This post describes a new PhD project being offered for 2022 through the University of Edinburgh's Earth, Ecology and Environment doctoral training programme (E4 DTP), funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The final application deadline is January 6th, 2022, but interested candidates should contact me in good time for a discussion about their … Continue reading New PhD Opportunity in Edinburgh: Stromatolites and their Impostors
New collaboration: philosophy of astrobiology
This post is about a new Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant led by Peter Vickers at Durham, which I am participating in as a co-investigator. Job adverts for a three-year funded PhD student and two-year funded postdoc to follow! Astrobiology blends planetary science, astronomy, and biology, and shares their methods. But compared to scientists working … Continue reading New collaboration: philosophy of astrobiology
Astrobiology before “astrobiologists”: a potted history
Astrobiologists aim to work out how life fits into the wider universe, uniting biology with the planetary and space sciences to draw a unified picture of the cosmos and our place in it. This ambition is, of course, far older than the discipline itself. A 1748 engraving of an astronomy lecture. [Source] The atomist philosopher … Continue reading Astrobiology before “astrobiologists”: a potted history
Sean McMahon 