Editorial board meeting of Biosemiotics attended in Sheffield

Today, during the fourth day of the 26th Gathering in biosemiotics, in Sheffield, UK, I attended the annual editorial board meeting of Biosemiotics.

Paper «Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life» presented at GiB26 in Sheffield, UK

Today, at the first day of the 26th Gathering in biosemiotics, which is held at the University of Sheffield, in Sheffield, UK July 27th to 31st, I have presented my paper «Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life» as part of the session «Ecological biosemiotics», which was chaired by Sara Cannizzaro. The presentation took place in the building The Wave and was attended by about 40 people.

«Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life» sheduled for presentation July 27th in Sheffield at GiB26

My paper «Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life» has been scheduled for oral presentation at the 26th Gathering in biosemiotics, which is to be held July 27–31st at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, on Monday July 27th at 14.30–15.00 as part of the session «Ecological biosemiotics».

"Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life" accepted for presentation at Sheffield Gathering of Biosemiotics

I have been informed by the organizers of the 26th Annual Gathering in Biosemiotics that my paper "Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life" has been accepted for oral presentation.

Abstract for 26th Gathering in biosemiotics: "Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life"

I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which will be held in Sheffield, UK, July July 27-31st.

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Life in Earth – a new look at the nature of life  

Morten Tønnessen  

The global survey of biomass by Bar-On, Phillips and Milo (2018) has shown that subterranean life occurs at far greater depths, and is more abundant, than previously assumed. Life in the marine deep subsurface, i.e., subterranean life under the oceans, is actually more abundant than life in the oceans (ibid., see also Ruff et al. 2024). The existence of microbial, fungal and animal subterranean lifeforms raises ethical and political questions about the consequences of human activities in the marine deep subsurface and other subterranean environments.

As Dunn (2021) narrates, human beings are biased towards the organisms that look the most like us and inhabit a similar environment, while we habitually ignore the majority of odd and unfamiliar lifeforms. We know relatively little about the life that dwells in deep-sea environments – and even less about life in the deep subsurface. As is well known, photosynthesis is the dominant source of oxygen for most organisms. However, recent research documenting the assembly of ‘dark oxygen’ in deep-sea environments in the Pacific Ocean has revealed that photosynthesis is not the only source of oxygen on Earth (Sweatman et al. 2024). A further source appears to be ‘geo-batteries’ related to seawater electrolysis in seafloor areas covered by polymetallic nodules, i.e. multimetallic lumps. This discovery might change our outlook on how life has developed, and particularly our understanding of life in deep-sea and seafloor environments.

Recent research has further established that subseafloor cavities beneath hydrothermal vents are inhabited not only by microbes and viruses, but also by animals such as tubeworms and mussels (Bright, Gollner et al. 2024). Three tubeworm species included in the study of Bright, Gollner et al. (2024) uniquely rely entirely on a bacterial symbiont, which in turn “live off the chemicals released by the vents” for nutrition (The Economist, 2024). These tubeworms living in a subsurface environment below the seabed do not rely on nutrition originating from the surface – and ultimately photosynthesis drawn from energy from the sun – but rather on nutrients originating from deep inside Earth. This recent discovery of animal habitats in the subseafloor “expands the known macrofaunal biosphere” to new depths that was entirely unknown until a couple of years ago (Bright, Gollner et al. 2024: 2).

Based on these recent scientific findings, I will briefly discuss these core questions: To the best of our current knowledge, what is the full range of liveable environments on Earth, and the full spectrum of lifeforms on Earth? How do these discoveries change our outlook on the lifeworlds and biosemiosis of animals and other organisms, and how can they inform our efforts to develop more representative lifeworld models in biosemiotics?  

REFERENCES 

Bar-On, Y. M., R. Phillips and R. Milo (2018). The biomass distribution on Earth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 115 (25): 6506–11. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711842115. Includes Supplementary Information Appendix, https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1711842115#supplementary-materials. 

Bright, M., S. Gollner et al. (2024), ‘Animal life in the shallow subseafloor crust at deep-sea hydrothermal vents’, Nature Communications, 15: 8466. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52631-9 

Dunn, Rob (2021). A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us About the Destiny of the Human Species. Basic Books. 

The Economist (2024), ‘Life finds a way: Tubeworms live beneath the planetary crust around deep-sea vents’. Available online: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/10/16/tubeworms-live-beneath-the-planetary-crust-around-deep-sea-vents 

Ruff, S. E. et al. (2024), ‘A global comparison of surface and subsurface microbiomes reveals large-scale biodiversity gradients, and a marine-terrestrial divide’, Science Advances, 10 (51): eadq0645. 

Sweatman, A. K. et al. (2024), ‘Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor’, Nature Geoscience, 17: 737–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01480-8

Joint abstract for 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics: "Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy"

Jonathan Beever and I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organisers of the 26th Gathering in Biosemiotics, which will be held in Sheffield, UK, July July 27-31st.

