Javier Suárez: Epistemic misalignments in microbiome research (with F. Boem)

Tuesday October 29 2024 @11:30 (CEST)
Sala B, Edificio de Humanidades, UNED & online

Abstract
We argue that microbiome research should be more reflective on the methods that it relies on to build its datasets due to the danger of facing a methodological problem which we call “epistemic misalignment.” An epistemic misalignment occurs when the method used to answer specific scientific questions does not track justified answers, due to the material constraints imposed by the very method. For example, relying on 16S rRNA to answer questions about the function of the microbiome generates epistemic misalignments, due to the different temporal scales that 16S rRNA provides information about and the temporal scales that are required to know about the functionality of some microorganisms. We show how some of these exist in contemporary microbiome science and urge microbiome scientists to take some measures to avoid them, as they may question the credibility of the field as a whole.

Bio
Javier Suárez is a philosopher of science, with special interest in the philosophy of the life sciences. He is currently a Lecturer at the Department of Philosophy, University of Oviedo (Spain), and also the PI of “X-Philes – An Exploration of the Philosophy of Lineages in the light of Contemporary Biology” (Ministry of Economy and Innovativeness, PID2022-137993NA-I00), and “On-ETTI – An Ontological Examination of the Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality” (Fundación BBVA, SV-23-FBBVA-1, Beca Leonardo).