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Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an associate professor of philosophy at San Jose State University. Before becoming a philosopher, she earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Email her at dr.freeride@gmail.com.
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Category: Communication
Abel and Orac and Isis have recently called attention to the flak Amy Wallace had been getting for her recent article in WIRED Magazine, "An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All". The flak Wallace has...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 11:43 AM • 38 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Communication
In a recent post, I issued an invitation: I am always up for a dialogue on the issue of our moral relation to animals and on the ethical use of animals in scientific research. If folks inclined towards the animal...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 8:01 PM • 44 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Methodology
Back before I was sucked into the vortex of paper-grading, an eagle-eyed Mattababy pointed me to a very interesting post by astronomer Mike Brown. Brown details his efforts to collaborate with another team of scientists who were working on the...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 2:35 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Astronomy/astrophysics
Over at Starts with a Bang, Ethan Siegel expressed exasperation that Nature and New Scientist are paying attention to (and lending too much credibility to) an astronomical theory Ethan views as a non-starter, Modified Netwonian Dynamics (or MOND): [W]hy is...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 3:46 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Ethical research
This, in turn, means that members of the public who strongly disagree with your stand may decide to track you down and let you know they disagree with you. Apparently, this may become an issue for those who signed the...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 7:33 PM • 260 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Communication
On my earlier post, "Dialogue, not debate", commenter dave c-h posed some interesting questions: Is there an ethical point at which engagement is functionally equivalent to assent? In other words, is there a point at which dialogue should be replaced...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 4:53 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Communication
At the end of last week, I made a quick trip to UCLA to visit with some researchers who, despite having been targets of violence and intimidation, are looking for ways to engage with the public about research with animals....
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 3:34 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Communication
As promised, I've been thinking about the details of Chandok v. Klessig. To recap, we have a case where a postdoc (Meena Chandok) generated some exciting scientific findings. She and her supervisor (Daniel F. Klessig), along with some coworkers, published...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 5:44 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academic integrity
This week the New York Times reported on the problem of drug company-sponsored ghostwriting of articles in the scientific literature: A growing body of evidence suggests that doctors at some of the nation's top medical schools have been attaching their...
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 8:58 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Communication
If journal policies and practices aren't aimed at helping scientists communicate important information with the scientific community, what are they aimed at doing?
Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 2:35 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
