Janet D. Stemwedel
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.
jstemwedel
Posts by this author
April 26, 2006
A couple posts ago I posed these questions:
What do you want lay people to have as part of their store of scientific knowledge? What piece of scientific knowledge have you found especially useful, or would you like to have if you don't already?
Among other things, my query prompted this response…
April 26, 2006
Chemists can be quite a literary bunch. Consider Primo Levi. Carl Djerassi. And, of course, Nobel Prize - winning chemist Roald Hoffman. Below the fold, Hoffman's poem "An unusual state of matter":
In the beach sands of Kerala,
abraded from the gneiss, in the stream sands of North Carolina
one…
April 25, 2006
Over at Evolgen, RPM links to an article that lists ten "basic questions" to which ten different scientists think high school graduates should know the answers. (It was one question from each scientist, so it's unclear whether all ten would agree that they are the ten most important questions, or…
April 25, 2006
My favorite T-shirt says "I [heart] irony. It's a great shirt, because no one can be absolutely sure that I love irony. Maybe I'm ambivalent about irony and I'm wearing the shirt ... ironically. Despite what the Ethan Hawke character in Reality Bites may have said, irony is not as…
April 25, 2006
Poetry by Marianne Moore
I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this
fiddle.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers
in
it after all, a place for the genuine.
Hands that can grasp, eyes
that can dilate, hair that can rise…
April 24, 2006
Today at Inside Higher Education, an article identifies "The Real Science Ethics Issues". Which means, I suppose, you don't have to keep taking my word about what's an issue and what is not. The focus of the article is not on the flashier instances of fraud, but on more mundane stuff that may rot…
April 24, 2006
Seen at Afarensis and Evolgen. Yeah, it's another internet quiz, but it's science-y and the graphics are really cool.
The Vacuole You scored 43 Industriousness, 19 Centrality, and 26 Causticity!
You're the Vacuole!
Found mostly in plant cells, this is a most important organelle. You do a…
April 23, 2006
Over at Crooked Timber, John Quiggin lays into climate scientist Richard Lindzen. His post begins with reasons one might be inclined to take Lindzen's views seriously:
Unlike nearly all "sceptics", he's a real climate scientist who has done significant research on climate change, and, also unlike…
April 23, 2006
I saw it at Julie's. Below the fold is a list of 101 movies that the movie-intelligensia think you should have seen in order to have an intelligent discussion about film.
I have bolded the movies I have seen. As well (though I'm adding this part), I'm italicizing movies I have officially "seen"…
April 21, 2006
Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, did you learn any more science today?
Younger offspring: Yes! More dinosaur stuff.
Dr. Free-Ride: What kinds of dinosaur stuff?
Younger offspring: Stuff about dinosaurs with sharp, pointy teeth.
Dr. Free-Ride: Is there another song?
Younger offspring: Yeah, but I'm not ready to…
April 20, 2006
In response to some interesting discussions with my students, I'm gearing up for a longish post on plagiarism's place in the pantheon of scientific misconduct. To the extent that scientists can provide a clear definition of misconduct, it's usually FFP: fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism…
April 19, 2006
You may recall that a couple months ago the New York Times ran this piece on the habits of students who email their professors. Today, there's something of a follow-up at Inside Higher Ed. The upshot seems to be that being polite, and especially not assuming an overly-familiar tone towards one's…
April 18, 2006
One hundred years ago today, 18 April 1906, a major earthquake (estimated to be 7.9 on the richter scale) nearly destroyed the city of San Francisco and did some serious damage to other communities in the area. Here in the Bay Area, there are various commemorations of the event taking place, and…
April 17, 2006
I want to thank the many kind folks who submitted banners to my little contest. (Y'all are talented!) As you may have noticed, the winning entry is now gracing the blog.
The banner was designed by P.D. Magnus, who is not only a talented artist, but is also a fine philosopher of science (with his…
April 17, 2006
If this quiz is good enough for Tara, who am I to resist it? Especially since my eyes are no longer gummed shut.
The results from the culture below the fold.
What Disease Are You?
