden's Blog","blog_slug":"shkspr","content_html":"\n\n
The thing about Romeo and Juliet is that it is a true story. It isn't literally true, but it is literary true. We see the same motif repeated throughout all cultures and all times. Caroline Lea (writing as Caroline Finch) asks an important question - what if every pair of star-cross'd lovers were reincarnations of the original Verona duo?
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The essence of tragedy is that the end is unavoidable. You've probably watched Romeo sup poison a hundred times. It is inevitable that Juliet will take her own life in response. Horrific! Yet, not only do you refuse to look away, you gleefully seek it out for another viewing. There's a reason why Tony and Maria cannot escape their destinies in West Side Story - something more than fate is pushing them onto a path that will accept no deviation. The only way through is, of course, death.
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The Thousand Deaths starts slowly - the first \"act\" felt like an excuse to retell the classic tale in a new setting. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and it is suffused with lovely writing - but it felt a bit \"so what?\"
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And then they die.
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As the acts progress and they get closer to the their thousandth death the pace picks up. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, packed with allusions and references for the careful reader (more on that later). The story is heartbreaking - as well you know - and the author has the perfect knack of keeping her characters on just the right side of histrionics.
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I'd sort of classify this as almost romantasy. There's an undercurrent of sci-fi and fantasy which can't be ignored - but you can also hear the stirring of the violins in the background. Our hero and heroine come together and are violently broken apart for our insatiable entertainment. Do we care about whether that's good for them? What does it feel like to be a Mercutio forever used as a pawn-sacrifice? Does Tybalt resent his forcible reincarnation into a perpetual baddie? Are we culpable for insisting that they strut upon an endless stage just so we can wipe tears from our eyes?
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The book builds to a fine crescendo. It is heartfelt and utterly tragic. The ending will, I suspect, divide people. I found it mostly satisfactory and completely in keeping with the rest of the story.
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One final thing - the end notes are superb. They go through all the references you might have missed, explain where certain phrases came from, and point the curious reader to the books which were an inspiration. Too many authors treat their literary allusions as a precious puzzle and jealously guard them. I'm delighted that Caroline Finch is generous enough to share her secrets with us.
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Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. The book will be released in 2027 - I strongly recommend putting it on your pre-order list.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/wkhx2-yfh44","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76683","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/randj.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"tsnbv-x9v44","summary":"The thing about Romeo and Juliet is that it is a true story. It isn't literally true, but it is literary true. We see the same motif repeated throughout all cultures and all times. Caroline Lea (writing as Caroline Finch) asks an important question - what if every pair of star-cross'd lovers were reincarnations of the original Verona duo?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Shakespeare"],"title":"Book Review: The Thousand Deaths of Romeo and Juliet - Caroline Finch","updated_at":1791963012,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-thousand-deaths-of-romeo-and-juliet-caroline-finch/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/046ak2485","name":"Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Fischer","given":"Georg","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-5759"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2","created":1694476800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oaberlin","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oaberlin","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Research Blog Berlin","updated":1791962624,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Open Research Blog Berlin","blog_slug":"oaberlin","content_html":"
Unsere monatliche Rubrik zu aktuellen Veranstaltungen rund um Open Research.
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Anmerkung zu dieser Rubrik: Das Open Research Office Berlin erstellt monatlich eine \u00dcbersicht \u00fcber Termine und Veranstaltungen zu Open Access und Open Research in Berlin bzw. an Berliner Einrichtungen. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf unseren Partnereinrichtungen und auf Veranstaltungen, die sich an die \u00d6ffentlichkeit richten bzw. die offen sind f\u00fcr Angeh\u00f6rige der Wissenschafts- und Kulturerbeeinrichtungen in Berlin. Wir erg\u00e4nzen diese Liste gerne (Info bitte via Mail ans OROB).
Der Verein \"museum-digital Deutschland\" veranstaltet am 30. Oktober 2026 zum vierten Mal eine bundesweite museum-digital Usertagung. Sie richtet sich an alle Nutzer:innen von museum-digital. Aber auch Interessierte, die bisher noch nicht mit museum-digital arbeiten sind herzlich eingeladen. Es wird Informationen zu den Neuerungen bei museum-digital geben sowie Projektberichte von aktiven Usern. Die Veranstaltung ist kostenfrei und findet online statt. Im Anschluss findet die Mitgliederversammlung f\u00fcr die Mitglieder des Vereins statt. Die Usertagung bietet eine Plattform, bei der Museen ihre Arbeit mit museum-digital vorstellen und sich austauschen k\u00f6nnen.
3. November, Netzwerk Recht und Open Research, Online-Workshop mit Grischka Petri
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Im Netzwerk Recht und Open Research m\u00f6chten wir Austausch und Vernetzung zu konkreten rechtlichen Fragen bef\u00f6rdern und gemeinsam eine rechtspolitische Interessenvertretung f\u00fcr die offene Forschung initiieren. […]\u00a0Beim ersten Treffen des Netzwerks m\u00f6chten wir einen Raum \u00f6ffnen, um allgemein \u00fcber praktische und strategische Rechtsfragen rund um offene Forschung, Open Access und wissenschaftliches Publizieren zu sprechen und in den Austausch zu kommen.
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Termin: 03.11.10.2026, 14:00 bis 15:30 Uhr, online via Webex
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Organisiert von: Open Research Office Berlin (Projekte open-access.network und Legal Helpdesk Berlin); Referent: Dr. Dr. Grischka Petri (NFDI4Culture)
In dieser Fortbildung lernen Sie die Grundlagen von Open Access und offenen Lizenzen. Das Projekt open-access.network stellt neues Selbstlernmaterial zur Verf\u00fcgung. Es gibt Gelegenheit f\u00fcr \u00dcbungen und Diskussion.
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Termin: 04.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, online via Webex
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Organisiert von: Zentrum f\u00fcr Aus- und Fortbildung der Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek; Referentin: Katharina Schicketanz
12. November, Warum sollten Forschungsdaten ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden und welche Rolle spielen dabei fachspezifische Repositorien?, FH Potsdam
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Forschungsdaten sind ein wesentlicher Bestandteil geowissenschaftlicher Forschung und sollten nach M\u00f6glichkeit offen und nachnutzbar ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden, wobei die beteiligten Forschenden und Institutionen angemessen anerkannt werden sollten. Forschungsdatenrepositorien gew\u00e4hrleisten die langfristige Verf\u00fcgbarkeit von Daten und erm\u00f6glichen deren Identifikation und Zitierbarkeit, beispielsweise durch die Vergabe von DOIs.
17. November, Leibniz Open Science Day 2026: Scientific Rigor and Collaborative Research in the Age of AI, Berlin
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This workshop brings together scholars committed to strengthening the reliability, transparency, and cumulative nature of research in the social sciences.
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Termin: 17.11.10.2026, Berlin
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Organisiert von: Marianne Saam, ZBW \u2013 Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and University of Hamburg; Doreen Siegfried, ZBW \u2013 Leibniz Information Centre for Economics; J\u00f6rg Ankel-Peters, RWI \u2013 Leibniz Institute for Economic Research; Macartan Humphreys, WZB Berlin Social Science Center; Levent Neyse, DIW \u2013 The German Institute for Economic Research Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
19.-20. November, K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz und die Zukunft kleiner F\u00e4cher, Mainz + online
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Die rasante Verbreitung und die niedrigschwellige Nutzung k\u00fcnstlicher Intelligenz (KI) ver\u00e4ndern nachhaltig die Forschungspraxis an Hochschulen und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen. Die automatisierte Verarbeitung gro\u00dfer Datenmengen sowie ihre Verkn\u00fcpfung und Analyse in k\u00fcrzester Zeit stellen in vielen Disziplinen etablierte Forschungsmethoden in Frage. W\u00e4hrend diese Entwicklungen in datenintensiven F\u00e4chern bereits intensiv diskutiert werden, bleibt bislang offen, welche Konsequenzen sich daraus f\u00fcr kleine F\u00e4cher ergeben.
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Termin: 12.11.10.2026, 16:00 bis 18:00 Uhr, Mainz und digital via Zoom
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Organisiert von: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz
24. November, Hybrid und Diamond Open Access unter der Lupe \u2013 Open Access als Forschungsobjekt der Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft, online
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Open Access ist Gegenstand bibliotheks- und informationswissenschaftlicher Forschung. Auf Grundlage offener Metadaten l\u00e4sst sich empirisch untersuchen, wie sich Publikationsmodelle entwickeln. Die Session beleuchtet zwei sich gegenseitig bedingende Dynamiken: die kommerziell getriebene, jedoch unvollst\u00e4ndige Transformation hybrider Subskriptionszeitschriften sowie die R\u00fcckkehr von community-getragener Diamond-Open-Access-Zeitschriften zu Subskriptions- oder geb\u00fchrenbasierten Modellen.
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Termin: 24.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, online via Zoom
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Organisiert von: Berliner Kolloquium f\u00fcr Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft und Wissenschaftsforschung am Institut f\u00fcr Bibliotheks- und Informations\u00adwissen\u00adschaft (IBI), HU Berlin; Referent*innen: Dr. Najko Jahn (Georg-August-Universit\u00e4t G\u00f6ttingen) und Dr. Lisa Matthias (University of Ottawa, RWTH Aachen)
24.-25. November, 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information \u2013 Aligning policy and practical implementation, Berlin
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The 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information will bring together the international community of signatories, supporters, and other stakeholders, creating a space to advance open research information across institutional contexts and explore how to align policy and practical implementation.
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Termin: 24-25.11.10.2026, HU Berlin
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Organisiert von: Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information together with Leibniz Association and Helmholtz Open Science Office.
26. November, Offene Forschungsinformationen in Deutschland, Berlin
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Die Veranstaltung bietet einen Raum f\u00fcr Austausch und Diskussion zu offenen Forschungsinformationen in Deutschland. Eingeladen sind Akteure, Einrichtungen, Initiativen und Projekte, die mit Forschungsinformationssystemen, (offenen) Forschungsinformationen und Metadaten arbeiten \u2013 sowohl in der Praxis als auch auf der Ebene von Leitung, Administration, Policy und F\u00f6rderung. Ziel ist es, die teilweise fragmentierten Aktivit\u00e4ten und Communities besser zu vernetzen und offene Forschungsinformationen in der deutschen Wissenschaft \u00fcber institutionelle Grenzen hinweg voranzubringen.
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Termin: 26.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, HU Berlin
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Organisiert von: DINI-Arbeitsgruppe Forschungsinformationssysteme zusammen mit der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, dem Helmholtz Open Science Office und der Humboldt-Universit\u00e4t
26. November,\u00a0Beyond Books \u2013 Metadaten wissenschaftlicher Veranstaltungen als Handlungsfeld von Bibliotheken, online
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Der Workshop \"Beyond Books\" […] beleuchtet die Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Veranstaltungen f\u00fcr die interne Wissenschaftskommunikation. Neben Einblicken in die von Communities getragenen Plattformen f\u00fcr die Verbreitung von wissenschaftlichen Veranstaltungen wird diskutiert, welche Rolle sie in der Forschungsbewertung spielen und wie sich Metadatenstandards weiterentwickeln lassen. Der Workshop richtet sich an bibliothekarische Fachreferent:innen und hat einen interdisziplin\u00e4ren Zuschnitt. Neben Impulsen zu aktuellen Entwicklungen bietet er Raum f\u00fcr Erfahrungsaustausch und gemeinsame Diskussion dar\u00fcber, wie Bibliotheken in ihrer Rolle als Infrastrukturpartner die Forschung unterst\u00fctzen k\u00f6nnen.
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Termin: 26.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, online
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Organisiert von: FID Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, FID Linguistik der Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek Frankfurt, Projekt ConfIDent der TIB Hannover und Kommission f\u00fcr Fachreferatsarbeit des Vereins Deutscher Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VDB)
27. November, digiS-Jahreskonferenz: Die Zukunft erinnert sich \u2013 Kulturerbe digital weiterdenken. Nachhaltig bewahren, offen teilen, Zuse-Institut Berlin (ZIB)
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Unter dem Leitmotiv der diesj\u00e4hrigen digiS-Konferenz \"Die Zukunft erinnert sich \u2013 Kulturerbe digital weiterdenken. Nachhaltig bewahren, offen teilen\" wollen wir aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven mit unseren G\u00e4sten diskutieren, welche digitalen Infrastrukturen es braucht, um Kulturdaten krisenfest zu machen und handlungsf\u00e4hig zu bleiben. Wie l\u00e4sst sich Digitalisierung in Institutionen nachhaltig umsetzen? Was bedeutet eine FAIRe und offene Bereitstellung von Daten? Welche Rolle k\u00f6nnen KI-Anwendungen f\u00fcr digitale Nachhaltigkeit und Resilienz spielen? Und welche Werkzeuge, Erfahrungen und Kooperationen stehen uns bereits heute zur Verf\u00fcgung, um uns verl\u00e4sslich und l\u00f6sungsorientiert durch die vielf\u00e4ltigen Herausforderungen des digitalen (Kulturdaten-)Lebens zu bringen?
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Termin: 27.11.10.2026, 10:00 bis 16:00 Uhr, Zuse-Institut Berlin, Takustr. 7, 14195 Berlin
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/pk0be-geb91","guid":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/?p=4365","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791763200,"rid":"zpkjd-9ap55","summary":"Unsere monatliche Rubrik zu aktuellen Veranstaltungen rund um Open Research. Anmerkung zu dieser Rubrik: Das Open Research Office Berlin erstellt monatlich eine \u00dcbersicht \u00fcber Termine und Veranstaltungen zu Open Access und Open Research in Berlin bzw. an Berliner Einrichtungen.","tags":["Allgemein","Veranstaltungshinweise"],"title":"Veranstaltungshinweise November 2026","updated_at":1791963011,"url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/2026/10/12/veranstaltungshinweise-november-2026/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Dingemanse","given":"Mark"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"ac7a6214-f166-416e-9500-caa8343d6285","created":1780876800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Sounding out ideas on language, interaction, and iconicity","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/ideophone","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/ac7a6214-f166-416e-9500-caa8343d6285/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://ideophone.org/feed/atom/","filter":"category:98","generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://ideophone.org","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"ideophone","status":"active","subfield":"1203","title":"The Ideophone","updated":1791890809,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"The Ideophone","blog_slug":"ideophone","content_html":"
We don’t generally see PhD dissertations as an exciting genre to read, and that is wholly our loss. As the publishing landscape of academia is fast being homogenised, the thesis is one of the last places where we have a chance to see the unalloyed brilliance of up and coming researchers. Let me show you using three examples of remarkable theses I have come across in the past years.
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Unflattening by Nick Sousanis
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I didn’t know it was even possible to do a PhD dissertation in graphic novel style. And yet here we are. This is a mindblowing work that (my colleagues can attest) I keep raving about. From the back blurb:
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Nick Sousanis defies conventional forms of scholarly discourse to offer readers both a stunning work of graphic art and a serious inquiry into the ways humans construct knowledge. Unflattening is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art, literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points.
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The title, “Unflattening” reads as a reference to the famous mathematical allegory by Abbott, Flatland: the two-dimensional world where one day A. Square is visited by a being from another dimension. Just as A. Square learns to “unflatten” his world as he gets to know the three-dimensional Sphere visiting him, so the readers of Sousanis’ work are invited to venture out of their conceptual comfort zones and explore a multiplicity of perspectives.
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(Update: Sousanis notes: “I came up with the word Unflattening early on, and in my planning, figured I should use Flatland – originally at the end, but moved up to front\u2026”)
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The published version of this work is a book to have lying around on your desk. It’s always a pleasure to leaf through and there’s always something new to discover.
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The equidistribution of … number fields, by Piper Harron
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The full title of this work is “The Equidistribution of Lattice Shapes of Rings of Integers of Cubic, Quartic, and Quintic Number Fields: an Artist’s Rendering”, and if this makes you glaze over, you should skip right to the prologue where it says:
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Respected research math is dominated by men of a certain attitude. Even allowing for individual variation, there is still a tendency towards an oppressive atmosphere, which is carefully maintained and even championed by those who find it conducive to success. As any good grad student would do, I tried to fit in, mathematically. I absorbed the atmosphere and took attitudes to heart. I was miserable, and on the verge of failure. The problem was not individuals, but a system of self-preservation that, from the outside, feels like a long string of betrayals, some big, some small, perpetrated by your only support system. When I physically removed myself from the situation, I did not know where I was or what to do. First thought: FREEDOM!!!! Second thought: but what about the others like me, who don't do math the \"right way\" but could still greatly contribute to the community? I combined those two thoughts and started from zero on my thesis. What resulted was a thesis written for those who do not feel that they are encouraged to be themselves
\nHarron 2016:1
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The whole thing is written in an irreverent, cool and clear writing style, smoothly segueing from “laysplaining” sections aimed at a general audience to more technical parts aimed at mathematicians. No wonder that Harron’s thesis went viral, winning coverage on Mathbabe, Scientific American and even getting its own Wikipedia article. Even for readers without the requisite background in mathematics, this thesis is a wonder to behold and a joy to read.
