Doing science for the government:
You may already have seen this at Absinthe or Zuska's -- if so, consider this post a friendly nudge to move beyond your good intentions toward action. Kay Weber, who is pursuing a lawsuit against Fermilab for (the details of...
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Posted on April 7, 2008 2:19 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A bunch of other bloggers are discussing the recent statement A Broken Pipeline? Flat Funding of the NIH Puts a Generation of Science at Risk (PDF). I thought I'd say something about the complexities of the situation, and about why...
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Posted on March 12, 2008 1:35 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Science matters. It's hard to make good decisions in today's world that aren't somehow informed by sound science -- especially if you're the head of state of a country like the USA. This means that it's important to know...
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Posted on December 10, 2007 2:00 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The November 5, 2007 issue of Chemical & Engineering News has an editorial by Rudy M. Baum [UPDATE: notbehind a paywall; apparently all the editorials are freely accessible online] looking at the "Google model" for disseminating information. Baum writes:...
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Posted on November 15, 2007 3:25 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Fifty years ago today, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, Earth's first artificial satellite. I don't remember it (because I wouldn't be born for another decade), but the "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" heard 'round the world left indelible traces on...
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Posted on October 4, 2007 12:48 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Three reasons I think PRISM's plans to "save" scientists and the public from Open Access are a bad idea.
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Posted on August 29, 2007 4:40 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
As a quick follow-up to yesterday's post about the suit filed against UCSF, I thought I'd point out some resources relevant to the federal regulations (in the U.S.) governing the use of animals in scientific research. These are the regulations...
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Posted on August 1, 2007 12:46 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Today a number of doctors affiliated with the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed suit against the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) alleging that state funds are paying for research that violates the Animal Welfare Act. Among...
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Posted on July 31, 2007 8:58 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the July 16 issue of Chemical & Engineering News (secure behind a paywall), the article "FBI Reaches Out to Campuses" [1] caught my attention. The gist of it is that academic scientists are increasingly the targets of foreign espionage,...
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Posted on July 24, 2007 5:05 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When I was growing up in New Jersey, hurricanes were "on the radar" for us, one of many possible (if infrequent) weather patterns during summer and fall. Later, in my first semester of college in Massachusetts, the morning of my...
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Posted on July 19, 2007 2:46 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Perhaps you heard Steve Inskeep's interview with NASA administrator Michael Griffin on Morning Edition this morning. Perhaps you also are trying to tease out the logical consequences of this statement he made about climate change: I have no doubt that...
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Posted on May 31, 2007 12:07 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My recent post on the feasibility (or not) of professionalizing peer review, and of trying to make replication of new results part of the process, prompted quite a discussion in the comments. Lots of people noted that replication is hard...
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Posted on May 16, 2007 5:35 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A Lewis Black interview points out pitfalls common to drama and science.
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Posted on February 19, 2007 6:43 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In a guest-post at Asymptotia, Sabine Hossenfelder suggests some really good reasons for scientists to communicate with non-scientists -- and not just to say, "Give us more research funding and we'll give you an even smaller iPod." She really gets...
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Posted on February 4, 2007 12:30 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Abi at nanopolitan nudged me to have a look at Nature's recent article on what has become of targets of recent scientific fraud investigations. He notes that, interspersed with a whole bunch of poster boys for how not to do...
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Posted on January 25, 2007 5:27 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We (and 90% of everyone else in the vicinity of Washington, D.C.) went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum yesterday. The crowds notwithstanding, it was a pretty good time. But a close inspection of the Apollo program exhibit...
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Posted on December 28, 2006 10:40 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Janet D. Stemwedel (whose nom de blog is Dr. Free-Ride) is an assistant 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.
