I work on a range of topics spanning philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, and ethical issues in the life sciences.
Here are some of my publications, organised by topic. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like me to send you anything that’s behind a paywall.
microbiology and microbiome research
2023 Going big by going small: trade-offs in microbiome explanations of cancer (with Anya Plutynski). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 97: 101–110.
2021 Trivial, interesting, or overselling? The microbiome and ‘what it means to be human’. BioScience 71(6): 658–663.
2020 Philosophy of microbiology (with Maureen O’Malley). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2020 Microbiome causality: further reflections (a response to our commentators) (with Kate Lynch and Maureen O’Malley). Biology & Philosophy 35: 29. Response to commentaries on Lynch et al. 2019.
2019 How causal are microbiomes? A comparison with the Helicobacter pylori explanation of ulcers (with Kate Lynch and Maureen O’Malley). Biology & Philosophy 34: 62. Target Article published along with peer commentaries.
2018 A cautionary note for claims about the microbiome's impact on the "self" (with Brett Calcott and Maureen O’Malley). PLOS Biology 16(9): e2006654.
2018 Microbes, mathematics, and models (with Maureen O’Malley). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 72: 1–10.
2013 What could arsenic bacteria teach us about life? Biology & Philosophy 28(2): 205–218.
astrobiology and origins of life research
2023 Characterizing life: four dimensions and their relevance to origin of life research. In S Smoukov, J Seckbach & R Gordon (Eds.) Conflicting Models for the Origin of Life, pp. 33–51. Wiley-Scrivener. [preprint]
2023 Behaviour and the origin of organisms (with Matthew Egbert, Martin Hanczyc, Inman Harvey, Nathaniel Virgo, Tom Froese, Hiroki Sayama, Alexandra Penn, & Stuart Bartlett). Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 53: 87–112.
2020 Dimensions of life definitions. In K Smith & C Mariscal (Eds.), Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology, pp. 79–91. Oxford University Press. [preprint]
2022 Review of Carol Cleland’s The quest for a universal theory of life: searching for life as we don’t know it. Philosophy of Science 89(4): 872-875.
miscellaneous topics in (history and) philosophy of science
2025 Where is the organism concept? Agential accounts might help (with Rebecca Mann and Kate Lynch). American Journal of Bioethics, 25(9): 17–19.
2024 Against defending science: asking better questions about Indigenous knowledge and science (with Dan Hikuroa). Philosophy of Science, 91(5): 1210 - 1220.
2019 Striving for clarity about the “Lamarckian” nature of CRISPR-Cas systems (with Sam Woolley, David Kelley, Anthony Poole and Austen Ganley). Biology & Philosophy 34: 11.
2014 Flies from meat and wasps from trees: Reevaluating Francesco Redi's spontaneous generation experiments. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 45: 34–42.
scientific modelling and experiments
2020 What is the nature of theories and models in biology? (with Anya Plutynski). In K Kampourakis & T Uller (Eds.), Philosophy of science for biologists, pp. 55–78. Cambridge University Press.
2018 Microbes, mathematics, and models (with Maureen O’Malley). Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 72: 1–10.
2014 Experiments, simulations, and epistemic privilege. Philosophy of Science 81(4): 516–536.
Conservation SCIENCE AND PRACTICE
2019 Predator Free New Zealand: Social, cultural, and ethical challenges (with the BioHeritage Bioethics Panel) . Biological Heritage National Science Challenge Report. 26 pages.
2018 Ethical responsibilities in invasion biology (with James Russell). The Ecological Citizen 2(1): 17–19.
ethical issues in synthetic biology
2009 Social and ethical checkpoints for bottom-up synthetic biology, or protocells (with Mark Bedau, Uwe Tangen and Brigitte Hantsche-Tangen). Systems and Synthetic Biology 3: 65–75.
2009 The ethics of protocells: Moral and social implications of creating life in the laboratory (co-edited with Mark Bedau). MIT Press.
public philosophy
2022 What is the most important thing a scientist needs? The Conversation, 23 February.
2021 Let’s choose our words more carefully when discussing mātauranga Māori and science (with Dan Hikuroa). The Conversation, 4 August.
You can also find me on Google Scholar and PhilPapers.