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Swarmpunk by Jonny Saunders
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Swarmpunk! The name alone is a reason to check it out \u2014 and be sure to have a look at the corresponding website. There are many things to admire about this thesis. Content-wise, it is hard to summarise (the mark of a good thesis to my mind). Here’s the author’s own attempt:
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Drawing from decades of digital infrastructural history within and beyond science, I will sketch a path by which we might build systems that empower, rather than control us. I will argue a better future for science is not utopian, nor solely dependent on funding and administrative agencies, but something we can organize ourselves. Woven together with my work in ill-defined phonetic categories and distributed experimental systems, I have written a love letter to the power of swarms: how by embracing heterogeneity and rough consensus we might make science more boisterous, creative, and human.
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I love the wide-ranging nature of this work all the more because the swarm metaphor does pull things together in a compelling way. Who would have thought that the neuroscience of phonetic categorization in mice could come together with a technical description of peer to peer protocols and trenchant critiques of academia’s infrastructural woes. And yet it all makes sense.
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The sheer breadth of topics covered evokes Bruno Latour’s sprawling Actor Network Theory framework and also shares a lot of insights with current approaches to collective intelligence (e.g., all intelligence is collective intelligence). What’s also impressive about this thesis is the way it combines a hard-hitting critique of the current state of academic workflows with concrete tools and constructive proposals to make things better. This makes it a truly excellent example of what Ivan Illich calls counterfoil research.
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And then I haven’t even discussed the type-setting (in lovely Tufte-style), the anarchist easter eggs (like figure captions that say “taken without permission”) and the sharp-witted writing throughout. Read this work and let it broaden your conceptions of how to build a better academia.
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Real life is gnarly
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Here’s another thing I love about these three theses: they all show something of the making process. They don’t present a fully polished surface; they have rough edges and that is entirely okay (especially for a thesis \u2014 but I think this holds in general for the scientific process).
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Sousanis’ Unflattening was revised for publication with Harvard University Press, so I imagine some of the loose ends have been tied up; but it includes, at the end, a set of sketches that document the very beginning of the work, dated to April 14, 2011. Why don’t more theses have this?
\n\n\n\nFirst idea map for Unflattening, April 14, 2011 (Sousanis 2015:194)\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, for Harron, working on the thesis had to find a place next to other momentous life events. In the Acknowledgements, there is a parenthetical aside “I would thank the children, but frankly, they’ve been no help.”. One reason for this is found on the opening page of Chapter 5: a cartoon of the author working on “THESIS (draft)” followed by a panel with an inset where the author says “OW”, and contractions start…
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Saunders’ Swarmpunk moves from work on phonetic categorization in mice to an unfinished chapter of musings on the topic of language games, and from there even more abruptly to work on a software infrastructure for scientific experimentation and collaboration (check out Autopilot). As they explain:
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I had intended to finish my dissertation with an experiment that was the next logical conclusion of the mouse model of phonetics, doing longitudinal mesoscopic calcium imaging of auditory cortex as the phonemes were being learned in order to model the changes in network activity. (…) It comes out of chronological order in the spring of 2021, after my work with Autopilot and a covid-induced awakening of the possibility of public engineering with the People's Ventilator Project[72]. I was restless and not ready to return to basic research while the world was still so broken, and so it was abandoned in favor of the last piece on digital infrastructure. Accordingly, it ends relatively abruptly, without satisfying conclusion. I include it here in its unfinished form, roughly edited, warts and all, as something I intend to pick up perhaps one day when basic science is more possible.
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And yet the end product is amazing. Perhaps precisely because of the abrupt transitions, it invites the reader to fill in the gaps, to create those conceptual linkages, to contribute the cognitive work that makes all of science a collective enterprise.
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More importantly, it reminds us that we are humans first and foremost, and science is a human enterprise in which the neat plans we may make can be greatly affected by real life events \u2014 as they should.
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A plea for serendipity
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Dissertations like these may be rare. But they exist. And by existing, they show that true creativity is still alive in academia. For me personally, this kind of work strengthens my convinction that as supervisors, we need to be serious about ideas and open-minded about form and content. (Perhaps this is why I have always liked my PhD student’s Gwilym Lockwood’s mad MS-Paint skills \u2014 and the Harron-like irreverent style of the opening pages of his 2017 PhD.)
\n\n\n\n\nOMG so vivid: MS Paint visual summary\n\n\n\nOpening lines of Lockwiod dissertation\n\n\n\n\n
Today’s PhD projects tend to be considerably less free-form than even 5 or 10 years ago. Today we ask graduate students to write full-blown project proposals, force them to specify their planning in gantt charts, and herd them through series of checkpoints. I understand why this is done, and that it is helpful to some. But I cannot ignore that it is also a machinery for control, arising from management processes built towards verification, certification, and standardization. It is, at base, a stark form of risk-aversion.
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But here is the thing about science: it thrives on serendipity. If all risks had been averted and all processes duly followed, it is unlikely that we would have seen these three mindblowing dissertations. Here’s to an academia with room for serendipity!
Harron, P. A. (2016). The Equidistribution of Lattice Shapes of Rings of Integers of Cubic, Quartic, and Quintic Number Fields: An Artist's Rendering (PhD thesis, Princeton University) https://www.theliberatedmathematician.com/thesis/
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Saunders, J. L. (2022). Swarmpunk: Rough Consensus and Running Code in Brains, Machines and Society (PhD dissertation, University of Oregon) https://jon-e.net/dissertation/
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Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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\n\n\n\n","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/1xe81-vdk14","guid":"https://ideophone.org/?p=5918","image":"https://ideophone.org/files/swarmpunk-card.png","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1675987200,"reference":[{"id":"https://www.theliberatedmathematician.com/thesis/","unstructured":"Harron, P. A. (2016). The Equidistribution of Lattice Shapes of Rings of Integers of Cubic, Quartic, and Quintic Number Fields: An Artist's Rendering (PhD thesis, Princeton University)"},{"id":"https://jon-e.net/dissertation/","unstructured":"Saunders, J. (2022, August 5). Swarmpunk: A Dissertation. Swarmpunk: A Dissertation. Swarmpunk: A Dissertation."},{"unstructured":"Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press."}],"rid":"8jhf6-cna81","summary":"We don't generally see PhD dissertations as an exciting genre to read, and that is wholly our loss. As the publishing landscape of academia is fast being homogenised, the thesis is one of the last places where we have a chance to see the unalloyed brilliance of up and coming researchers. Let me show you using three examples of remarkable theses I have come across in the past years.","tags":["Academia","Most Read","Writing","Mostread"],"title":"Mindblowing dissertations","updated_at":1791963009,"url":"https://ideophone.org/mindblowing-dissertations/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/046ak2485","name":"Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Fischer","given":"Georg","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-5759"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2","created":1694476800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oaberlin","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oaberlin","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Research Blog Berlin","updated":1791962624,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Open Research Blog Berlin","blog_slug":"oaberlin","content_html":"
Ein Gastbeitrag des Open-Access-Teams der TU Berlin
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Auch in diesem Jahr haben wir vom Open-Access-Team wieder Forschende der TU Berlin gefragt: \"Wie halten sie es mit Open Access?\" Und wir freuen uns, vier Gespr\u00e4che hier im Open Research Blog Berlin ver\u00f6ffentlichen zu k\u00f6nnen.
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Den Anfang macht in diesem Jahr Prof. Mario Birkholz, studierter Physiker und einer der Leiter des von der TU Berlin und dem Leibniz-Institut f\u00fcr innovative Mikroelektronik (IHP) gegr\u00fcndete Joint Lab Bioelectronics. Er spricht sich klar daf\u00fcr aus, dass die Ergebnisse der \u00f6ffentlich finanzierten Forschung frei zug\u00e4nglich sein sollten.
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Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek der TU Berlin: Open Access ist ein strategisches Ziel der TU Berlin und der BUA. Wie sieht das in Ihrem Forschungsalltag aus? In welchen Kontexten nehmen Sie Diskussionen zu Open Access wahr?\u00a0
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Mario Birkholz:\u00a0Es besteht ein allgemeiner Konsens, dass die in Forschung an der TU Berlin erarbeiteten Forschungsergebnisse der \u00d6ffentlichkeit zug\u00e4nglich gemacht werden m\u00fcssen \u2013 \u00f6ffentliches Geld, \u00f6ffentliches Gut.
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Open Access hat den offenen Zugang zu wissenschaftlicher Information zum Ziel. Sie haben k\u00fcrzlich daf\u00fcr gesorgt, dass Artikel, die zuvor beim Verlag nur f\u00fcr Abonnierende zug\u00e4nglich waren (closed access), \u00fcber das TU-Repositorium auch frei zug\u00e4nglich sind. Was hat Sie dazu motiviert?
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Heutzutage verh\u00e4lt es sich meist so, dass die Arbeit von Wissenschaffenden in irgendeiner Form eine Bedeutung f\u00fcr die Gesellschaft hat. Andere Forschung wird kaum noch gef\u00f6rdert. Unter diesen Rahmenbedingungen ist klar, dass auch ein gesellschaftliches Interesse besteht, die Arbeitsergebnisse in die \u00d6ffentlichkeit zu vermitteln.
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Gab es bereits konkrete Situationen in Ihrem Forschungsalltag, in denen Open Access hilfreich war?
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An Unis und Forschungsinstituten besteht meist eine gute Versorgung mit Fachliteratur. Es kommt aber immer wieder vor, dass man auf Publikationen zugreifen m\u00f6chte, die nicht Open Access verf\u00fcgbar sind. Letztlich bewirkt das aber nur eine Verz\u00f6gerung, weil man doch Mittel und Wege findet, sich die Literatur zu beschaffen.
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Damit eine fl\u00e4chendeckende Umstellung zu Open Access gelingen kann, sind \u00c4nderungen in ganz verschiedenen Bereichen erforderlich \u2013 u.a. Finanzierungsstrukturen, Kriterien der Forschungsbewertung und Berufungsverfahren, Ausbau von alternativen Publikationsangeboten, Governance von Publikationsorganen… Welche Aspekte sollte die TU Ihrer Meinung nach in den n\u00e4chsten Jahren priorisieren?
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Ich engagiere mich vor allem daf\u00fcr, dass wir die Kommunikation im Bereich der sozialen Medien umbauen. Zurzeit werden meist Apps benutzt, die die Zustimmung zu ellenlangen AGBs erfordern, die kein Mensch liest und man den Betreibern damit erlaubt, pers\u00f6nliche Daten vom Handy abzugreifen. Und es werden dort permanent Werbung und Meldungen ausgespielt, die einen gar nicht interessieren. Es gibt f\u00fcr die Wissenschaft viel geeignetere Plattformen wie Mastodon und PeerTube. Die fl\u00e4chendeckende Umstellung zu Open Access wird auch damit verbunden sein, den Einsatz von Mastodon und PeerTube auszubauen und sich von den kommerziellen, nicht-Open-Access-Medien zur\u00fcckzuziehen.
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Kurz und knapp in einem Satz: Was finden Sie gut an Open Access?
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Open Access hei\u00dft freier Zugang, und der muss zu Forschungsergebnissen m\u00f6glich sein, die mit Steuergeld finanziert wurden.
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Geben Sie uns zum Abschluss einen Einblick in Ihr Forschungsfeld f\u00fcr Disziplinfremde. Mit welchen Fragen und Erkenntnissen besch\u00e4ftigen Sie sich?
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In der Bioelektronik besch\u00e4ftigen wir uns mit den elektrischen Ph\u00e4nomenen in Lebewesen wie auch mit der technischen Nutzung von Mikroelektronik in biologischen Umgebungen. Durch die kontinuierliche Miniaturisierung elektronischer Systeme in den letzten Jahrzehnten sind heutzutage faszinierende Anwendungen von Implantaten und Wearables m\u00f6glich geworden \u2013 die allerdings aus ethischer Sicht auch bedenklich sein k\u00f6nnen.
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\u00dcber den Interviewpartner \n\nMario Birkholz schreibt \u00fcber sich: \"Ich bin studierter Physiker und habe mich aber schon immer f\u00fcr Biologie und lebende Systeme interessiert. Bioelektronik machen zu k\u00f6nnen, war deshalb f\u00fcr mich sehr erf\u00fcllend. Sorgen bereiten mir die zunehmende Spaltung der Gesellschaft in Arm und Reich und die immer gr\u00f6\u00dfere Macht der Digitalkonzerne.\"
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Das Gespr\u00e4ch ist Teil einer Interview-Reihe zur j\u00e4hrlich stattfindenden OA-Week. Weitere Interviews aus dieser Reihe \u2013 auch aus fr\u00fcheren Jahren \u2013 finden sich hier.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/1tsjf-brz28","guid":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/?p=4372","image":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/files/2026/10/OA-Week-2026-Mario-Birkholz-DIN-A1-quer-klein-1024x726.png","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"a6wer-29c16","summary":"Ein Gastbeitrag des Open-Access-Teams der TU Berlin Auch in diesem Jahr haben wir vom Open-Access-Team wieder Forschende der TU Berlin gefragt: \"Wie halten sie es mit Open Access?\" Und wir freuen uns, vier Gespr\u00e4che hier im Open Research Blog Berlin ver\u00f6ffentlichen zu k\u00f6nnen. Den Anfang macht in diesem Jahr Prof. Mario Birkholz, studierter Physiker und \u2026 \"Mario Birkholz im Interview: \"\u00d6ffentliches Geld, \u00f6ffentliches Gut!","tags":["Allgemein","OAWeek","Interview","OAWeek-Interview","Mario Birkholz"],"title":"Mario Birkholz im Interview: \"\u00d6ffentliches Geld, \u00f6ffentliches Gut! Forschungsergebnisse der TU Berlin m\u00fcssen der \u00d6ffentlichkeit zug\u00e4nglich gemacht werden.\"","updated_at":1791963009,"url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/2026/10/14/mario-birkholz-im-interview-oaweek/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Gilliam","given":"Eric"}],"blog":{"authors":[{"name":"Eric Gilliam"}],"community_id":"bde6b3e1-a527-4823-81b8-b803908bb948","created":1780876800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"I want to help people start historically great labs. Operational histories on history's best R&D orgs.","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/freaktakes","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/bde6b3e1-a527-4823-81b8-b803908bb948/logo","feed_format":"application/rss+xml","feed_url":"https://www.freaktakes.com/feed","filter":null,"generator":"Substack","home_page_url":"https://www.freaktakes.com","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":null,"slug":"freaktakes","status":"active","subfield":"1207","title":"FreakTakes","updated":1791887511,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"FreakTakes","blog_slug":"freaktakes","content_html":"
I'm long overdue in giving you all an update on the BBN Fund. In short: progress is strong. For those who haven't been following along, BBNs are R&D organizations that pursue an ambitious, North Star technical vision, funded by a mix of contracts and grants. Think interactive computing in the late 1950s, autonomous vehicles in the 1980s, or driving the cost of proteins down to 1/1000th the cost of what it is today. If it sounds hard to (a) find researcher-founders talented enough to do such work, and (b) find customers or funders with the technical ambition to fund such big swings, it can be. But over the past 20 months, the young and growing BBN community has proven that they can make it happen on a pretty reliable basis.
A more robust update will follow in a future piece, but below are a few highlights:
The UK's Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) has doubled our cohort size for the BBN launchpad partnership this coming year, enabling our program to support eight ARIA-relevant BBNs and deploy \u00a3800k+ across the cohort. According to public data, BBNs in the ARIA ecosystem have already brought in ~$20\u2013$30 million in aligned, ambitious contracts. This is up from ~$10 million earlier this year, when Janelle Tam and I launched the BBN Fund.
Coefficient Giving has generously given us a $700k grant to continue to find ways to build more BBNs in the modern era.1 This grant marks the first time we can directly fund non-ARIA BBNs, while also covering general operating costs. As discussed in our piece announcing the BBN Fund, we intend to stretch this money exceptionally far through a combination of revenue-sharing agreements, low-interest loans, and grants. We expect that every dollar spent by the fund \u2014 whether on our salaries or deployed directly to BBNs \u2014 will help bring in ~10X the amount spent in contracts and grants. That's been true of our work so far.
