Ann-Sophie Barwich

Ann-Sophie Barwich is a philosopher and historian of science, with a specialization in biology and chemistry. Her research examines the current and past developments in olfactory research and the epistemic, empirical, and social factors that define ongoing science in laboratories studying olfaction. She is the author of Smellosophy: What the Nose Tells the Mind (Harvard University Press, 2020). Ann received her PhD from the Center for the Study of Life Sciences (Egenis) at the University of Exeter before taking on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research. She is an assistant professor at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she divides her time between the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine and the Cognitive Science Program.

Project Title

From the Air to the Brain: Laboratory Routines in Olfaction

Stuart Firestein
Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia University

Christopher Peacocke
Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University

Shiner, L.(2020). Art Scents-Exploring the Aesthetics of Smell and the Olfactory Arts
Perception, 2021

Imaging the Living Brain: An Argument for Ruthless Reductionism from Olfactory Neurobiology
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2021

Fashion Fades, Chanel No. 5 Remains: Epistemology Between Style and Technology
Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 2020

Smellosophy: What the Nose tells the Mind
Harvard University Press, 2020

What Makes a Discovery Successful? The Story of Linda Buck and the Olfactory Receptors
Cell, 2020

The Value of Failure in Science: The Story of Grandmother Cells in Neuroscience
Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2019

A Critique of Olfactory Objects
Frontiers in Psychology, 2019

How To Be Rational About Empirical Success in Ongoing Science: The Case of the Quantum Nose and its Critics
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 2018

Measuring the World: Olfaction as a Process Model of Perception
Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology, 2018

Is Captain Kirk a Natural Blonde?: Do X-ray Crystallographers Dream of Electron Clouds? Comparing Model-based Inferences in Science with Fiction
Thinking About Science, Reflecting on Art: Bringing Aesthetics and Philosophy of Science Together, 2017

The Manipulability of What? The History of G-protein Coupled Receptors
Biology & Philosophy, 2017

Up the Nose of the Beholder? Aesthetic Perception in Olfaction as a Decision-making Process
New Ideas in Psychology, 2017

Making Sense of Smell
The Philosophers' Magazine, 2016

What Is So Special About Smell? Olfaction as a Model System in Neurobiology
Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2016

Sensory Measurements: Coordination and Standardization
Biological Theory, 2015

Bending Molecules or Bending the Rules? The Application of Theoretical Models in Fragrance Chemistry
Perspectives on Science, 2015

A Sense So Rare: Measuring Olfactory Experiences and Making a Case for a Process Perspective on Sensory Perception
Biological Theory, 2014