Nicolae Morar

Nicolae Morar

@nmorar.bsky.social

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies & Philosophy, University of Oregon

311 followers511 following48 posts

Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

The Spain tour with Jacob Neal continues! We’re thrilled to be heading to Seville for another presentation at the Causation in Medicine conference.Really looking forward to a great conference ! philevents.org/event/show/1... #PhilosophyOfMedicine #Causation #Philosophy #Medicine #Seville

philevents.orgCausality and Causal Inference in MedicineInteractions between the philosophy of causality and investigations of inferential practices in the sciences, particularly medicine, have yielded key developments across disciplines. One such example ...
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

Does the gut microbiome cause mental disorders, or do we just tell causal stories about correlations? Jacob Neal & I present "Beyond correlation: rethinking causal inference in microbiome research," using anorexia nervosa as our case study.

Nicolae Morar reposted

Dr. Sue Ishaq
@drsueishaq.bsky.social

The Microbiome Stewardship special collection is open at Sustainable Microbiology! The Stewardship of Microbiomes in Human and Environmental Systems special collection is open at Sustainable Microbiology! The collection is led by senior editor, and principal investigator of the Microbiome…

sueishaqlab.orgThe Microbiome Stewardship special collection is open at Sustainable Microbiology!The Stewardship of Microbiomes in Human and Environmental Systems special collection is open at Sustainable Microbiology! The collection is led by senior editor, and principal investigator of the Microbiome Stewardship group, Dr. Kieran O’Doherty, and will feature invited contributions. Starting with the foundational framework paper, the collection establishes clear guiding principles, premises, core responsibilities, and case studies for preserving microbial biodiversity across diverse habitats.
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

Fresh in @AmJBioeth: Hatherley @ colleagues introduce the concept of federation opacity (FO)—a valuable framework for understanding the ethical challenges of federated learning beyond privacy alone. Our commentary discusses the epistemic & ethical uniqueness of FO! urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

urldefense.comFederated Learning is Still Machine Learning! Epistemic vs. Ethical Issues Common Across Medical ML ModelsPublished in The American Journal of Bioethics (Vol. 26, No. 8, 2026)
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

IABI (The International Academy for Bioethical Inquiry) is such a great community — scholars working across all kinds of topics, and this week we're at the beautiful Palazzola in Rome digging into the relationship between biology & culture. Love being part of it !

Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

One of the joys of collaboration is being pushed to think differently—to expand your imagination, reconsider your assumptions, and tell new stories… in our case about land, clay and genetic causation. That's what we tried to do in our new paper with Rebekah Sinclair. muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/artic...

Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

Somewhere in the quiet exchange between microbe and mind, memory takes shape — not carved alone, but woven by a community too small to see. @acabirol.bsky.social et al. show us that remembering may be a collective act, written in part by microbial hands. Deeply moved ! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.orgA defined community of core gut microbiota members promotes cognitive performance in honey bees | PNASGut microbiota across animals have been shown to influence host cognition and behavior. However, it remains unclear whether these cognitive effects...
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

Great piece by @kristymferraro.bsky.social and Ann C. Thresher in @pnas.org about why environmental scientists need ethics training more than ever before ! The reverse is also true... humanities folks would also benefit from additional training in environmental sciences. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.orgPNASProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

#microbiomes, #stewardship, #publichealth, #policy, #ecosystemhealth, #humanmicrobiome, #planetaryhealth, #OneHealth, #healthgovernance, #ecosystemgovernance, #ecologicaldeterminantsofhealth

Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

As Kieran O’Doherty said “this paper pushes the boundaries of inter- and transdisciplinary partnerships. No single author in our team could have done this by themselves – we really did need the expertise and perspectives of all of us to make this work.”

Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

@adrian-currie.bsky.social provides us a beautiful example of what a book review should look like: careful, generous, sharp... and fragile, which makes it worth reading ! Itching now to get to Robert Northcutt's Science for a Fragile World. ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/scie...

ndpr.nd.eduScience for a Fragile WorldMaybe the world is like an armillary sphere. Metallic balls representing celestial objects are placed just-so along spherical rings, tracing an at-first...
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

Got back to Eugene (OR) after an AMAZING one-year sabbatical in Barcelona… and my Swiss friend, Romain, took me - as a welcome back party - to see the stoner rock/ metal band from Sweden-#DOZER! They played a small venue but- OMG -they still played like there was no tomorrow… what a great band !

Nicolae Morar reposted

Microbiome research and race in the 'Local South'
@localmicrobes.bsky.social

The research group “Microbiome Researh and Race in ‘Local South’” investigates how categories of race and ethnicity are used in the production of local scientific knowledge in South Africa and Latin America Learn more about us here: www.uu.nl/en/research/... #hpbio 🦠🌱🐋@utrechthps

uu.nlMicrobiome Research and Race in the ‘Local South’How can scientists in human microbiome ecology adopt epistemically fruitful, non-discriminatory, and locally relevant classification criteria of human diversity and race?
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

What a great talk with Mike Travisano about evolutionary innovation and the origin of life, alongside amazing panelists Ken Waters and ‪@mrebolleda.bsky.social ! So happy to be at #ISHPSSB2025 !

Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

Beautiful piece by May R. Berenbaum, Editor-in-Chief @pnas.org , showing how the history of science/ biology can help us to understand our present time and its current challenges when it comes to political interference… www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.orgPNASProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
Nicolae Morar
@nmorar.bsky.social

And, the learning continues with #BCNMicrobiome - from emulsifier and chronic disease to immune signatures in HIV vaccine responses with Benoit Chassaing & Alessandra Borgognone !