Help Wanted: Technical Scouts
We've been doing all of this with an obvious bottleneck: we lack a team of scientific scouts. I have a cadre of world-class, creative technical people I go to for advice (Niko McCarty, Adam Marblestone, ARIA program directors, Ales Flidr, etc.), and I'm helpful in my own way \u2014 I understand BBN founders' technical visions, have some useful contract ideas, and am serviceable at making connections in certain areas \u2014 but I'm an org structures guy, not a true scientist or engineer. I'm looking for technical scouts with the strange and wonderful spark that will take us to the next level.2
The task is, in a nutshell:
Find modern J.C.R. Lickliders who, under the right circumstances, could found BBNs as impactful as the one that built the ARPAnet
Find ambitious, aligned funders and customers who can enable the work
In any area where you have both, if you connect those two dots, we have a BBN. Connect five pairs of dots a year, and that's a pretty fantastic year. Connect ten, and you might be on the way to becoming one of the most important people in the R&D community. I will continue to do everything I can to connect dots myself, but I'd like to become Plan B.
To do this job, I'm looking for technical obsessives. Specifically, people who:
Fiendishly keep up with relatively broad chunks of the academic literature
Find it fun to befriend as many up-and-coming, applied, ambitious scientists as they can
Know who is up to what, from R&D funders to academic labs
Have a crystal-clear sense of what types of work academic labs and VC-funded startups do and don't do, and have a clear sense of where their work is insufficient
Have brains for practical organizational details \u2014 philanthropic funding processes, how biotech contract staging works, the rudiments of equipment procurement, etc.
Essentially, I'm looking for somebody who already does most of what this job entails for the love of the game.
We just raised money from Fulcrum Science to seed our technical scouting capacity. We are open to solving the scouting problem with one full-timer or several part-timers. I'm flexible on the type of person and how we structure the arrangement. Proposed time commitments could range from two hours a month to full-time. A conviction I've developed while obsessing over the history and modern practicalities of building great things in the cracks of the R&D ecosystem is that many great technical minds are underemployed. Some people have exceptional technical knowledge, but don't care to make individual projects their monomaniacal obsession, as academics often must. They might not want to manage people, as deep tech CEOs must. They might find the shape of projects that come through the doors of VC firms a bit technically dull.What I need is for you to be obsessed with finding modern-day Lickliders and the people who might fund them.
If our interests are aligned, I'd like to unleash you. The work arrangement can be shaped to fit the person applying. Excellence at the job at hand is the only thing I will be uncompromising on.
Potential customers or funders that might be ideal funding sources for those BBNs
Specific individuals well-suited to founding these orgs3
And feel free to ask me any questions, too.
The original BBN's founders \u2014 Bolt & Beranek, MIT professors \u2014 took pride in \"only making hires that raised the average competence level of the firm.\" This approach brought them great minds like John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, and a young Fisher Black (of Black-Scholes fame) as part-time firm collaborators. And it brought them J.C.R. Licklider as a full-timer, who built out the firm's computing efforts from scratch. They understood that to build something like a technology-maximizing firm, nothing was more valuable than practical individuals with the \"strange and wonderful creative spark that makes a good researcher.\" When the firm found that in a person, they went out of their way to build something together.
I look forward to hearing from those of you who reach out. And if this is your first exposure to this work, which I'm so romantic about, the grand project of enabling modern-day J.C.R. Lickliders to build their life's work within BBN-like orgs, rather than shoehorning their best ideas into VC-shaped boxes, welcome:) I encourage you to check out any of the pieces below, and send me the best ideas and people that come to mind as you read.
This is a reference to Warren Weaver's modest quote noting that he \"lacked that strange and wonderful creative spark that makes a good researcher.\" That spark is what we hope for in some of our technical scouts. This is, first and foremost, an ideas job.
As a reminder, a complete BBN idea consists of a North Star technical vision, some base of revenue that will fund the work, a founder, and a reasonable story on why that individual can recruit the great minds needed to move the field forward with the resources available to them.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/006hx-0b920","guid":"220103017","image":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7ec6cef8-aae4-4f87-ad99-9f696899511a_1191x794.jpeg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"kc44z-f8h48","summary":"I'm long overdue in giving you all an update on the BBN Fund. In short: progress is strong. For those who haven't been following along, BBNs are R&D organizations that pursue an ambitious, North Star technical vision, funded by a mix of contracts and grants. Think interactive computing in the late 1950s, autonomous vehicles in the 1980s, or driving the cost of proteins down to 1/1000th the cost of what it is today.","title":"Help Wanted: Technical Scouts","updated_at":1791963007,"url":"https://www.freaktakes.com/p/help-wanted-technical-scouts","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Visser","given":"Alnica"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"989c0e4f-140c-47ca-8db1-8490fb2e89d1","created":1780876800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"British Society for the Philosophy of Science","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/thebsps","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/989c0e4f-140c-47ca-8db1-8490fb2e89d1/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://www.thebsps.org/feed/atom/","filter":"category:49","generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://www.thebsps.org/","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":null,"slug":"thebsps","status":"active","subfield":"1207","title":"BSPS","updated":1791563358,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"BSPS","blog_slug":"thebsps","content_html":"
Building on a treasure trove of previous work, Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis have produced a richly detailed and well-motivated resurrection of concept nativism and the rationalism\u2013empiricism debate. Their enormous book is segmented into four almost self-standing parts. I'll discuss some of the merits of each in the order that they appear, before closing with some general remarks about the reach and promise of the book as a whole.
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Given that the book argues for a particular version of concept nativism, it may come as a surprise that concepts and their purported nativism are not actually addressed in much detail until about a third of the way into the book. But the long setup in part 1 is useful and important. For nearly 200 pages, Laurence and Margolis argue that too many theorists have construed the debate between rationalism and empiricism as something either silly or settled (in favour of empiricism). In particular, they argue that the debate fails to reduce to any overly simplistic genetics-versus-environment dichotomy, or any other outdated variation on the nature\u2013nurture debate. At the same time, they hold that the debate is not resolved by any straightforwardly empiricist form of interactionism, which they regard instead as an uncontroversial truism. Carefully rejecting and debunking many versions of this general attitude, Laurence and Margolis instead argue that we should reframe the debate in terms of our psychological acquisition base, from which all further psychological traits are acquired.
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According to Laurence and Margolis, empiricists posit a sparse base with very few starting elements, perhaps only some low-level attentional biases, some basic sensory-motor representations, and some domain-general learning mechanisms. Experience must provide the rest. Rationalists, by contrast, posit a rich base, stocked with abstract representational structures, along with several domain-specific learning mechanisms to acquire more. Experience is still involved, but the mind comes much more prepared than empiricists allow. So, on this construal, rationalists and empiricists disagree on the elements of our psychological 'starter pack', but they agree on its role: the base elements enter into psychological processes that draw on experiential inputs to produce further psychological traits, but these elements are not themselves products of such processes. They are acquired in some other, non-psychological manner. In this way, then, Laurence and Margolis provide a construal of the debate that renders it substantive, unsettled, and ripe for empirical testing.
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One of the most important contributions in this first part is the claim that concept nativism is compatible with learning concepts. According to Laurence and Margolis, concept nativism need not be committed to the existence of any innate concepts. According to their construal of rationalism, concept nativism is compatible with concept learning, as long as the concepts are acquired via a characteristically rationalist learning mechanism. This follows from the fact that the acquisition base might include non-psychologically acquired mechanisms as well as non-psychologically acquired representational structures. In particular, the base might include domain-specific learning mechanisms, which enable the acquisition of representations in only one particular content domain (or several closely related domains). Thus, if our base is stocked with a learning mechanism specifically geared towards the acquisition of spatial representations, for example, then the resulting spatial concepts would be learned rather than innate, and yet the account of their origin would still be rationalist.
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Critics and sceptics might worry that Laurence and Margolis's re-construal of the debate makes it much too easy to be a rationalist: one needn't even be committed to any innate representations! Indeed, in the course of setting up their re-construal, Laurence and Margolis even develop a rather interesting account of abstraction that is compatible with their brand of rationalism. And yet, the re-construal is well motivated and extraordinarily detailed. It offers both rationalists and empiricists of all sorts a well-developed framework in which to build and dispute specific proposals about the psychologically basic elements from which all further psychological traits flow. And despite the focus on the acquisition of concepts among humans, the framework easily lends itself to theorizing the acquisition of psychological traits of all sorts among a great variety of cognizing creatures. In this respect alone, the book offers an extraordinarily rich launching point for theorizing mentality at large.
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According to Laurence and Margolis, a large variety of human concepts across a large variety of content domains are most plausibly acquired by domain-specific learning mechanisms that trace back to our psychological acquisition base, and some are even among the representational structures included in the base. The focus in part 2 is thus on detailing the many fascinating empirical findings that appear best explained by their version of concept nativism.
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Laurence and Margolis distinguish and illustrate seven versions of their argument to the best explanation, arguing that concept nativism is best positioned to explain many remarkable findings concerning the early abilities of infants and toddlers, analogous abilities in a wide variety of animals, cross-cultural findings (including cross-cultural variations), neurological findings (including cases of moderate plasticity), apparent ease of learning and corresponding difficulty in unlearning, the need for initial representational access in order to learn anything further about a domain, and various unexpected 'quirks' that cannot be explained within empiricist frameworks.
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In each case, the data are fascinating and highly suggestive. Taken as a whole, the data are also impressively broad. Over the course of almost 200 pages, Laurence and Margolis present in rich and highly accessible detail many different studies and findings that concern various abstract content domains (including logic, quantity, geometry, causality, modality, purpose, distance, and time), as well as some natural domains (including food, animals, biological motion, danger, disgust, and death), and several more human and social contents (including faces, beliefs, emotions, language, and social categorization).
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One of the major strengths of part 2 is the extent to which the seven arguments overlap and reinforce one another. Consider, for example, just one of the above examples: the ability to attribute beliefs to others. Over the course of their discussion, Laurence and Margolis show that infants as young as six-months old can pass non-traditional false-belief tasks, which minimize the processing burdens of more traditional tasks; that the ability to mentalize is present in many different cultures, including those non-WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) cultures that specifically withhold attributing mental states to others, such as the Yasawan in Melanesia and the South Pacific; that the ability is not at all impaired among people with congenital blindness, who lack visual access to the facial and bodily expressions that serve as significant perceptual cues for the mental states of others; and yet the ability appears absent, or significantly impaired, in many people diagnosed with some versions of autism spectrum disorder. Most suggestive is the fact that the ability to mentalize appears to be all but impossible to acquire without some initial representational 'foothold'. Without some pre-existing sense of mentality, it's hard to see how an empiricist learner could possibly bridge the gap between merely perceiving the behaviour of others and attributing imperceptible causally potent inner states to them. This one example thus illustrates aspects of the arguments from early development, cultural universality, neural wiring, and initial representational access.
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Mental states are just one of many content domains that rationalists and empiricists can disagree on. The real contribution in this part is thus the articulation of the seven argument forms. In each case, the argument is well illustrated by very suggestive data, but each might also be enriched and strengthened (or undermined) by future empirical work. Laurence and Margolis have thus provided empirical researchers an invaluable roadmap for future studies.
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In order to bolster their rationalist account of concepts and their acquisition, Laurence and Margolis turn in part 3 to discussing and then rejecting several prominent empiricist accounts of concept learning. Laurence and Margolis mostly focus on the same content domains for which they have provided a rationalist explanation in part 2, but offer a few new cases to further enrich the empirical detail of their arguments. The discussion of socio-moral cognition, in the context of neo-associationism, and of physical formidability, in the context of embodied cognition, are especially intriguing. Once again, the data are presented in rich accessible detail, and the conclusions drawn against empiricism are well motivated.
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In some cases, Laurence and Margolis simply argue that the target empiricist framework has misconstrued the rationalist position, or misinterpreted the relevant data. In other cases, however, they argue that the supposedly empiricist framework is quite compatible with rationalism. In particular, they argue that both neural network models and embodied cognition frameworks, long associated with empiricist accounts, can be incorporated into rationalist theories such as their own. Indeed, they maintain that the accounts become more plausible, and more aligned with the empirical work that support them, once stripped of their empiricist presuppositions. Thus, neural network models are shown to be more amenable to the data on human cognition once we allow the initial state of a network to include richer initial representational inputs or connection weights that pre-dispose the model to certain outputs over others (or both). And theories that centre embodied cognition are shown to be quite plausible once we allow that the tight interplay between body and environment is sometimes better understood as a biological adaptation, rather than something that is experientially acquired through domain-general learning.
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Despite their negative conclusions, Laurence and Margolis provide an excellent reconstruction of prominent empiricist accounts and what they have to contribute to our understanding of concept learning. Once again, both empiricists and rationalists of all sorts have much to gain by engaging with the careful discussion of the empirical details and the theoretical lessons that Laurence and Margolis draw.
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Having spent almost 500 pages showing that many concepts can indeed be learned, albeit via rationalist learning mechanisms, Laurence and Margolis close the book in part 4 by detailing their objections to Fodor's lifelong rejection of concept learning and the consequent 'radical' version of concept nativism, using this part to also articulate the true extent of their comparatively moderate account.
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They begin by reconstructing the subtleties of how Fodor's position changed over the course of his writings on the subject, indicating several weaknesses in his reasoning along the way. Here, they focus especially on his claims concerning hypothesis testing, showing that it is neither impossibly circular nor the only way a concept can be learned.
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Most important for concept theorists is their discussion of the 'acquisition by composition' model of concept learning, according to which complex concepts can be learned only by a composition of simpler concepts. On pain of regress, the model implies the existence of some set of basic concepts, simple and innate, from which all other concepts are composed. Against this model, Laurence and Margolis detail several alternative modes of concept learning, often relying on the idea of a concept 'template': a schematic representational structure that can be saturated by experiential learning. Thus, an animal template might be saturated by perceptual encounters with animals in the local environment, allowing Australians to learn concepts for koalas and kangaroos, and Southern Africans to learn concepts for klipspringers and kudus, without composing them from simpler innate concepts.
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Most notable, of course, is the fact that such perceptual learnings, particular to experiences in local environments, are rationalist, since the learning mechanisms involve innate representational structures specifically geared towards the acquisition of concepts in a particular domain. Once again, then, sceptics might worry that Laurence and Margolis have stretched the notion of 'rationalism' beyond recognition.
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This impression is bolstered by Laurence and Margolis's further claim in this part that virtually every concept will be at least minimally rationalist on their account. As an illustration, they note the fact that if our concept of 'object' is innate\u2014or acquired by some rationalist mechanism, as seems quite likely\u2014and if it is part of the acquisition of all further object concepts, then all those latter concepts would trace back, in part, to the concept of 'object'. And this means that the acquisition account for each of these concepts must be rationalist too, at least to this extent.
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Of course, in very many cases, Laurence and Margolis hold that the acquisition story is more robustly rationalist than this, but it does create the impression that in making room for a more moderate rationalism, distinct from Fodor's radical version, Laurence and Margolis have ruled out correspondingly moderate forms of empiricism. Then again, perhaps such 'minimal rationalism' is compatible with a moderate concept empiricism. In this case, their re-construal offers concept theorists of every allegiance a way to explore more hybrid, in-between accounts of concept learning, incorporating elements from both characteristically empiricist and characteristically rationalist approaches, in whatever combination best captures the current data.
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Taken as a whole, the book is an extraordinary achievement. It is accessible enough to introduce novices to many important aspects of the overall debate, with wonderfully suggestive examples, useful historical overviews, and generous reconstructions of many different theoretical approaches. At the same time, Laurence and Margolis have provided a robust starting point for further theoretical and empirical work, paving the way for experts across philosophy and the cognitive sciences to further deepen our understanding of the origins of our conceptual capacities. Despite being rooted in a centuries-old debate, there is much more work to be done.