You Are Influenza!Also known as the flu, you are warm, nurturing, and make a great confidante. People admire you…
April 16, 2006
Perhaps when I said I was on the mend I was jumping the gun a little ...
Light seeps through closed lids
Awake, yet eyes won't openConjunctivitis.
April 15, 2006
I have not been well. Indeed, I had a few days where I was not fully convinced of my own humanity. (Also, I was having febrile "dreams" in HTML.)
I think I'm on the mend. However, I seem to be unable to crank out an actual blog entry. Rather, I'm coughing up language in 17 syllable chunks. The…
April 14, 2006
Kids love dinosaurs. It's one of those eternal truths. The elder Free-Ride offspring offers a list of nine cool things about dinosaurs and their ilk, while the younger Free-Ride offspring muses about the "meanness" of T. Rex. Plus, the best dinosaur handbook ever.
Cool dinosaur facts:
They were…
April 12, 2006
Carnival of Education #62 is now up at The Magic School Bus.
Go check it out. You might learn something.
April 11, 2006
In most cases, scientific disagreements are resolved in the labs, at conferences, or in exchanges in journals. Sometimes the disagreements are drawn out, sometimes feelings are hurt, but it hardly ever comes to a defamation suit.
Someone forgot to send John Lott the memo.
From the Chicago Tribune…
April 10, 2006
After the fall of humanity, when the hyperintelligent cockroaches are trying to reconstruct the ancient human practice of "commenting on a blog", this is the entry they will end up putting in the textbooks.
I disagree vehemently with the entry itself, but the comments come as close to the Platonic…
April 10, 2006
I finally saw The Constant Gardener this weekend.
If your aim is to conduct your drug trials ethically, do not conduct them like the drug trials portrayed in the movie. I could entertain questions on specific details, but the scenario is so black and white that I don't imagine you'd have any.
April 10, 2006
Stochastic, the Seed Blog has an interesting post this morning about Linus Pauling's "golden years" as a scientist. It's a good read, to which I only have a few thoughts to add.
First, to bring you up to speed on the story, here's an excerpt from the Stochastic post:
[Pauling] proposed that "…
April 8, 2006
Finally we had a weekend day (and evening) with no rain. So, my better half got me a new bag of mesquite charcoal, I took the wire brush to the Weber, and I officially greeted Spring by grilling our dinner.
Of course, while you're tending the grill, your mind sometimes wanders, and you end up…
April 8, 2006
Dear readers, if you frequent the other fine blogs here at ScienceBlogs, you will have noticed that a number of them have neat-looking banners. For example, look at Afarensis, or Evolgen, or Gene Expression, or Uncertain Principles, or Cognitive Daily. Check out the rotating cast of critters in…
April 7, 2006
Lately, I've been blogging a bit about science teaching. Most of my focus has been on teaching at the secondary level, but it turns out that there are issues to be tackled with science teaching at all levels, including the college level. You'd think, then, that when a scientist who has proven…
April 7, 2006
It's been raining here. A lot.
Elder offspring: Remember that huge mushroom we saw on the field after soccer practice?
Dr. Free-Ride: With all the rain we've been getting, we've been seeing a lot more mushrooms this spring.
Elder offspring: Rainbows, too.
Dr. Free-Ride: We should call Uncle…
April 6, 2006
I'm sure there's a thoughtful post that could be written logically connecting these points and shedding light on a "big picture" issue or two that needs to be tackled. However, I'm heading to class (to talk about the Strong Program in the sociology of science and return midterms), so I can't crank…
April 5, 2006
I'm a total sheep. Cool kids like Chris Clarke are making subversive Chevy Tahoe commercials, and I just couldn't help myself.
I made one too.
Please, before you rant up my comments, I fully believe that you are a responsible SUV driver. It's the irresponsible ones I encounter on my commute that…
April 5, 2006
You might think, from the title of this post, that I have a completely worked out answer to the question of how to improve science education in the U.S.
I don't.
But, I have some observations that bear on the question, and I think looking at them might help us move in the right direction.
This…