Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, (...) and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously to a) counter the technology industry's marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. (shrink)

Since the advent of molecular biology, research in cell biology has been strongly focused on identifying specific genes and proteins responsible for cellular phenomena. However, it is increasingly recognized that the function of many biomolecules is highly variable and strongly context dependent, raising the question if starting from specific components is still the most productive way to understand cellular mechanisms. Advances in philosophy of biology have given rise to an alternative perspective known as process ontology, which poses that not objects (...) or molecules, but processes are the fundamental units of living systems. Hence, this perspective calls for a shift in focus from fixed components to collective dynamical modes. Process ontology is gaining popularity in biological theory, but remains challenging to integrate into scientific practice. Here, we assess the applicability of the process perspective in the context of a concrete biological system, namely polarization in budding yeast. We identify the core processes involved in yeast polarization at different timescales and examine how these processes affect our understanding of polarity, giving a novel outlook on the system. Using this case study, we demonstrate how the processual perspective evokes new kinds of scientific questions and provide concrete pointers for incorporating processual thought into cell biological research. (shrink)

In his The Symbolism of Evil Ricœur explores the dynamics of human consciousness of evil in different cultures and times. Consciousness of evil is examined by looking at the different prevailing symbols wherein human beings confess their experience with evil. Although appeared in 1960, this study is still cited in recent publications in psychology, cultural anthropology and religion. In this article I describe the context of The Symbolism of Evil as the last part of Ricœur’s study of the will and (...) give a summary of its relevant content. (shrink)