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Alnica Visser \nTexas Christian University \nalnica.visser@gmail.com
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Thumbnail-De-Brigard-on-Piccinini-2.png?fit=398%2C280&ssl=1\n\t\t\t\t\t 280\n\t\t\t\t\t 398\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\tThe BJPS\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t http://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/BSPS-blue.gif\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t The BJPS2026-10-06 06:00:272026-10-02 17:47:34Gualtiero Piccinini, Neurocognitive Foundations of the Mind Reviewed by Felipe De Brigard
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Thumbnail-Bondarenko.png?fit=398%2C280&ssl=1\n\t\t\t\t\t 280\n\t\t\t\t\t 398\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\tThe BJPS\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t http://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/BSPS-blue.gif\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t The BJPS2026-06-17 07:00:192026-06-24 16:32:03Antonine Nicoglou, Plasticity in the Life Sciences Reviewed by Olesya Bondarenko
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","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/yd9jq-r8c58","guid":"https://www.thebsps.org/?p=15144","image":"https://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Thumbnail-Visser.png","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"3gsgy-xyj29","summary":"Home STEPHEN LAURENCE & ERIC MARGOLIS THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THOUGHT REVIEWED BY Alnica Visser The Building Blocks of Thought Stephen Laurence &","tags":["BJPS Review Of Books"],"title":"Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis, The Building Blocks of Thought Reviewed","updated_at":1791957668,"url":"https://www.thebsps.org/reviewofbooks/visser-on-laurence-margolis/","version":"v1"}}],"items":[{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Falkenburg","given":"Philipp"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"00dd7e11-a802-44c1-9584-5c56d1f8d417","created":1706832000,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Vernetzungs- und Kompetenzstelle Open Access Brandenburg","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oabrandenburg","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/00dd7e11-a802-44c1-9584-5c56d1f8d417/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/feed/atom","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oabrandenburg","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Access Brandenburg","updated":1791992150,"use_api":false},"blog_name":"Open Access Brandenburg","blog_slug":"oabrandenburg","content_html":"
Wie muss wissenschaftliches Publizieren gestaltet sein, damit es den Interessen der Wissenschaft dient? Auf der 18. Berliner Open-Access-Konferenz vom 15. bis 18. September 2026 haben Teilnehmende aus 40 L\u00e4ndern gemeinsame Anforderungen formuliert. Ihre Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung fordert, Open-Access-Vereinbarungen mit Verlagen konsequent an der Selbstbestimmung der Wissenschaft auszurichten. Die Verlage werden dabei im Prinzip als Dienstleister angesehen, die den Interessen der Wissenschaft als Dienstnehmer Rechnung tragen sollten. Bisher, so der Eindruck, laufen die Rollen mitunter in die andere Richtung.
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Im Mittelpunkt der Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung der Konferenz stehen sechs Handlungsfelder mit konkreten Anforderungen an Wissenschaftsverlage, aus denen folgende Aspekte herausstechen:
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Ressourcen: Verlage d\u00fcrfen nicht von dauerhaft steigenden Budgets in den wissenschaftlichen Einrichtungen f\u00fcr das Publizieren und der prinzipiellen stillschweigender wissenschaftlicher Arbeit f\u00fcr Begutachtung und Herausgeberschaft von Publikationen ausgehen. Entsprechend Arbeiten m\u00fcssen durch die Verlage transparent und wissenschaftlich anerkennbar abgebildet werden.
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Gerechte Teilhabe: Autor*innen ohne Publikationsmittel oder institutionelle Vereinbarungen sollen unmittelbar unter einer offenen Lizenz publizieren k\u00f6nnen, ohne individuell Geb\u00fchrenerlasse beantragen zu m\u00fcssen. Die Verlage m\u00fcssen eindeutig kommunizieren, wer unter welchen Bedingungen und unter den entsprechenden Umst\u00e4nden frei oder zu reduzierten Kosten publizieren kann. Diese Angaben m\u00fcssen Teil der von den Verlagen bereitgestellten Metadaten sein.
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Rechte der Autor*innen: CC BY soll die Standardlizenz sein. Publikationsvertr\u00e4ge d\u00fcrfen f\u00fcr offen lizenzierte Artikel keine ausschlie\u00dflichen Rechte verlangen. Sie m\u00fcssen die Autor*innen \u00fcber die m\u00f6glichen Folgen der jeweiligen Lizenzierungen und Publikationsvereinbarungen aufkl\u00e4ren, einschlie\u00dflich eventueller Planungen zur Verwertung f\u00fcr das Training von K\u00fcnstlicher Intelligenz.
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Offene Forschungsinformationen und Infrastrukturen: Vollst\u00e4ndige Angaben zu allen Publikationen, Kosten und Finanzierung sollen \u00fcber gemeinschaftlich getragene, also nicht-propriet\u00e4ren Infrastrukturen ohne Zusatzkosten und interoperabel verf\u00fcgbar sein.
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Qualit\u00e4t und Integrit\u00e4t: Offenheit sichert Forschungsintegrit\u00e4t dadurch, dass Pr\u00fcfverfahren und Qualit\u00e4tsstandards transparent sind. Die Standards m\u00fcssen ma\u00dfgeblich von der Wissenschaft mitgestaltet werden. Verlage werden aufgefordert, Open-Science-Standards zur Qualit\u00e4tspr\u00fcfung wissenschaftlicher Ergebnisse einzuf\u00fchren. Open Peer Review soll nach M\u00f6glichkeit unterst\u00fctzt werden.
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Forschung mit K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz: KI-Werkzeuge der Verlage m\u00fcssen transparent sein. Von Verlagen f\u00fcr die KI-Nutzung durch Dritte bereitgestellte Inhalte m\u00fcssen in gleicher Weise durch die Forschenden selbst nutzbar sein. Generative KI sollte kritisch betrachtet und nur in kontrollierten Umgebungen eingesetzt werden.
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F\u00fcr die Hochschulen und Bibliotheken in Brandenburg bietet die Erkl\u00e4rung damit unter anderem einen weiteren Bezugspunkt f\u00fcr die aktuelle Diskussion \u00fcber Publikationskosten und Transformationsvertr\u00e4ge. Gerade kleinere Hochschulen k\u00f6nnen beispielsweise hohe, unvorhersehbare APCs und Doppelzahlungen auch neben der wissenschaftsethischen Begr\u00fcndung kaum tragen. Entsprechend lie\u00dfe sich erg\u00e4nzen, das Vertragskonditionen und Infrastrukturzugang nicht nur an forschungsstarken Einrichtungen ausgerichtet sein sollten. Auch generell sind deren Teilhaberessourcen oft eingeschr\u00e4nkter, was den Bedarf f\u00fcr Ma\u00dfnahmen zum Teilhabeausgleich nahelegt.
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Offene, interoperable, eindeutige und qualitativ hochwertige Metadaten w\u00fcrden dar\u00fcber hinaus eine bessere Datengrundlage f\u00fcr das Publikationsmonitoring und damit auch f\u00fcr publikationsstrategische Gestaltungs- und Steuerungsentscheidungen bieten.\u00a0
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Schlie\u00dflich ist K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz auch an den Hochschulen des Landes Brandenburg ein zentrales und akutes Thema. Ihr Einsatz in und mit Forschung aus den Einrichtungen des Landes braucht einen Rahmen, der absichert, dass auch die Produzenten dieser Forschung davon profitieren und zugleich eine Kontrolle \u00fcber die Nutzung behalten.
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Aus unserer Sicht l\u00e4sst sich daraus ein klarer Auftrag ableiten: Vereinbarungen mit Verlagen sollten daran gemessen werden, wie sie bezahlbares Publizieren, verl\u00e4ssliche Rechte, transparente Nutzungsbedingungen und offene Infrastrukturen st\u00e4rken. Die Frage von Kosten und Zugang ist demzufolge nur ein Aspekt. Metadatenqualit\u00e4t, offene APIs, die Sicherung der Urheber- und Nachnutzungsrechte durch Autor*innen und, bei Daten, Erheber*innen sowie transparente Regelungen zur Auswertung der Inhalte durch K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz geh\u00f6ren mittlerweile ebenso in Verlags- uns Transformationsvertr\u00e4ge und sollten verhandelt werden. F\u00fcr die Messung und das Monitoring von Offenheit wird zugleich deutlich, dass neben der Zahl von an sich frei zug\u00e4nglichen Artikel weitere Kriterien differenziert und ber\u00fccksichtigt werden m\u00fcssen.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/v5wjf-1w335","guid":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/?p=10315","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"1ke97-06787","summary":"Wie muss wissenschaftliches Publizieren gestaltet sein, damit es den Interessen der Wissenschaft dient? Auf der 18. Berliner Open-Access-Konferenz vom 15. bis 18. September 2026 haben Teilnehmende aus 40 L\u00e4ndern gemeinsame Anforderungen formuliert. Ihre Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung fordert, Open-Access-Vereinbarungen mit Verlagen konsequent an der Selbstbestimmung der Wissenschaft auszurichten.","tags":["OA Brandenburg","OA News","OA Takeaways","Creative-Commons-Lizenzen","K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz"],"title":"OA-News: Berliner Open-Access-Konferenz formuliert Anforderungen an wissenschaftliche Verlage","updated_at":1791992259,"url":"https://open-access-brandenburg.de/oa-news-berliner-open-access-konferenz-formuliert-anforderungen-an-wissenschaftliche-verlage/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Niemeyer","given":"Sandra"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"db0d8909-9e37-46d0-b16c-0551f575e86b","created":1749772800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Das Blog der TIB \u2013 Leibniz-Informationszentrum Technik und Naturwissenschaften und Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek","doi":"https://doi.org/10.65527/tib","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/db0d8909-9e37-46d0-b16c-0551f575e86b/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blog.tib.eu/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blog.tib.eu/","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.65527","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"tib","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"TIB-Blog","updated":1791979016,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"TIB-Blog","blog_slug":"tib","content_html":" read this article in English\n
Eine neue Kollegin ben\u00f6tigt dringend ein spezielles Grafikprogramm oder das neueste Update f\u00fcr ein Statistik-Tool? Fr\u00fcher bedeutete das f\u00fcr die IT-Abteilung: Turnschuhe an und los. Also bildlich gesprochen, denn f\u00fcr die Installation musste man sich auf jeden PC einzeln aufschalten, um sie mit erh\u00f6hten Rechten zu starten. F\u00fcr beide Seiten kostete das unn\u00f6tig Zeit.
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Damit ist jetzt Schluss. Wir haben die \"Turnschuhadministration\" abgeschafft und durch OPSI (Open PC Server Integration) ersetzt. Eine L\u00f6sung, die nicht nur uns die Arbeit erleichtert, sondern vor allem unseren Kolleginnen und Kollegen vor den Bildschirmen mehr Freiheit gibt.
\nDas opsi-WebGUI ist eine grafische Schnittstelle zur Admininistration von opsi-Umgebungen. Quelle: Wikimedia-Userin HeikeJurzik, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Opsi-WebGUI.png unter der Lizenz CC BY-SA 4.0 International\n
Software shoppen
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Ein Herzst\u00fcck unserer neuen Strategie ist der \"Softwarekorb\" mit seinem einfachen aber genialen Prinzip: Vergleichbar mit einem App-Store bietet er Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t per Klick. Wer ein Programm ben\u00f6tigt kann schnell den Softwarekorb \u00f6ffnen, die Software ausw\u00e4hlen und selbst\u00e4ndig installieren. Niemand muss eine E-Mail schreiben und auch nicht warten, bis ein Admin Zeit hat, sich auf den Rechner aufzuschalten. Au\u00dferdem ist jedes Programm im Korb von uns vorkonfiguriert, sicherheitsgepr\u00fcft und sofort einsatzbereit.
Wir haben uns bewusst f\u00fcr OPSI entschieden. Als Open-Source-L\u00f6sung passt es perfekt zu unserem Auftrag an der TIB. Warum? Wir sind unabh\u00e4ngig und kontrollieren die Infrastruktur selbst. So sind wir nicht von den Preismodellen gro\u00dfer Tech-Giganten abh\u00e4ngig. Wir wissen genau, was OPSI im Hintergrund tut, ganz ohne Telemetrie und G\u00e4ngelung, was Transparenz schafft. Egal ob spezialisierte Bibliothekstools oder kleine Open-Source-Helfer, wir k\u00f6nnen ganz flexibel fast alles paketieren und zentral bereitstellen.
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Updates und neue Tools landen sofort oder beim n\u00e4chsten Systemstart automatisch auf dem Rechner. Ganz ohne \"Aufschalten\" und die Arbeit muss auch nicht unterbrochen werden. Indem wir unsere Software-Verteilung selbst in die Hand nehmen, statt uns auf propriet\u00e4re Blackbox-Systeme zu verlassen, sch\u00fctzen wir die digitale Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t unserer Bibliothek und Forschungseinrichtung.
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We love Free Software \u2013 eine Blogreihe der TIB
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Freie Software und Open-Source-Software (FOSS) ist weit mehr als nur eine technische Alternative zu kommerziellen L\u00f6sungen \u2013 sie steht f\u00fcr Offenheit, Transparenz, nachhaltige digitale Infrastrukturen und digitale Souver\u00e4nit\u00e4t. Freie Software, die gemeinschaftlich betreut, entwickelt und verteilt wird, st\u00e4rkt die Unabh\u00e4ngigkeit von einzelnen Anbietern, Einrichtungen behalten die Kontrolle \u00fcber ihre Systeme, Daten und Weiterentwicklungen.
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Bei der TIB dreht sich alles um Infrastruktur f\u00fcr die Forschung und seit etwa zehn Jahren zunehmend auch um eine vielf\u00e4ltige, aktive und dauerhafte Mitarbeit in internationalen Freie-Software-Projekten. Diese Arbeit wird von vielen Teams der TIB fast lautlos geleistet. In unserer Blogreihe \"We love Free Software\" wollen wir das Mikro aufdrehen und beteiligte Kolleg:innen direkt zu Wort kommen lassen. Wir wollen wissen: Warum macht ihr das und was macht ihr da genau? Wie tr\u00e4gt eure Arbeit zur Resilienz von Forschungsergebnissen bei? Was ist der besondere Stress, aber vielleicht auch der Lohn f\u00fcr dieses Engagement? Und welche Missverst\u00e4ndnisse wolltet ihr schon immer mal richtigstellen? \n
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.65527/x5cv3-p7c13","guid":"https://blog.tib.eu/?p=34206","image":"https://blog.tib.eu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/We-Love-Free-Software_16-9-scaled-e1790150652175.png","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"fghnd-5xd70","summary":"read this article in English Eine neue Kollegin ben\u00f6tigt dringend ein spezielles Grafikprogramm oder das neueste Update f\u00fcr ein Statistik-Tool? Fr\u00fcher bedeutete das f\u00fcr die IT-Abteilung: Turnschuhe an und los. Also bildlich gesprochen, denn f\u00fcr die Installation musste man sich auf jeden PC einzeln aufschalten, um sie mit erh\u00f6hten Rechten zu starten. F\u00fcr beide Seiten kostete das unn\u00f6tig Zeit. Damit ist jetzt Schluss.","tags":["OPENNESS","We Love Free Software","Lizenz:CC-BY-4.0-INT","Open Source","Opsi"],"title":"Ganz ohne Turnschuhe: Administration mit OPSI","updated_at":1791979158,"url":"https://blog.tib.eu/2026/10/14/ganz-ohne-turnschuhe-administration-mit-opsi/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Jivkova","given":"Katrin"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"1e54953c-587a-4743-89af-ebd2cb45660c","created":1789516800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/pensoft","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/1e54953c-587a-4743-89af-ebd2cb45660c/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blog.pensoft.net/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blog.pensoft.net/","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"pensoft","status":"active","subfield":"2303","title":"Pensoft Blog","updated":1791877355,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Pensoft Blog","blog_slug":"pensoft","content_html":"
Researchers have created a detailed, animated 3D model of the Imperial Woodpecker (Campephilus imperialis), a spectacular bird that has not been confirmed in the wild since 1956. The model, built from a museum specimen and the only known film footage of the living bird, is freely available to scientists, educators and the public.
\n\n\n\n3D model of an Imperial Woodpecker mid-flight with wings extended. The left wing (A) has been labelled and colour-coded according to feather type present in the model. The right wing (B) exposes the underlying 3D armature that drives the motion and articulation of the wing. Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
The Imperial Woodpecker was the largest woodpecker on record, reaching more than 60 centimetres in length. It lived in the old-growth pine forests of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and is presumed extinct following widespread logging of its habitat. Around 100 preserved specimens exist in museums worldwide, and the only moving images of the species are a few seconds of grainy film shot in 1956.
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\"The Imperial Woodpecker hasn't been seen in the wild for nearly 70 years. Creating a digital specimen let us re-capture a glimpse of the bird's real likeness and behaviour in a way that's easy to access and share.\"
\nThe Research Team
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From museum skin to moving bird
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The reconstruction began with a female specimen held at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology, which houses the world's largest collection of Mexican birds. The team photographed the specimen 288 times from every angle and used photogrammetry, a technique that turns overlapping photographs into a 3D surface, to capture its shape with sub-millimetre accuracy. Measurements of the head, bill, body, wings and tail were taken throughout to keep the digital bird true to the original.
