Adventures in Ethics and Science

Announcing your findings (but not really).

Category: Astronomy/astrophysics

Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne Dalcanton describes a strategy for scientific communication that raises some interesting ethical issues: Suppose you (and perhaps a competing team) had an incredibly exciting discovery that you wrote up and submitted to Nature. Now suppose...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 3:38 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The mechanics of getting fooled: the multiple failures in the fraud of Jan Hendrik Schön.

Category: Misconduct

There's an interesting article in the Telegraph by Eugenie Samuel Reich looking back at the curious case of Jan Hendrik Schön. In the late '90s and early '00s, the Bell Labs physicist was producing a string of impressive discoveries --...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 1:17 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Friday Sprog Blogging: leverage.

Category: Kids and science

This morning, I came upon the younger Free-Ride playing a game. Younger offspring: I'm playing "launch the bear". Dr. Free-Ride: Oh, really?...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 12:02 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Data paparazzi.

How public are data in a conference presentation? And what happens if someone else gives them more exposure?

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 6:12 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Colleagues behaving badly: symmetry considerations.

Go to Cosmic Variance at once to read Julianne Dalcanton's musings on why spherical jerks (not the word she uses) are preferable to the asymmetric ones: No one is surprised when a known, calibrated asshole acts up. We all just...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 3:28 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Quantum mechanics for fourth graders.

In search of good reading (or viewing) on the quantum world for the grade school set.

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 2:12 PM • 24 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The women who taught me science.

Since March is Women's History Month, I thought it might be appropriate to recognize some women who were a part of my history -- namely, the women who taught me chemistry and physics. (This shouldn't be interpreted as a slight...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 4:10 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The line between chemistry and physics during the chemical revolution.

Following up on the earlier discussion here and at Chad's about the "fundamental difference" between chemistry and physics, I wanted to have a look at a historical moment that might provide some insight into the mood along the border between...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 11:03 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Drawing lines between chemistry and physics.

Over at Uncertain Principles, Chad Orzel tries to explain the fundamental difference between physics and chemistry: My take on this particular question is that there's a whole hierarchy of (sub)fields, based on what level of abstraction you work at. The...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 5:33 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Questions I have for Paul Davies after reading his NYT op-ed.

This New York Times op-ed, to be precise. My questions for Paul Davies can be boiled down to these two: What kinds of explanations, precisely, are you asking science to deliver to you? Just why do you think it is...

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Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel at 5:12 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks