[spsp-members] [PhilInBioMed Seminar] David Raubenheimer (Sydney), Beyond empiricism: the need for framing and philosophy in nutrition science

[Thomas Pradeu]

PhilInBioMed Seminar SeriesDavid Raubenheimer (University of Sydney,
Australia) (virtual)"Beyond empiricism: the need for framing and philosophy
in nutrition science"
November 22nd, 2023, 9am French time (UTC+1)

Detailed information on this event:
https://www.philinbiomed.org/event/david-raubenheimer/

David Raubenheimer
<https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/david-raubenheimer.html>
is
Leonard P. Ullman Chair in Nutritional Ecology at the Charles Perkins
Centre, the University of Sydney, and explores how animal biology interacts
with food environments via nutrition and the reciprocal influences of these
interactions on biology. David is one of the best experts on nutrition
internationally. David is a member of the PhilInBioMed Network
<https://www.philinbiomed.org/network/>.

The talk will be given on Zoom. If you'd like to attend, please contact Thomas
Pradeu <thomas.pradeu at u-bordeaux.fr>.

Abstract:

The global crisis of obesity and other forms of malnutrition has continued
to rise despite redoubled research effort and increasingly sophisticated
technology for collecting, curating, and interrogating research data. This
suggests nutrition science could benefit from fresh approaches to using
data and directing empirical research. Considering the range, complexity,
and interconnectedness of relevant factors, from chemistry and molecular
biology to psychology, economics, and many sociological issues, in this
talk I suggest more attention should be focussed on conceptual framing in
nutrition and its research. I discuss a framework from nutritional ecology
that draws on basic biological theory (ecology, evolution, and
homeostasis), and show how it provides a systems perspective for tackling
the complexity of nutrition. I illustrate its application, firstly, in
tightly controlled experimental studies of captive insects, which provide
confidence in causality, and thereafter in observational studies on wild
primates, which establish that the biological mechanisms are relevant in
ecological contexts. I next demonstrate how the findings from non-humans
have helped direct the application of the nutritional ecology framework in
human nutrition and led to a new understanding of obesity. Counter
intuitively, this model situates protein as the key “difference maker”,
rather than carbohydrates or fats. In the final section I show how the
protein-centred view has, in turn, helped integrate more broadly across
food systems, from biological signalling molecules to global
sustainability. Along the way, I show how this nutritional program contacts
issues relevant to philosophy, by raising questions that would benefit from
philosophical analysis or exposing fertile empirical grounds for developing
and testing questions of interest to philosophy.


Sincerely,

Thomas Pradeu
CNRS Research Director in Philosophy of Science
Immunology Unit ImmunoConcEpT, UMR5164, CNRS & University of Bordeaux
Presidential Fellow, Chapman University, CA, USA
Team Leader Conceptual Biology and Medicine Team
<https://immunoconcept.cnrs.fr/conceptual-biology-medicine/>
Coordinator of the Philosophy in Biology and Medicine Network
<https://www.philinbiomed.org/> (PhilInBioMed)
Université de Bordeaux
Bâtiment Bordeaux Biologie Santé, 3ème étage
2, rue Docteur Hoffman Martinot
33076 Bordeaux
& Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
<https://www.ihpst.cnrs.fr/en> Pantheon-Sorbonne University 13 rue du
Four, 75006 Paris, France
*Recent publications: *
- Reuniting philosophy and science to advance cancer research
<https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12971> (*Biological Reviews*, 2023)
- The origin of RNA interference: Adaptive or neutral evolution?
<https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001715> (*PLoS Biology* 2022)
- Cancer's second genome: Microbial cancer diagnostics and
redefining clonal evolution as a multispecies process
<https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202100252> (*BioEssays*, 2022)
- Redrawing therapeutic boundaries: microbiota and cancer
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trecan.2021.10.008> (*Trends in Cancer*, 2022)
- Philosophy in Science: Can philosophers of science permeate through
science and produce scientific knowledge?
<https://doi.org/10.1086/715518>(Forthcoming
in the *BJPS*).
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