\n\n\n\n3D model of an Imperial Woodpecker ascending a tree. The model is shown fully rendered with colour derived from 3D specimen scans and photographs (A), with the underlying mesh exposed in the image to the right (B). Below, still frames of a live female Imperial Woodpecker in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico show the bird climbing (C) and mid-flight (D). Video frames reproduced from Lammertink et al. (2011, fig. 1). Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
Feathers proved the greatest challenge. Because it is difficult to see individual feathers on a specimen, the team modelled individual feather shapes on those of the Pileated Woodpecker, the largest living woodpecker in North America, then resized and adjusted them to match the known proportions of the Imperial Woodpecker. Wing patterning was drawn from scientific illustrations and checked against the available visual record.
\n\n\n\nWing-tip displacement over the course of the animation sequence, tracked from the tip of the terminal phalanx. Graphs show displacement in the mediolateral (x) axis, the dorsoventral (y) axis and the anteroposterior (z) axis, each measured in metres, plotted against animation frame number. Peaks and troughs in each axis correspond to discrete wingbeat cycles, with intervening plateaus reflecting periods of soaring where wing-tip movement is minimal. Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
Using the open-source software Blender, the researchers then built a digital skeleton to drive the model's movement. Ten primary, ten secondary and twelve tail feathers were each individually modelled and rigged, so that they can spread, bend and fold independently. To the team's knowledge, this makes the model one of the first open, specimen-based bird reconstructions to combine a photogrammetric body with individually animated feathers.
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Two animations bring the model to life: a looping flight sequence and a short clip of the bird climbing a tree trunk and drumming against the bark. Both are grounded in the 1956 film footage, supplemented by behavioural video of the Pileated Woodpecker and published data on woodpecker wingbeat timing.
\n\n\n\nFour phases of the wingbeat cycle of C.imperialis, shown in dorsal view (A) and lateral view (B). Beginning with the wings fully extended at the top of the upstroke (1), the wingtips sweep downward through the downstroke to their lowermost point (2), before the wings fold and draw back towards the body (3) and finally extend again as they rise to complete the upstroke (4). Image credit: Joshua Medina et al., 2026.\n\n\n\n
A tool for science and for public awareness
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Beyond its visual appeal, the model is designed as a reproducible scientific resource. Researchers can use it to estimate body volume and surface area, compare shape with living relatives, or run simulations of flight and feather movement. The authors note it could also inform the design of bird-inspired flying robots.
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The team hopes the work will also reach audiences far beyond the laboratory:
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\"The Imperial Woodpecker might be the last bird species to have gone extinct in continental North America, but arguably 99.9% of people have never heard of it.
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If a digital specimen can increase public awareness of extinct species by even a fraction of a percent, that's millions of people who have an idea for what extinction can erase from the planet.\"
The study also highlights the cultural dimension of the species. The Imperial Woodpecker features in the traditions of Indigenous communities of the Sierra Madre Occidental, yet few, if any, museum specimens are held in Mexico. The authors suggest that freely shared digital models may help to offset these geographic and institutional barriers, while acknowledging that whether such work can contribute to the repatriation of biological and cultural heritage remains an open question.
\n\n\n\nImperial Woodpecker 3D Model.\n\n\n\n
The researchers are candid about the model's limits. It is based on a single female specimen, and aspects such as soft tissue and flight kinematics rely on informed estimation from living relatives. They hope future work will digitise further specimens to capture variation between sexes and individuals.
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\"The fact that this was created by such a small team will hopefully be a proof of concept that results in more museum specimens being brought to life and shared with the larger scientific community.\"
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The model, skeleton and animations are available to view and download through Sketchfab.
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Original source
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Medina J, Campbell R, Martin J, McCormack JE, Irschick DJ (2026) A digital specimen of the extinct Imperial Woodpecker: integrating museum scans, historical film and animated feather articulation. Natural History Collections and Museomics 3: e204314. https://doi.org/10.3897/nhcm.3.204314
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/md4k6-6ws10","guid":"https://blog.pensoft.net/?p=21198","image":"https://blog.pensoft.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/SciComm-PR-2026-Instagram-2026-10-12T134510.698.png","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"wafkr-erj39","summary":"Tweet Researchers have created a detailed, animated 3D model of the Imperial Woodpecker ( Campephilus imperialis ), a spectacular bird that has not been confirmed in the wild since 1956. The model, built from a museum specimen and the only known film footage of the living bird, is freely available to scientists, educators and the public.","tags":["Natural History Collections And Museomics","Animated Model","Bird","Digital Resource","Extinct Species"],"title":"Imperial Woodpecker returns to life as a detailed digital specimen","updated_at":1791965110,"url":"https://blog.pensoft.net/2026/10/14/imperial-woodpecker-returns-to-life-as-a-detailed-digital-specimen/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/041qv0h25","name":"Deutsches Arch\u00e4ologisches Institut, Zentrale"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"von Schr\u00f6der","given":"Asta","url":"https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5852-771X"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"d21c5e78-88bc-432c-a20b-4e8a8ead1693","created":1752796800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Wissenslabor f\u00fcr naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen und objektzentrierte Daten","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/winoda","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/d21c5e78-88bc-432c-a20b-4e8a8ead1693/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://winoda.de/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://winoda.de","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"winoda","status":"active","subfield":"1209","title":"WiNoDa Knowledge Lab","updated":1791878400,"use_api":false},"blog_name":"WiNoDa Knowledge Lab","blog_slug":"winoda","content_html":"\n
Seit etwa anderthalb Jahren arbeite ich jetzt mit Obsidian, und ganz ehrlich? ich habe die Umstellung nie bereut. (Zu meiner gro\u00dfen \u00dcberraschung ist mein Blogpost dazu einer der meist gelesenen, wenn nicht sogar insgesamt der erfolgreichste Post in diesem Blog. Wow.) Es hat etwa ein halbes Jahr gedauert, bis ich alles zu meiner Zufriedenheit und f\u00fcr meine Zwecke eingerichtet hatte, aber ich habe schon lange nichts mehr an meinem Setup ge\u00e4ndert. Wahrscheinlich sollte ich mal etwas aufr\u00e4umen, aber dazu ist gerade keine Zeit\u2026 Im folgenden stelle ich Euch kurz vor, welche Erweiterungen (Plugins) f\u00fcr mich wirklich unverzichtbar geworden sind.
\nScreenshot meiner Obsidian Plugins, Stand August 2026\n
1. Backup und Versionierung
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Eines der wichtigsten Plugins \u00fcberhaupt: \"Git\" von Vinzent: https://github.com/vinzent03/obsidian-git integriert einen vollautomatisierten Git-Workflow in den Obsidian vault. Vorteil: regelm\u00e4\u00dfiges Backup aller \u00c4nderungen. Mir sind schon zu oft Dateien verloren gegangen, oder Computer kaputt, oder kein Zugang mehr zum Arbeitsrechner\u2026. Nat\u00fcrlich braucht man irgendwo einen Git-Account, aber die sind (noch) kostenlos und einfach zu bekommen (z. B. bei GitHub, GitLab, oder bei der europ\u00e4ischen Alternative Codeberg). Das Setup war gut dokumentiert, und einmal aufgesetzt habe ich nie wieder einen Gedanken daran verschwendet.
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Faktisch habe ich zwei Git-Projekte aufgesetzt, eins f\u00fcr meinen gesamten Vault als Backup, und eins f\u00fcr nur den Ordner mit den Skript-Dateien f\u00fcr meine Online-Kurse, die ich mit externen Peer-Reviewer:innen teilen wollte. Kommentare und Feedback konnten wir \u00fcber Git-Issues und ein-zwei Video-Calls abwickeln. Das lief gut, aber nat\u00fcrlich hilft es, ein grunds\u00e4tzliches Verst\u00e4ndnis von Versionskontrollsystemen zu haben. Full disclosure: ich kann (und m\u00fcsste/sollte) zu Git und den entsprechenden Workflows selbst noch eine ganze Menge lernen, aber f\u00fcr die genannten Zwecke reicht mein Wissen vollst\u00e4ndig aus. (Eine alte Version aus dem Git-Verlauf wieder herzustellen k\u00f6nnte ich aus dem Stand nicht, aber es ist tr\u00f6stlich zu wissen, dass es ginge. Irgendwie. Das kann ich dann herausfinden, wenn es so weit ist.)
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2. Projektmanagement
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Ein absoluter Game-Changer ist f\u00fcr mich der relativ neue \"Project Manager for Obsidian\" von StepanKropachev: https://github.com/stepankropachev/obsidian-pm. Endlich kann ich die \u00dcbersicht \u00fcber meine Aufgaben behalten, ohne andauernd das Tool wechseln zu m\u00fcssen! (Disclaimer: bisher nutze ich ihn haupts\u00e4chlich in meinem privaten vault, um die anfallenden Aufgaben bei der Sanierung unseres Hauses nachzuverfolgen. F\u00fcr die aktuellen Aufgaben im Rahmen des WiNoDa-Projekts haben wir hier im Team andere L\u00f6sungen gefunden, und ich denke, das Plugin w\u00fcrde nicht ausreichen, um ein gro\u00dfes, verteiltes Team zu koordinieren. F\u00fcr meine eigenen Aufgaben wird dieses Plugin mir die Arbeit jedoch erheblich erleichtern und mir helfen, den \u00dcberblick dar\u00fcber zu behalten, wo ich gerade stehe.) Project Manager erm\u00f6glicht es, Aufgaben, Unteraufgaben, Meilensteine, Abh\u00e4ngigkeiten, Zeiterfassung etc direkt im Vault zu pflegen. Die Ansicht kann tabellarisch, als Gantt-Chart oder \u00fcber Kanban Board erfolgen. Das Board ist individuell konfigurierbar, das Gantt-Chart intuitiv anpassbar, man kann Personen und tags vergeben und der Erledigungsstatus wird farbig angepasst. Alles was ich brauche, ohne Kontextwechsel, offline und lokal. Hier erz\u00e4hlt der Entwickler selbst, was er gemacht hat: https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/1sg3jcw/i_built_a_native_project_manager_for_obsidian/
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Der \"Project Manager\" erg\u00e4nzt f\u00fcr mich das Plugin \"Task List Kanban\" von ErikaRS (https://github.com/erikars/task-list-kanban), welches in Dokumenten erstellte Aufgaben (formatiert als Checkliste und mit einem entsprechenden hashtag versehen) automatisch in ein Kanban-Board \u00fcberf\u00fchrt. Das ist \u00fcberaus praktisch, um bspw. aus verschiedenen Protokoll-Dokumenten, Gespr\u00e4chsnotizen oder konzeptionellem Geschreibsel alle ToDos an einer zentralen Stelle zusammenzuf\u00fchren. Da es ordnerbasiert funktioniert, wird es aber zuk\u00fcnftig einfach nur noch im Protokoll-Ordner leben.
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Export & Layout
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Eine Herausforderung (f\u00fcr mich) bleibt der Export in ein Format, mit dem \"andere\" Menschen arbeiten k\u00f6nnen. Auch wenn Markdown sich immer mehr verbreitet \u2013 Word bzw. docx bleibt das am weitesten verbreitete Textverarbeitungsprogramm/Textformat. Und das default-Exportformat von Obsidian ist PDF \u2013 das ist nicht immer ideal. Mit dem Plugin \"Enhancing Export\" von mokeyish (https://github.com/mokeyish/obsidian-enhancing-export) kann jedes Obsidian file in Word, verschiedene Markdown flavours, HTML, Latex etc exportiert werden. Zuvor muss man allerdings auf dem lokalen Rechner Pandoc installieren. Ich fand das Aufsetzen ein bisschen komplizierter, aber eigentlich war alles gut erkl\u00e4rt.
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Ich exportiere h\u00e4ufig Dokumente als .docx, um sie in Word zu layouten. Nicht immer werden alle Formate richtig erkannt, man sollte also schon sorgf\u00e4ltig pr\u00fcfen, ob \u00dcberschriften, Listen etc richtig \u00fcbernommen wurden. Aber dann ist es f\u00fcr mich einfacher, das Dokument zu formatieren, Farben, Logos, Seitenzahlen etc hinzuzuf\u00fcgen und vor allem mit anderen zur Weiterbearbeitung zu teilen. Ich bin immer noch sicher, dass das mit Hilfe von css-basierten Formatvorlagen auch direkt in Obsidian geht , aber ich hatte bisher keine Zeit, mich damit zu besch\u00e4ftigen. Mache ich irgendwann.
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Sonstiges
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Kleinere Plugins, die es mir etwas angenehmer machen:
MathLive und BulkRename habe ich nur einmal benutzt \u2013 um eine Formel besser darstellen zu k\u00f6nnen bzw. um einen ganzen Ordner voll Dateinamen zu standardisieren. Das war hilfreich, aber ich brauche das nicht oft. Nun denn. Nutzt Ihr auch Obsidian? Wie habt Ihr Euer Setup konfiguriert?
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/rsne9-z6161","guid":"https://winoda.de/?p=15029","image":"https://winoda.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Obsidian-Plugins-1024x788.jpg","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"wdvy3-w7w47","summary":"Seit etwa anderthalb Jahren arbeite ich jetzt mit Obsidian, und ganz ehrlich? ich habe die Umstellung nie bereut.","tags":["WiNoDa Knowledge Lab Journal","Markdown","Obsidian","Tools"],"title":"Markdown 3 \u2013 Mein Obsidian-Setup","updated_at":1791963012,"url":"https://winoda.de/2026/10/13/markdown-3-mein-obsidian-setup/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Eden","given":"Terence","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9265-9069"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"61ce553a-bafd-4aba-a952-d3bab5e85bcc","created":1788652800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"Regular nonsense about tech and its effects \ud83d\ude43","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/shkspr","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/61ce553a-bafd-4aba-a952-d3bab5e85bcc/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/feed/DOI","filter":"category:-1982","generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog","issn":"2753-1570","language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"shkspr","status":"active","subfield":"1712","title":"Terence Eden's Blog","updated":1791885603,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Terence Eden's Blog","blog_slug":"shkspr","content_html":"\n\n
The thing about Romeo and Juliet is that it is a true story. It isn't literally true, but it is literary true. We see the same motif repeated throughout all cultures and all times. Caroline Lea (writing as Caroline Finch) asks an important question - what if every pair of star-cross'd lovers were reincarnations of the original Verona duo?
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The essence of tragedy is that the end is unavoidable. You've probably watched Romeo sup poison a hundred times. It is inevitable that Juliet will take her own life in response. Horrific! Yet, not only do you refuse to look away, you gleefully seek it out for another viewing. There's a reason why Tony and Maria cannot escape their destinies in West Side Story - something more than fate is pushing them onto a path that will accept no deviation. The only way through is, of course, death.
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The Thousand Deaths starts slowly - the first \"act\" felt like an excuse to retell the classic tale in a new setting. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and it is suffused with lovely writing - but it felt a bit \"so what?\"
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And then they die.
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As the acts progress and they get closer to the their thousandth death the pace picks up. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, packed with allusions and references for the careful reader (more on that later). The story is heartbreaking - as well you know - and the author has the perfect knack of keeping her characters on just the right side of histrionics.
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I'd sort of classify this as almost romantasy. There's an undercurrent of sci-fi and fantasy which can't be ignored - but you can also hear the stirring of the violins in the background. Our hero and heroine come together and are violently broken apart for our insatiable entertainment. Do we care about whether that's good for them? What does it feel like to be a Mercutio forever used as a pawn-sacrifice? Does Tybalt resent his forcible reincarnation into a perpetual baddie? Are we culpable for insisting that they strut upon an endless stage just so we can wipe tears from our eyes?
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The book builds to a fine crescendo. It is heartfelt and utterly tragic. The ending will, I suspect, divide people. I found it mostly satisfactory and completely in keeping with the rest of the story.
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One final thing - the end notes are superb. They go through all the references you might have missed, explain where certain phrases came from, and point the curious reader to the books which were an inspiration. Too many authors treat their literary allusions as a precious puzzle and jealously guard them. I'm delighted that Caroline Finch is generous enough to share her secrets with us.
