Research Summary 2005 Our primary research focus in 2005 has been on genetics and genomics, continuing work from Prof. Griffiths' previous research at the University of Pittsburgh with Co-PI Dr Karola Stotz. The 1st Queensland Biohumanities Conference, 'The Conceptual Impact of the Genomic Revolution' brought leading philosophers and historians of genetics together with scientists from the IMB and other UQ research institutes to discuss the impact of recent advances on the meanings of 'gene', 'genome', and 'genetic'. Another focus is the role and nature of classification in biology. Scientific debates over biological classification touch on many philosophical subjects, including historical reconstruction, natural kinds, essentialism, philosophy of mind and language, theories in biological science, and epistemology. Dr John Wilkins' project is to investigate how classification in biology extends beyond the particular sub-discipline, such as taxonomy, ecology or molecular biology, and what this has to teach us about classification in other sciences. A third focus is the history and current state of research into the evolution of behaviour, with a particular focus on the concept on innateness and on theories of emotion. Prof. Mark Colyvan from the School of History , Philosophy, Religion and Classics worked full-time with the project in first semester 2006 on a program of research in the methodological and conceptual foundations of ecology, before his departure for the University of Sydney. Current Research projects The concept of the gene and the role of conceptual change in science Concepts of information in contemporary bioscience Evidence and Uncertainty in Ecology Classification in taxonomy, molecular biology, and ecology (philosophical and historical perspectives) Vernacular and scientific conceptions of innate behavior How do developmental and evolutionary explanations of emotion mutually constrain and illuminate one another? Sample Publications Griffiths, P. E., and R. D. Gray. 2004. The developmental systems perspective: Organism-environment systems as units of evolution. In K. Preston and M. Pigliucci (eds.), The Evolutionary Biology of Complex Phenotypes, pp. 409-431. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York . Griffiths, P. E. 2004. Instinct in the '50s: The British Reception of Konrad Lorenz's Theory of Instinctive Behaviour. Biology and Philosophy, 19:609-631. Ginzburg, L., and M. Colyvan. 2004. Ecological Orbits: How planets move and populations grow. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York . Stotz, K., P. E. Griffiths, and R. Knight. 2004. How scientists conceptualise genes: An empirical study. Studies in History & Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 35:647-673. Wilkins, J. 2003 "How to Be a Chaste Species Pluralist-Realist: The Origins of Species Modes and the Synapomorphic Species Concept." Biology and Philosophy 18: 621-638. Wilkins, J., and W. R. Elsberry. 2001 "The Advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance." Biology and Philosophy 16: 711-724. For more information and links to publications see individual staff pages