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Ecosemiotics and Environmental Philosophy

This presentation examines ecosemiotics´ relation to environmental philosophy: how has it interwoven with other approaches, and how can it support the future of environmental philosophy? We argue that ecosemiotics’ fundamental relationality offers both strong parallels to and novel perspectives on environmental phenomenology, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and ethics, articulating how ecosemiotics can respond to contemporary debates in environmental philosophy. Ecosemiotics’ novel Peircean and Uexküllian representationalism acts as a thread running through environmental philosophical traditions. Researchers have advanced relational perspectives in environmental ethics deeply informed by ecosemiotics, like Beever and Tønnessen, who argue – for example – that accounts of intrinsic value in nature can be strengthened by appeals to biosemiotics accounts of life-worlds. Key figures in environmental philosophy have cited ecosemiotic figures directly, like Merleau-Ponty’s references to Uexküll that anticipate the emergence of ecophenomenology in environmental philosophy. Other contemporary figures have developed ecosemiotic positions in traditional environmental philosophical areas in order to offer novel and more robust articulations, like Tønnessen’s Uexküllian reading of phenomenology, that pursues Merleau-Ponty and the late Husserl along biosemiotic lines. In this presentation, we draw attention to these threads throughout enviornmental philosophy, and anticipate the possibility of a John Deely-esque project of weaving semiotic threads together in environmental philosophy to fundamentally reorient perceptions of the field and to resolve some old tensions (like around disputes on the metaphysics of deep ecology, concerns about deprioritizing human value, and under-evidenced claims about environmental capacities) with the introduction of an empirically-grounded science of signs and meaning-in-environments. Not only does such a project support ongoing research in environmental philosophy, it can furthermore reshape pedagogical approaches to the field, opening space for a re-telling of the history of environmental philosophy that is grounded in the study of signs. Our presentation will conclude with a foray into the possibility of semiosis of artificial agents and its implications for extensions in environmental philosophy beyond mere «natural» environments.

Faculty leadership group gathering in Brighton attended

For the last three days I have been in Brighton, UK, attending my first UiS Faculty of social sciences leadership group gathering abroad - which are held twice a year.

Lecture on climate change by David F. Hendry attended

Tonight I attended a lecture titled "Climate change: Past, present and future" given by the British economist David F. Hendry of INET, Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford University (who is cited some 40.000 times on Google Scholar´s account). The lecture was very informative on certain points - for instance, I learned that UK´s carbon dioxide emmissions per capita was as high around 1860 as it was around 1975 (the second peak in UK history), and that carbon dioxide emissions per capital stock has gone down some 90 % in both the UK and US since its peak by that measure. 

The lecture was arranged by the Oxford Martin School.

Travel complications for Brighton staff trip

Our return from England to Norway last Friday did not happen quite as planned. Our bus broke down a 15 minutes drive from Gatwick. Taxis were ordered, but took so long to get there, apparently due to miscommunication, that we (meaning a group of 14 I was in) did not get to the airport in time for our flight to Stavanger. We ended up staying the night at Holliday Inn Gatwick, and the next morning I joined the taxi to Heathrow along with the others before flying, on my own, to Kristiansand via Amsterdam.

See also:

Staff trip to Brighton attended

Staff trip to Brighton attended

From Wednesday until today I have attended the staff trip of University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies to Brighton, UK, close to London. The program has included a workshop (the one I attended addressed research profile and external funding), discussions about the master in social studies, ongoing review of the bachelors in social work and child welfare, presentations of the PhD scholars´ work, and (a satisfying) dinner last night at Browns Brasserie.

Descartes paper scheduled for presentation at 14th Gathering in biosemiotics (London)

My forthcoming presentation "Descartes’ dualisms and the epistemology of biosemiotics", to be given at the 14th Gathering in Biosemiotics (London June 30 - July 4), has been scheduled for presentation on Thursday July 3rd at 12.10-12.50, in a session chaired by Jesper Hoffmeyer and also including a presentation by John Deely.

See also:

Abstract for London gathering in biosemiotics: "Descartes’ dualisms and theepistemology of biosemiotics"

Descartes paper accepted for presentation at 14th Gathering in biosemiotics (London)

Biosemiotics: Journal presentation and editorial board meeting scheduled at 14th Gathering in Biosemiotics

A presentation of the journal Biosemiotics has been scheduled to take place at the 14th International Gathering in Biosemiotics (London, June 30 - July 4th), on Thursday July 3rd from 2 pm. There will furthermore be a meeting of the editorial board the same afternoon, after the annual meeting of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS). I will play a role at both of these occasions, along with fellow Editors-in-Chief Alexei Sharov and Timo Maran, and also Izabela Witkowska, Springer's Associate Editor for Ecology and Conservation, who will be visiting the conference.

To chair session at 14th International Gathering in Biosemiotics, London

I have agreed to chair a session at the 14th International Gathering in Biosemiotics (London, June 30 - July 4th), on Tuesday July 1st from 11.30 to 12.50.