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Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. The book will be released in 2027 - I strongly recommend putting it on your pre-order list.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/wkhx2-yfh44","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76683","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/randj.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"tsnbv-x9v44","summary":"The thing about Romeo and Juliet is that it is a true story. It isn't literally true, but it is literary true. We see the same motif repeated throughout all cultures and all times. Caroline Lea (writing as Caroline Finch) asks an important question - what if every pair of star-cross'd lovers were reincarnations of the original Verona duo?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Shakespeare"],"title":"Book Review: The Thousand Deaths of Romeo and Juliet - Caroline Finch","updated_at":1791963012,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-thousand-deaths-of-romeo-and-juliet-caroline-finch/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/046ak2485","name":"Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Fischer","given":"Georg","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-5759"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2","created":1694476800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oaberlin","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oaberlin","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Research Blog Berlin","updated":1791962624,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Open Research Blog Berlin","blog_slug":"oaberlin","content_html":"
Unsere monatliche Rubrik zu aktuellen Veranstaltungen rund um Open Research.
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Anmerkung zu dieser Rubrik: Das Open Research Office Berlin erstellt monatlich eine \u00dcbersicht \u00fcber Termine und Veranstaltungen zu Open Access und Open Research in Berlin bzw. an Berliner Einrichtungen. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf unseren Partnereinrichtungen und auf Veranstaltungen, die sich an die \u00d6ffentlichkeit richten bzw. die offen sind f\u00fcr Angeh\u00f6rige der Wissenschafts- und Kulturerbeeinrichtungen in Berlin. Wir erg\u00e4nzen diese Liste gerne (Info bitte via Mail ans OROB).
Der Verein \"museum-digital Deutschland\" veranstaltet am 30. Oktober 2026 zum vierten Mal eine bundesweite museum-digital Usertagung. Sie richtet sich an alle Nutzer:innen von museum-digital. Aber auch Interessierte, die bisher noch nicht mit museum-digital arbeiten sind herzlich eingeladen. Es wird Informationen zu den Neuerungen bei museum-digital geben sowie Projektberichte von aktiven Usern. Die Veranstaltung ist kostenfrei und findet online statt. Im Anschluss findet die Mitgliederversammlung f\u00fcr die Mitglieder des Vereins statt. Die Usertagung bietet eine Plattform, bei der Museen ihre Arbeit mit museum-digital vorstellen und sich austauschen k\u00f6nnen.
3. November, Netzwerk Recht und Open Research, Online-Workshop mit Grischka Petri
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Im Netzwerk Recht und Open Research m\u00f6chten wir Austausch und Vernetzung zu konkreten rechtlichen Fragen bef\u00f6rdern und gemeinsam eine rechtspolitische Interessenvertretung f\u00fcr die offene Forschung initiieren. […]\u00a0Beim ersten Treffen des Netzwerks m\u00f6chten wir einen Raum \u00f6ffnen, um allgemein \u00fcber praktische und strategische Rechtsfragen rund um offene Forschung, Open Access und wissenschaftliches Publizieren zu sprechen und in den Austausch zu kommen.
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Termin: 03.11.10.2026, 14:00 bis 15:30 Uhr, online via Webex
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Organisiert von: Open Research Office Berlin (Projekte open-access.network und Legal Helpdesk Berlin); Referent: Dr. Dr. Grischka Petri (NFDI4Culture)
In dieser Fortbildung lernen Sie die Grundlagen von Open Access und offenen Lizenzen. Das Projekt open-access.network stellt neues Selbstlernmaterial zur Verf\u00fcgung. Es gibt Gelegenheit f\u00fcr \u00dcbungen und Diskussion.
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Termin: 04.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, online via Webex
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Organisiert von: Zentrum f\u00fcr Aus- und Fortbildung der Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek; Referentin: Katharina Schicketanz
12. November, Warum sollten Forschungsdaten ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden und welche Rolle spielen dabei fachspezifische Repositorien?, FH Potsdam
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Forschungsdaten sind ein wesentlicher Bestandteil geowissenschaftlicher Forschung und sollten nach M\u00f6glichkeit offen und nachnutzbar ver\u00f6ffentlicht werden, wobei die beteiligten Forschenden und Institutionen angemessen anerkannt werden sollten. Forschungsdatenrepositorien gew\u00e4hrleisten die langfristige Verf\u00fcgbarkeit von Daten und erm\u00f6glichen deren Identifikation und Zitierbarkeit, beispielsweise durch die Vergabe von DOIs.
17. November, Leibniz Open Science Day 2026: Scientific Rigor and Collaborative Research in the Age of AI, Berlin
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This workshop brings together scholars committed to strengthening the reliability, transparency, and cumulative nature of research in the social sciences.
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Termin: 17.11.10.2026, Berlin
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Organisiert von: Marianne Saam, ZBW \u2013 Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and University of Hamburg; Doreen Siegfried, ZBW \u2013 Leibniz Information Centre for Economics; J\u00f6rg Ankel-Peters, RWI \u2013 Leibniz Institute for Economic Research; Macartan Humphreys, WZB Berlin Social Science Center; Levent Neyse, DIW \u2013 The German Institute for Economic Research Berlin and WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
19.-20. November, K\u00fcnstliche Intelligenz und die Zukunft kleiner F\u00e4cher, Mainz + online
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Die rasante Verbreitung und die niedrigschwellige Nutzung k\u00fcnstlicher Intelligenz (KI) ver\u00e4ndern nachhaltig die Forschungspraxis an Hochschulen und Wissenschaftseinrichtungen. Die automatisierte Verarbeitung gro\u00dfer Datenmengen sowie ihre Verkn\u00fcpfung und Analyse in k\u00fcrzester Zeit stellen in vielen Disziplinen etablierte Forschungsmethoden in Frage. W\u00e4hrend diese Entwicklungen in datenintensiven F\u00e4chern bereits intensiv diskutiert werden, bleibt bislang offen, welche Konsequenzen sich daraus f\u00fcr kleine F\u00e4cher ergeben.
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Termin: 12.11.10.2026, 16:00 bis 18:00 Uhr, Mainz und digital via Zoom
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Organisiert von: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz
24. November, Hybrid und Diamond Open Access unter der Lupe \u2013 Open Access als Forschungsobjekt der Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft, online
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Open Access ist Gegenstand bibliotheks- und informationswissenschaftlicher Forschung. Auf Grundlage offener Metadaten l\u00e4sst sich empirisch untersuchen, wie sich Publikationsmodelle entwickeln. Die Session beleuchtet zwei sich gegenseitig bedingende Dynamiken: die kommerziell getriebene, jedoch unvollst\u00e4ndige Transformation hybrider Subskriptionszeitschriften sowie die R\u00fcckkehr von community-getragener Diamond-Open-Access-Zeitschriften zu Subskriptions- oder geb\u00fchrenbasierten Modellen.
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Termin: 24.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, online via Zoom
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Organisiert von: Berliner Kolloquium f\u00fcr Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft und Wissenschaftsforschung am Institut f\u00fcr Bibliotheks- und Informations\u00adwissen\u00adschaft (IBI), HU Berlin; Referent*innen: Dr. Najko Jahn (Georg-August-Universit\u00e4t G\u00f6ttingen) und Dr. Lisa Matthias (University of Ottawa, RWTH Aachen)
24.-25. November, 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information \u2013 Aligning policy and practical implementation, Berlin
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The 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information will bring together the international community of signatories, supporters, and other stakeholders, creating a space to advance open research information across institutional contexts and explore how to align policy and practical implementation.
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Termin: 24-25.11.10.2026, HU Berlin
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Organisiert von: Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information together with Leibniz Association and Helmholtz Open Science Office.
26. November, Offene Forschungsinformationen in Deutschland, Berlin
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Die Veranstaltung bietet einen Raum f\u00fcr Austausch und Diskussion zu offenen Forschungsinformationen in Deutschland. Eingeladen sind Akteure, Einrichtungen, Initiativen und Projekte, die mit Forschungsinformationssystemen, (offenen) Forschungsinformationen und Metadaten arbeiten \u2013 sowohl in der Praxis als auch auf der Ebene von Leitung, Administration, Policy und F\u00f6rderung. Ziel ist es, die teilweise fragmentierten Aktivit\u00e4ten und Communities besser zu vernetzen und offene Forschungsinformationen in der deutschen Wissenschaft \u00fcber institutionelle Grenzen hinweg voranzubringen.
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Termin: 26.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, HU Berlin
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Organisiert von: DINI-Arbeitsgruppe Forschungsinformationssysteme zusammen mit der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, dem Helmholtz Open Science Office und der Humboldt-Universit\u00e4t
26. November,\u00a0Beyond Books \u2013 Metadaten wissenschaftlicher Veranstaltungen als Handlungsfeld von Bibliotheken, online
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Der Workshop \"Beyond Books\" […] beleuchtet die Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Veranstaltungen f\u00fcr die interne Wissenschaftskommunikation. Neben Einblicken in die von Communities getragenen Plattformen f\u00fcr die Verbreitung von wissenschaftlichen Veranstaltungen wird diskutiert, welche Rolle sie in der Forschungsbewertung spielen und wie sich Metadatenstandards weiterentwickeln lassen. Der Workshop richtet sich an bibliothekarische Fachreferent:innen und hat einen interdisziplin\u00e4ren Zuschnitt. Neben Impulsen zu aktuellen Entwicklungen bietet er Raum f\u00fcr Erfahrungsaustausch und gemeinsame Diskussion dar\u00fcber, wie Bibliotheken in ihrer Rolle als Infrastrukturpartner die Forschung unterst\u00fctzen k\u00f6nnen.
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Termin: 26.11.10.2026, 09:00 bis 13:00 Uhr, online
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Organisiert von: FID Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft, FID Linguistik der Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek Frankfurt, Projekt ConfIDent der TIB Hannover und Kommission f\u00fcr Fachreferatsarbeit des Vereins Deutscher Bibliothekarinnen und Bibliothekare (VDB)
27. November, digiS-Jahreskonferenz: Die Zukunft erinnert sich \u2013 Kulturerbe digital weiterdenken. Nachhaltig bewahren, offen teilen, Zuse-Institut Berlin (ZIB)
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Unter dem Leitmotiv der diesj\u00e4hrigen digiS-Konferenz \"Die Zukunft erinnert sich \u2013 Kulturerbe digital weiterdenken. Nachhaltig bewahren, offen teilen\" wollen wir aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven mit unseren G\u00e4sten diskutieren, welche digitalen Infrastrukturen es braucht, um Kulturdaten krisenfest zu machen und handlungsf\u00e4hig zu bleiben. Wie l\u00e4sst sich Digitalisierung in Institutionen nachhaltig umsetzen? Was bedeutet eine FAIRe und offene Bereitstellung von Daten? Welche Rolle k\u00f6nnen KI-Anwendungen f\u00fcr digitale Nachhaltigkeit und Resilienz spielen? Und welche Werkzeuge, Erfahrungen und Kooperationen stehen uns bereits heute zur Verf\u00fcgung, um uns verl\u00e4sslich und l\u00f6sungsorientiert durch die vielf\u00e4ltigen Herausforderungen des digitalen (Kulturdaten-)Lebens zu bringen?
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Termin: 27.11.10.2026, 10:00 bis 16:00 Uhr, Zuse-Institut Berlin, Takustr. 7, 14195 Berlin
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We don’t generally see PhD dissertations as an exciting genre to read, and that is wholly our loss. As the publishing landscape of academia is fast being homogenised, the thesis is one of the last places where we have a chance to see the unalloyed brilliance of up and coming researchers. Let me show you using three examples of remarkable theses I have come across in the past years.
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Unflattening by Nick Sousanis
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I didn’t know it was even possible to do a PhD dissertation in graphic novel style. And yet here we are. This is a mindblowing work that (my colleagues can attest) I keep raving about. From the back blurb:
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Nick Sousanis defies conventional forms of scholarly discourse to offer readers both a stunning work of graphic art and a serious inquiry into the ways humans construct knowledge. Unflattening is an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint. Weaving together diverse ways of seeing drawn from science, philosophy, art, literature, and mythology, it uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points.
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The title, “Unflattening” reads as a reference to the famous mathematical allegory by Abbott, Flatland: the two-dimensional world where one day A. Square is visited by a being from another dimension. Just as A. Square learns to “unflatten” his world as he gets to know the three-dimensional Sphere visiting him, so the readers of Sousanis’ work are invited to venture out of their conceptual comfort zones and explore a multiplicity of perspectives.
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(Update: Sousanis notes: “I came up with the word Unflattening early on, and in my planning, figured I should use Flatland – originally at the end, but moved up to front\u2026”)
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The published version of this work is a book to have lying around on your desk. It’s always a pleasure to leaf through and there’s always something new to discover.
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The equidistribution of … number fields, by Piper Harron
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The full title of this work is “The Equidistribution of Lattice Shapes of Rings of Integers of Cubic, Quartic, and Quintic Number Fields: an Artist’s Rendering”, and if this makes you glaze over, you should skip right to the prologue where it says:
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Respected research math is dominated by men of a certain attitude. Even allowing for individual variation, there is still a tendency towards an oppressive atmosphere, which is carefully maintained and even championed by those who find it conducive to success. As any good grad student would do, I tried to fit in, mathematically. I absorbed the atmosphere and took attitudes to heart. I was miserable, and on the verge of failure. The problem was not individuals, but a system of self-preservation that, from the outside, feels like a long string of betrayals, some big, some small, perpetrated by your only support system. When I physically removed myself from the situation, I did not know where I was or what to do. First thought: FREEDOM!!!! Second thought: but what about the others like me, who don't do math the \"right way\" but could still greatly contribute to the community? I combined those two thoughts and started from zero on my thesis. What resulted was a thesis written for those who do not feel that they are encouraged to be themselves
\nHarron 2016:1
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The whole thing is written in an irreverent, cool and clear writing style, smoothly segueing from “laysplaining” sections aimed at a general audience to more technical parts aimed at mathematicians. No wonder that Harron’s thesis went viral, winning coverage on Mathbabe, Scientific American and even getting its own Wikipedia article. Even for readers without the requisite background in mathematics, this thesis is a wonder to behold and a joy to read.
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Swarmpunk by Jonny Saunders
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Swarmpunk! The name alone is a reason to check it out \u2014 and be sure to have a look at the corresponding website. There are many things to admire about this thesis. Content-wise, it is hard to summarise (the mark of a good thesis to my mind). Here’s the author’s own attempt:
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Drawing from decades of digital infrastructural history within and beyond science, I will sketch a path by which we might build systems that empower, rather than control us. I will argue a better future for science is not utopian, nor solely dependent on funding and administrative agencies, but something we can organize ourselves. Woven together with my work in ill-defined phonetic categories and distributed experimental systems, I have written a love letter to the power of swarms: how by embracing heterogeneity and rough consensus we might make science more boisterous, creative, and human.
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I love the wide-ranging nature of this work all the more because the swarm metaphor does pull things together in a compelling way. Who would have thought that the neuroscience of phonetic categorization in mice could come together with a technical description of peer to peer protocols and trenchant critiques of academia’s infrastructural woes. And yet it all makes sense.
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The sheer breadth of topics covered evokes Bruno Latour’s sprawling Actor Network Theory framework and also shares a lot of insights with current approaches to collective intelligence (e.g., all intelligence is collective intelligence). What’s also impressive about this thesis is the way it combines a hard-hitting critique of the current state of academic workflows with concrete tools and constructive proposals to make things better. This makes it a truly excellent example of what Ivan Illich calls counterfoil research.
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And then I haven’t even discussed the type-setting (in lovely Tufte-style), the anarchist easter eggs (like figure captions that say “taken without permission”) and the sharp-witted writing throughout. Read this work and let it broaden your conceptions of how to build a better academia.
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Real life is gnarly
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Here’s another thing I love about these three theses: they all show something of the making process. They don’t present a fully polished surface; they have rough edges and that is entirely okay (especially for a thesis \u2014 but I think this holds in general for the scientific process).
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Sousanis’ Unflattening was revised for publication with Harvard University Press, so I imagine some of the loose ends have been tied up; but it includes, at the end, a set of sketches that document the very beginning of the work, dated to April 14, 2011. Why don’t more theses have this?
\n\n\n\nFirst idea map for Unflattening, April 14, 2011 (Sousanis 2015:194)\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, for Harron, working on the thesis had to find a place next to other momentous life events. In the Acknowledgements, there is a parenthetical aside “I would thank the children, but frankly, they’ve been no help.”. One reason for this is found on the opening page of Chapter 5: a cartoon of the author working on “THESIS (draft)” followed by a panel with an inset where the author says “OW”, and contractions start…
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Saunders’ Swarmpunk moves from work on phonetic categorization in mice to an unfinished chapter of musings on the topic of language games, and from there even more abruptly to work on a software infrastructure for scientific experimentation and collaboration (check out Autopilot). As they explain:
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I had intended to finish my dissertation with an experiment that was the next logical conclusion of the mouse model of phonetics, doing longitudinal mesoscopic calcium imaging of auditory cortex as the phonemes were being learned in order to model the changes in network activity. (…) It comes out of chronological order in the spring of 2021, after my work with Autopilot and a covid-induced awakening of the possibility of public engineering with the People's Ventilator Project[72]. I was restless and not ready to return to basic research while the world was still so broken, and so it was abandoned in favor of the last piece on digital infrastructure. Accordingly, it ends relatively abruptly, without satisfying conclusion. I include it here in its unfinished form, roughly edited, warts and all, as something I intend to pick up perhaps one day when basic science is more possible.
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And yet the end product is amazing. Perhaps precisely because of the abrupt transitions, it invites the reader to fill in the gaps, to create those conceptual linkages, to contribute the cognitive work that makes all of science a collective enterprise.
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More importantly, it reminds us that we are humans first and foremost, and science is a human enterprise in which the neat plans we may make can be greatly affected by real life events \u2014 as they should.
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A plea for serendipity
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Dissertations like these may be rare. But they exist. And by existing, they show that true creativity is still alive in academia. For me personally, this kind of work strengthens my convinction that as supervisors, we need to be serious about ideas and open-minded about form and content. (Perhaps this is why I have always liked my PhD student’s Gwilym Lockwood’s mad MS-Paint skills \u2014 and the Harron-like irreverent style of the opening pages of his 2017 PhD.)
\n\n\n\n\nOMG so vivid: MS Paint visual summary\n\n\n\nOpening lines of Lockwiod dissertation\n\n\n\n\n
Today’s PhD projects tend to be considerably less free-form than even 5 or 10 years ago. Today we ask graduate students to write full-blown project proposals, force them to specify their planning in gantt charts, and herd them through series of checkpoints. I understand why this is done, and that it is helpful to some. But I cannot ignore that it is also a machinery for control, arising from management processes built towards verification, certification, and standardization. It is, at base, a stark form of risk-aversion.
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But here is the thing about science: it thrives on serendipity. If all risks had been averted and all processes duly followed, it is unlikely that we would have seen these three mindblowing dissertations. Here’s to an academia with room for serendipity!
Harron, P. A. (2016). The Equidistribution of Lattice Shapes of Rings of Integers of Cubic, Quartic, and Quintic Number Fields: An Artist's Rendering (PhD thesis, Princeton University) https://www.theliberatedmathematician.com/thesis/
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Saunders, J. L. (2022). Swarmpunk: Rough Consensus and Running Code in Brains, Machines and Society (PhD dissertation, University of Oregon) https://jon-e.net/dissertation/
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Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
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\n\n\n\n","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/1xe81-vdk14","guid":"https://ideophone.org/?p=5918","image":"https://ideophone.org/files/swarmpunk-card.png","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1675987200,"reference":[{"id":"https://www.theliberatedmathematician.com/thesis/","unstructured":"Harron, P. A. (2016). The Equidistribution of Lattice Shapes of Rings of Integers of Cubic, Quartic, and Quintic Number Fields: An Artist's Rendering (PhD thesis, Princeton University)"},{"id":"https://jon-e.net/dissertation/","unstructured":"Saunders, J. (2022, August 5). Swarmpunk: A Dissertation. Swarmpunk: A Dissertation. Swarmpunk: A Dissertation."},{"unstructured":"Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press."}],"rid":"8jhf6-cna81","summary":"We don't generally see PhD dissertations as an exciting genre to read, and that is wholly our loss. As the publishing landscape of academia is fast being homogenised, the thesis is one of the last places where we have a chance to see the unalloyed brilliance of up and coming researchers. Let me show you using three examples of remarkable theses I have come across in the past years.","tags":["Academia","Most Read","Writing","Mostread"],"title":"Mindblowing dissertations","updated_at":1791963009,"url":"https://ideophone.org/mindblowing-dissertations/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/046ak2485","name":"Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Fischer","given":"Georg","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-5759"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2","created":1694476800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oaberlin","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oaberlin","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Research Blog Berlin","updated":1791962624,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Open Research Blog Berlin","blog_slug":"oaberlin","content_html":"
Ein Gastbeitrag des Open-Access-Teams der TU Berlin
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Auch in diesem Jahr haben wir vom Open-Access-Team wieder Forschende der TU Berlin gefragt: \"Wie halten sie es mit Open Access?\" Und wir freuen uns, vier Gespr\u00e4che hier im Open Research Blog Berlin ver\u00f6ffentlichen zu k\u00f6nnen.
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Den Anfang macht in diesem Jahr Prof. Mario Birkholz, studierter Physiker und einer der Leiter des von der TU Berlin und dem Leibniz-Institut f\u00fcr innovative Mikroelektronik (IHP) gegr\u00fcndete Joint Lab Bioelectronics. Er spricht sich klar daf\u00fcr aus, dass die Ergebnisse der \u00f6ffentlich finanzierten Forschung frei zug\u00e4nglich sein sollten.
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Universit\u00e4tsbibliothek der TU Berlin: Open Access ist ein strategisches Ziel der TU Berlin und der BUA. Wie sieht das in Ihrem Forschungsalltag aus? In welchen Kontexten nehmen Sie Diskussionen zu Open Access wahr?\u00a0
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Mario Birkholz:\u00a0Es besteht ein allgemeiner Konsens, dass die in Forschung an der TU Berlin erarbeiteten Forschungsergebnisse der \u00d6ffentlichkeit zug\u00e4nglich gemacht werden m\u00fcssen \u2013 \u00f6ffentliches Geld, \u00f6ffentliches Gut.
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Open Access hat den offenen Zugang zu wissenschaftlicher Information zum Ziel. Sie haben k\u00fcrzlich daf\u00fcr gesorgt, dass Artikel, die zuvor beim Verlag nur f\u00fcr Abonnierende zug\u00e4nglich waren (closed access), \u00fcber das TU-Repositorium auch frei zug\u00e4nglich sind. Was hat Sie dazu motiviert?
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Heutzutage verh\u00e4lt es sich meist so, dass die Arbeit von Wissenschaffenden in irgendeiner Form eine Bedeutung f\u00fcr die Gesellschaft hat. Andere Forschung wird kaum noch gef\u00f6rdert. Unter diesen Rahmenbedingungen ist klar, dass auch ein gesellschaftliches Interesse besteht, die Arbeitsergebnisse in die \u00d6ffentlichkeit zu vermitteln.
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Gab es bereits konkrete Situationen in Ihrem Forschungsalltag, in denen Open Access hilfreich war?
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An Unis und Forschungsinstituten besteht meist eine gute Versorgung mit Fachliteratur. Es kommt aber immer wieder vor, dass man auf Publikationen zugreifen m\u00f6chte, die nicht Open Access verf\u00fcgbar sind. Letztlich bewirkt das aber nur eine Verz\u00f6gerung, weil man doch Mittel und Wege findet, sich die Literatur zu beschaffen.
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Damit eine fl\u00e4chendeckende Umstellung zu Open Access gelingen kann, sind \u00c4nderungen in ganz verschiedenen Bereichen erforderlich \u2013 u.a. Finanzierungsstrukturen, Kriterien der Forschungsbewertung und Berufungsverfahren, Ausbau von alternativen Publikationsangeboten, Governance von Publikationsorganen… Welche Aspekte sollte die TU Ihrer Meinung nach in den n\u00e4chsten Jahren priorisieren?
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Ich engagiere mich vor allem daf\u00fcr, dass wir die Kommunikation im Bereich der sozialen Medien umbauen. Zurzeit werden meist Apps benutzt, die die Zustimmung zu ellenlangen AGBs erfordern, die kein Mensch liest und man den Betreibern damit erlaubt, pers\u00f6nliche Daten vom Handy abzugreifen. Und es werden dort permanent Werbung und Meldungen ausgespielt, die einen gar nicht interessieren. Es gibt f\u00fcr die Wissenschaft viel geeignetere Plattformen wie Mastodon und PeerTube. Die fl\u00e4chendeckende Umstellung zu Open Access wird auch damit verbunden sein, den Einsatz von Mastodon und PeerTube auszubauen und sich von den kommerziellen, nicht-Open-Access-Medien zur\u00fcckzuziehen.
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Kurz und knapp in einem Satz: Was finden Sie gut an Open Access?
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Open Access hei\u00dft freier Zugang, und der muss zu Forschungsergebnissen m\u00f6glich sein, die mit Steuergeld finanziert wurden.
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Geben Sie uns zum Abschluss einen Einblick in Ihr Forschungsfeld f\u00fcr Disziplinfremde. Mit welchen Fragen und Erkenntnissen besch\u00e4ftigen Sie sich?
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In der Bioelektronik besch\u00e4ftigen wir uns mit den elektrischen Ph\u00e4nomenen in Lebewesen wie auch mit der technischen Nutzung von Mikroelektronik in biologischen Umgebungen. Durch die kontinuierliche Miniaturisierung elektronischer Systeme in den letzten Jahrzehnten sind heutzutage faszinierende Anwendungen von Implantaten und Wearables m\u00f6glich geworden \u2013 die allerdings aus ethischer Sicht auch bedenklich sein k\u00f6nnen.
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\u00dcber den Interviewpartner \n\nMario Birkholz schreibt \u00fcber sich: \"Ich bin studierter Physiker und habe mich aber schon immer f\u00fcr Biologie und lebende Systeme interessiert. Bioelektronik machen zu k\u00f6nnen, war deshalb f\u00fcr mich sehr erf\u00fcllend. Sorgen bereiten mir die zunehmende Spaltung der Gesellschaft in Arm und Reich und die immer gr\u00f6\u00dfere Macht der Digitalkonzerne.\"
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Das Gespr\u00e4ch ist Teil einer Interview-Reihe zur j\u00e4hrlich stattfindenden OA-Week. Weitere Interviews aus dieser Reihe \u2013 auch aus fr\u00fcheren Jahren \u2013 finden sich hier.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/1tsjf-brz28","guid":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/?p=4372","image":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/files/2026/10/OA-Week-2026-Mario-Birkholz-DIN-A1-quer-klein-1024x726.png","language":"de","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"a6wer-29c16","summary":"Ein Gastbeitrag des Open-Access-Teams der TU Berlin Auch in diesem Jahr haben wir vom Open-Access-Team wieder Forschende der TU Berlin gefragt: \"Wie halten sie es mit Open Access?\" Und wir freuen uns, vier Gespr\u00e4che hier im Open Research Blog Berlin ver\u00f6ffentlichen zu k\u00f6nnen. Den Anfang macht in diesem Jahr Prof. Mario Birkholz, studierter Physiker und \u2026 \"Mario Birkholz im Interview: \"\u00d6ffentliches Geld, \u00f6ffentliches Gut!","tags":["Allgemein","OAWeek","Interview","OAWeek-Interview","Mario Birkholz"],"title":"Mario Birkholz im Interview: \"\u00d6ffentliches Geld, \u00f6ffentliches Gut! Forschungsergebnisse der TU Berlin m\u00fcssen der \u00d6ffentlichkeit zug\u00e4nglich gemacht werden.\"","updated_at":1791963009,"url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/2026/10/14/mario-birkholz-im-interview-oaweek/","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Gilliam","given":"Eric"}],"blog":{"authors":[{"name":"Eric Gilliam"}],"community_id":"bde6b3e1-a527-4823-81b8-b803908bb948","created":1780876800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"I want to help people start historically great labs. Operational histories on history's best R&D orgs.","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/freaktakes","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/bde6b3e1-a527-4823-81b8-b803908bb948/logo","feed_format":"application/rss+xml","feed_url":"https://www.freaktakes.com/feed","filter":null,"generator":"Substack","home_page_url":"https://www.freaktakes.com","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":null,"slug":"freaktakes","status":"active","subfield":"1207","title":"FreakTakes","updated":1791887511,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"FreakTakes","blog_slug":"freaktakes","content_html":"
I'm long overdue in giving you all an update on the BBN Fund. In short: progress is strong. For those who haven't been following along, BBNs are R&D organizations that pursue an ambitious, North Star technical vision, funded by a mix of contracts and grants. Think interactive computing in the late 1950s, autonomous vehicles in the 1980s, or driving the cost of proteins down to 1/1000th the cost of what it is today. If it sounds hard to (a) find researcher-founders talented enough to do such work, and (b) find customers or funders with the technical ambition to fund such big swings, it can be. But over the past 20 months, the young and growing BBN community has proven that they can make it happen on a pretty reliable basis.
A more robust update will follow in a future piece, but below are a few highlights:
The UK's Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) has doubled our cohort size for the BBN launchpad partnership this coming year, enabling our program to support eight ARIA-relevant BBNs and deploy \u00a3800k+ across the cohort. According to public data, BBNs in the ARIA ecosystem have already brought in ~$20\u2013$30 million in aligned, ambitious contracts. This is up from ~$10 million earlier this year, when Janelle Tam and I launched the BBN Fund.
Coefficient Giving has generously given us a $700k grant to continue to find ways to build more BBNs in the modern era.1 This grant marks the first time we can directly fund non-ARIA BBNs, while also covering general operating costs. As discussed in our piece announcing the BBN Fund, we intend to stretch this money exceptionally far through a combination of revenue-sharing agreements, low-interest loans, and grants. We expect that every dollar spent by the fund \u2014 whether on our salaries or deployed directly to BBNs \u2014 will help bring in ~10X the amount spent in contracts and grants. That's been true of our work so far.
Help Wanted: Technical Scouts
We've been doing all of this with an obvious bottleneck: we lack a team of scientific scouts. I have a cadre of world-class, creative technical people I go to for advice (Niko McCarty, Adam Marblestone, ARIA program directors, Ales Flidr, etc.), and I'm helpful in my own way \u2014 I understand BBN founders' technical visions, have some useful contract ideas, and am serviceable at making connections in certain areas \u2014 but I'm an org structures guy, not a true scientist or engineer. I'm looking for technical scouts with the strange and wonderful spark that will take us to the next level.2
The task is, in a nutshell:
Find modern J.C.R. Lickliders who, under the right circumstances, could found BBNs as impactful as the one that built the ARPAnet
Find ambitious, aligned funders and customers who can enable the work
In any area where you have both, if you connect those two dots, we have a BBN. Connect five pairs of dots a year, and that's a pretty fantastic year. Connect ten, and you might be on the way to becoming one of the most important people in the R&D community. I will continue to do everything I can to connect dots myself, but I'd like to become Plan B.
To do this job, I'm looking for technical obsessives. Specifically, people who:
Fiendishly keep up with relatively broad chunks of the academic literature
Find it fun to befriend as many up-and-coming, applied, ambitious scientists as they can
Know who is up to what, from R&D funders to academic labs
Have a crystal-clear sense of what types of work academic labs and VC-funded startups do and don't do, and have a clear sense of where their work is insufficient
Have brains for practical organizational details \u2014 philanthropic funding processes, how biotech contract staging works, the rudiments of equipment procurement, etc.
Essentially, I'm looking for somebody who already does most of what this job entails for the love of the game.
We just raised money from Fulcrum Science to seed our technical scouting capacity. We are open to solving the scouting problem with one full-timer or several part-timers. I'm flexible on the type of person and how we structure the arrangement. Proposed time commitments could range from two hours a month to full-time. A conviction I've developed while obsessing over the history and modern practicalities of building great things in the cracks of the R&D ecosystem is that many great technical minds are underemployed. Some people have exceptional technical knowledge, but don't care to make individual projects their monomaniacal obsession, as academics often must. They might not want to manage people, as deep tech CEOs must. They might find the shape of projects that come through the doors of VC firms a bit technically dull.What I need is for you to be obsessed with finding modern-day Lickliders and the people who might fund them.
If our interests are aligned, I'd like to unleash you. The work arrangement can be shaped to fit the person applying. Excellence at the job at hand is the only thing I will be uncompromising on.
Potential customers or funders that might be ideal funding sources for those BBNs
Specific individuals well-suited to founding these orgs3
And feel free to ask me any questions, too.
The original BBN's founders \u2014 Bolt & Beranek, MIT professors \u2014 took pride in \"only making hires that raised the average competence level of the firm.\" This approach brought them great minds like John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, and a young Fisher Black (of Black-Scholes fame) as part-time firm collaborators. And it brought them J.C.R. Licklider as a full-timer, who built out the firm's computing efforts from scratch. They understood that to build something like a technology-maximizing firm, nothing was more valuable than practical individuals with the \"strange and wonderful creative spark that makes a good researcher.\" When the firm found that in a person, they went out of their way to build something together.
I look forward to hearing from those of you who reach out. And if this is your first exposure to this work, which I'm so romantic about, the grand project of enabling modern-day J.C.R. Lickliders to build their life's work within BBN-like orgs, rather than shoehorning their best ideas into VC-shaped boxes, welcome:) I encourage you to check out any of the pieces below, and send me the best ideas and people that come to mind as you read.
This is a reference to Warren Weaver's modest quote noting that he \"lacked that strange and wonderful creative spark that makes a good researcher.\" That spark is what we hope for in some of our technical scouts. This is, first and foremost, an ideas job.
As a reminder, a complete BBN idea consists of a North Star technical vision, some base of revenue that will fund the work, a founder, and a reasonable story on why that individual can recruit the great minds needed to move the field forward with the resources available to them.
","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/006hx-0b920","guid":"220103017","image":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/7ec6cef8-aae4-4f87-ad99-9f696899511a_1191x794.jpeg","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"kc44z-f8h48","summary":"I'm long overdue in giving you all an update on the BBN Fund. In short: progress is strong. For those who haven't been following along, BBNs are R&D organizations that pursue an ambitious, North Star technical vision, funded by a mix of contracts and grants. Think interactive computing in the late 1950s, autonomous vehicles in the 1980s, or driving the cost of proteins down to 1/1000th the cost of what it is today.","title":"Help Wanted: Technical Scouts","updated_at":1791963007,"url":"https://www.freaktakes.com/p/help-wanted-technical-scouts","version":"v1"},{"authors":[{"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Visser","given":"Alnica"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"989c0e4f-140c-47ca-8db1-8490fb2e89d1","created":1780876800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":"British Society for the Philosophy of Science","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/thebsps","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/989c0e4f-140c-47ca-8db1-8490fb2e89d1/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://www.thebsps.org/feed/atom/","filter":"category:49","generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://www.thebsps.org/","issn":null,"language":"eng","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":null,"slug":"thebsps","status":"active","subfield":"1207","title":"BSPS","updated":1791563358,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"BSPS","blog_slug":"thebsps","content_html":"
Building on a treasure trove of previous work, Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis have produced a richly detailed and well-motivated resurrection of concept nativism and the rationalism\u2013empiricism debate. Their enormous book is segmented into four almost self-standing parts. I'll discuss some of the merits of each in the order that they appear, before closing with some general remarks about the reach and promise of the book as a whole.
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Given that the book argues for a particular version of concept nativism, it may come as a surprise that concepts and their purported nativism are not actually addressed in much detail until about a third of the way into the book. But the long setup in part 1 is useful and important. For nearly 200 pages, Laurence and Margolis argue that too many theorists have construed the debate between rationalism and empiricism as something either silly or settled (in favour of empiricism). In particular, they argue that the debate fails to reduce to any overly simplistic genetics-versus-environment dichotomy, or any other outdated variation on the nature\u2013nurture debate. At the same time, they hold that the debate is not resolved by any straightforwardly empiricist form of interactionism, which they regard instead as an uncontroversial truism. Carefully rejecting and debunking many versions of this general attitude, Laurence and Margolis instead argue that we should reframe the debate in terms of our psychological acquisition base, from which all further psychological traits are acquired.
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According to Laurence and Margolis, empiricists posit a sparse base with very few starting elements, perhaps only some low-level attentional biases, some basic sensory-motor representations, and some domain-general learning mechanisms. Experience must provide the rest. Rationalists, by contrast, posit a rich base, stocked with abstract representational structures, along with several domain-specific learning mechanisms to acquire more. Experience is still involved, but the mind comes much more prepared than empiricists allow. So, on this construal, rationalists and empiricists disagree on the elements of our psychological 'starter pack', but they agree on its role: the base elements enter into psychological processes that draw on experiential inputs to produce further psychological traits, but these elements are not themselves products of such processes. They are acquired in some other, non-psychological manner. In this way, then, Laurence and Margolis provide a construal of the debate that renders it substantive, unsettled, and ripe for empirical testing.
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One of the most important contributions in this first part is the claim that concept nativism is compatible with learning concepts. According to Laurence and Margolis, concept nativism need not be committed to the existence of any innate concepts. According to their construal of rationalism, concept nativism is compatible with concept learning, as long as the concepts are acquired via a characteristically rationalist learning mechanism. This follows from the fact that the acquisition base might include non-psychologically acquired mechanisms as well as non-psychologically acquired representational structures. In particular, the base might include domain-specific learning mechanisms, which enable the acquisition of representations in only one particular content domain (or several closely related domains). Thus, if our base is stocked with a learning mechanism specifically geared towards the acquisition of spatial representations, for example, then the resulting spatial concepts would be learned rather than innate, and yet the account of their origin would still be rationalist.
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Critics and sceptics might worry that Laurence and Margolis's re-construal of the debate makes it much too easy to be a rationalist: one needn't even be committed to any innate representations! Indeed, in the course of setting up their re-construal, Laurence and Margolis even develop a rather interesting account of abstraction that is compatible with their brand of rationalism. And yet, the re-construal is well motivated and extraordinarily detailed. It offers both rationalists and empiricists of all sorts a well-developed framework in which to build and dispute specific proposals about the psychologically basic elements from which all further psychological traits flow. And despite the focus on the acquisition of concepts among humans, the framework easily lends itself to theorizing the acquisition of psychological traits of all sorts among a great variety of cognizing creatures. In this respect alone, the book offers an extraordinarily rich launching point for theorizing mentality at large.
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According to Laurence and Margolis, a large variety of human concepts across a large variety of content domains are most plausibly acquired by domain-specific learning mechanisms that trace back to our psychological acquisition base, and some are even among the representational structures included in the base. The focus in part 2 is thus on detailing the many fascinating empirical findings that appear best explained by their version of concept nativism.
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Laurence and Margolis distinguish and illustrate seven versions of their argument to the best explanation, arguing that concept nativism is best positioned to explain many remarkable findings concerning the early abilities of infants and toddlers, analogous abilities in a wide variety of animals, cross-cultural findings (including cross-cultural variations), neurological findings (including cases of moderate plasticity), apparent ease of learning and corresponding difficulty in unlearning, the need for initial representational access in order to learn anything further about a domain, and various unexpected 'quirks' that cannot be explained within empiricist frameworks.
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In each case, the data are fascinating and highly suggestive. Taken as a whole, the data are also impressively broad. Over the course of almost 200 pages, Laurence and Margolis present in rich and highly accessible detail many different studies and findings that concern various abstract content domains (including logic, quantity, geometry, causality, modality, purpose, distance, and time), as well as some natural domains (including food, animals, biological motion, danger, disgust, and death), and several more human and social contents (including faces, beliefs, emotions, language, and social categorization).
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One of the major strengths of part 2 is the extent to which the seven arguments overlap and reinforce one another. Consider, for example, just one of the above examples: the ability to attribute beliefs to others. Over the course of their discussion, Laurence and Margolis show that infants as young as six-months old can pass non-traditional false-belief tasks, which minimize the processing burdens of more traditional tasks; that the ability to mentalize is present in many different cultures, including those non-WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) cultures that specifically withhold attributing mental states to others, such as the Yasawan in Melanesia and the South Pacific; that the ability is not at all impaired among people with congenital blindness, who lack visual access to the facial and bodily expressions that serve as significant perceptual cues for the mental states of others; and yet the ability appears absent, or significantly impaired, in many people diagnosed with some versions of autism spectrum disorder. Most suggestive is the fact that the ability to mentalize appears to be all but impossible to acquire without some initial representational 'foothold'. Without some pre-existing sense of mentality, it's hard to see how an empiricist learner could possibly bridge the gap between merely perceiving the behaviour of others and attributing imperceptible causally potent inner states to them. This one example thus illustrates aspects of the arguments from early development, cultural universality, neural wiring, and initial representational access.
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Mental states are just one of many content domains that rationalists and empiricists can disagree on. The real contribution in this part is thus the articulation of the seven argument forms. In each case, the argument is well illustrated by very suggestive data, but each might also be enriched and strengthened (or undermined) by future empirical work. Laurence and Margolis have thus provided empirical researchers an invaluable roadmap for future studies.
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In order to bolster their rationalist account of concepts and their acquisition, Laurence and Margolis turn in part 3 to discussing and then rejecting several prominent empiricist accounts of concept learning. Laurence and Margolis mostly focus on the same content domains for which they have provided a rationalist explanation in part 2, but offer a few new cases to further enrich the empirical detail of their arguments. The discussion of socio-moral cognition, in the context of neo-associationism, and of physical formidability, in the context of embodied cognition, are especially intriguing. Once again, the data are presented in rich accessible detail, and the conclusions drawn against empiricism are well motivated.
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In some cases, Laurence and Margolis simply argue that the target empiricist framework has misconstrued the rationalist position, or misinterpreted the relevant data. In other cases, however, they argue that the supposedly empiricist framework is quite compatible with rationalism. In particular, they argue that both neural network models and embodied cognition frameworks, long associated with empiricist accounts, can be incorporated into rationalist theories such as their own. Indeed, they maintain that the accounts become more plausible, and more aligned with the empirical work that support them, once stripped of their empiricist presuppositions. Thus, neural network models are shown to be more amenable to the data on human cognition once we allow the initial state of a network to include richer initial representational inputs or connection weights that pre-dispose the model to certain outputs over others (or both). And theories that centre embodied cognition are shown to be quite plausible once we allow that the tight interplay between body and environment is sometimes better understood as a biological adaptation, rather than something that is experientially acquired through domain-general learning.
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Despite their negative conclusions, Laurence and Margolis provide an excellent reconstruction of prominent empiricist accounts and what they have to contribute to our understanding of concept learning. Once again, both empiricists and rationalists of all sorts have much to gain by engaging with the careful discussion of the empirical details and the theoretical lessons that Laurence and Margolis draw.
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Having spent almost 500 pages showing that many concepts can indeed be learned, albeit via rationalist learning mechanisms, Laurence and Margolis close the book in part 4 by detailing their objections to Fodor's lifelong rejection of concept learning and the consequent 'radical' version of concept nativism, using this part to also articulate the true extent of their comparatively moderate account.
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They begin by reconstructing the subtleties of how Fodor's position changed over the course of his writings on the subject, indicating several weaknesses in his reasoning along the way. Here, they focus especially on his claims concerning hypothesis testing, showing that it is neither impossibly circular nor the only way a concept can be learned.
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Most important for concept theorists is their discussion of the 'acquisition by composition' model of concept learning, according to which complex concepts can be learned only by a composition of simpler concepts. On pain of regress, the model implies the existence of some set of basic concepts, simple and innate, from which all other concepts are composed. Against this model, Laurence and Margolis detail several alternative modes of concept learning, often relying on the idea of a concept 'template': a schematic representational structure that can be saturated by experiential learning. Thus, an animal template might be saturated by perceptual encounters with animals in the local environment, allowing Australians to learn concepts for koalas and kangaroos, and Southern Africans to learn concepts for klipspringers and kudus, without composing them from simpler innate concepts.
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Most notable, of course, is the fact that such perceptual learnings, particular to experiences in local environments, are rationalist, since the learning mechanisms involve innate representational structures specifically geared towards the acquisition of concepts in a particular domain. Once again, then, sceptics might worry that Laurence and Margolis have stretched the notion of 'rationalism' beyond recognition.
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This impression is bolstered by Laurence and Margolis's further claim in this part that virtually every concept will be at least minimally rationalist on their account. As an illustration, they note the fact that if our concept of 'object' is innate\u2014or acquired by some rationalist mechanism, as seems quite likely\u2014and if it is part of the acquisition of all further object concepts, then all those latter concepts would trace back, in part, to the concept of 'object'. And this means that the acquisition account for each of these concepts must be rationalist too, at least to this extent.
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Of course, in very many cases, Laurence and Margolis hold that the acquisition story is more robustly rationalist than this, but it does create the impression that in making room for a more moderate rationalism, distinct from Fodor's radical version, Laurence and Margolis have ruled out correspondingly moderate forms of empiricism. Then again, perhaps such 'minimal rationalism' is compatible with a moderate concept empiricism. In this case, their re-construal offers concept theorists of every allegiance a way to explore more hybrid, in-between accounts of concept learning, incorporating elements from both characteristically empiricist and characteristically rationalist approaches, in whatever combination best captures the current data.
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Taken as a whole, the book is an extraordinary achievement. It is accessible enough to introduce novices to many important aspects of the overall debate, with wonderfully suggestive examples, useful historical overviews, and generous reconstructions of many different theoretical approaches. At the same time, Laurence and Margolis have provided a robust starting point for further theoretical and empirical work, paving the way for experts across philosophy and the cognitive sciences to further deepen our understanding of the origins of our conceptual capacities. Despite being rooted in a centuries-old debate, there is much more work to be done.
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Alnica Visser \nTexas Christian University \nalnica.visser@gmail.com
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Thumbnail-De-Brigard-on-Piccinini-2.png?fit=398%2C280&ssl=1\n\t\t\t\t\t 280\n\t\t\t\t\t 398\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\tThe BJPS\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t http://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/BSPS-blue.gif\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t The BJPS2026-10-06 06:00:272026-10-02 17:47:34Gualtiero Piccinini, Neurocognitive Foundations of the Mind Reviewed by Felipe De Brigard
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Thumbnail-Bondarenko.png?fit=398%2C280&ssl=1\n\t\t\t\t\t 280\n\t\t\t\t\t 398\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\tThe BJPS\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t http://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/BSPS-blue.gif\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t The BJPS2026-06-17 07:00:192026-06-24 16:32:03Antonine Nicoglou, Plasticity in the Life Sciences Reviewed by Olesya Bondarenko
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","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/yd9jq-r8c58","guid":"https://www.thebsps.org/?p=15144","image":"https://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Thumbnail-Visser.png","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791936000,"rid":"3gsgy-xyj29","summary":"Home STEPHEN LAURENCE & ERIC MARGOLIS THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THOUGHT REVIEWED BY Alnica Visser The Building Blocks of Thought Stephen Laurence &","tags":["BJPS Review Of Books"],"title":"Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis, The Building Blocks of Thought Reviewed","updated_at":1791957668,"url":"https://www.thebsps.org/reviewofbooks/visser-on-laurence-margolis/","version":"v1"}],"out_of":57800,"page":1,"per_page":10,"total-results":57800}
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","doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/wkhx2-yfh44","guid":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76683","image":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/randj.webp","language":"en","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","published_at":1791849600,"rid":"tsnbv-x9v44","summary":"The thing about Romeo and Juliet is that it is a true story. It isn't literally true, but it is literary true. We see the same motif repeated throughout all cultures and all times. Caroline Lea (writing as Caroline Finch) asks an important question - what if every pair of star-cross'd lovers were reincarnations of the original Verona duo?","tags":["/etc/","Book Review","NetGalley","Shakespeare"],"title":"Book Review: The Thousand Deaths of Romeo and Juliet - Caroline Finch","updated_at":1791963012,"url":"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-thousand-deaths-of-romeo-and-juliet-caroline-finch/","version":"v1"}},{"document":{"authors":[{"affiliation":[{"id":"https://ror.org/046ak2485","name":"Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin"}],"contributor_roles":[],"family":"Fischer","given":"Georg","url":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5620-5759"}],"blog":{"authors":null,"community_id":"52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2","created":1694476800,"current_feed_url":null,"description":null,"doi":"https://doi.org/10.59350/oaberlin","favicon":"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/communities/52aefd81-f405-4349-b080-754395a5d8b2/logo","feed_format":"application/atom+xml","feed_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin/feed/atom/","filter":null,"generator":"WordPress","home_page_url":"https://blogs.fu-berlin.de/open-research-berlin","issn":null,"language":"deu","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","prefix":"10.59350","relative_url":null,"secure":true,"slug":"oaberlin","status":"active","subfield":"1802","title":"Open Research Blog Berlin","updated":1791962624,"use_api":true},"blog_name":"Open Research Blog Berlin","blog_slug":"oaberlin","content_html":"![\"\"](\"//ideophone.org/files/image-59.png\")
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![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Thumbnail-De-Brigard-on-Piccinini-2.png?resize=398%2C280&ssl=1\")
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Thumbnail-De-Brigard-on-Piccinini-2.png?fit=398%2C280&ssl=1\n\t\t\t\t\t 280\n\t\t\t\t\t 398\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\tThe BJPS\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t http://www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/BSPS-blue.gif\n\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t The BJPS2026-10-06 06:00:272026-10-02 17:47:34Gualtiero Piccinini, Neurocognitive Foundations of the Mind![\"\"](\"https://i0.wp.com/www.thebsps.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Thumbnail-OMadagain.png?resize=398%2C280&ssl=1\")
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