jstemwedel

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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.

Posts by this author

February 6, 2006
The other day I was chatting with a colleague about teaching ethics to science majors. This colleague teaches ethics to business majors and was, I think, surprised at my general optimism. Teaching ethics to business majors*, it seems, can be discouraging. As my colleague described it, the…
February 3, 2006
Yesterday was Groundhog's Day and Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. The elder Free-Ride offspring expressed concerns about the conclusion that we're in for six more weeks of winter: This is backwards! Seeing his shadow means it's sunny. Sunny means it's more like spring. I think seeing his…
January 31, 2006
These are the offerings for the semester starting February 1, 2006. Students are encouraged to sit in on a variety of classes during the "shopping" period. In addition to academic offerings, this listing includes programs in the residence halls and around campus. Remember that a sharp mind needs…
January 31, 2006
I'm hammering away at the next edition of Tangled Bank (going up tomorrow) -- plus, you know, teaching and stuff -- but I wanted to give you a little something to work on. From New Scientist: YOU could be forgiven for thinking that scientific fraud was in fashion. Weeks after the cloning superstar…
January 30, 2006
[I'm blogging on this at the request of my mom, who also requests that I try not to blog so blue.] As Chris, among others, has noted, there's a piece in the Washington Post about global warming. The piece includes an all-too-familiar feature: the government scientist (here James E. Hansen of NASA'…
January 29, 2006
Being identified as "pro-science" is pretty cool, given that some people get the idea (from my kvetching about ethics) that I'm against science. (I'm against sloppy or dishonest methodology masquerading as science, but that doesn't make me an enemy of science.) But that was about the only part of…
January 27, 2006
Today in the Chronicle of Higher Education there's a piece on Gerald Schatten's role in the Korean stem cell mess. It's an interesting piece, written without Dr. Schatten's participation -- he's keeping quiet while the University of Pittsburgh conducts its investigation of him. (Worth noting,…
January 27, 2006
Elder offspring (age 6.5): I can't wait for Friday! We get to do science in school! Younger offspring (age 4.5): We do nature study every day. Dr. Free-Ride: That's because you don't have standardized tests yet, or the science would get crowded out by all the other stuff on the test. Elder…
January 26, 2006
Today I had my first (non-virtual) class meetings of the spring semester. There's nothing like having every available seat filled and then having folks stream in to sit on the floor to make an academic feel popular. (Of course, in the past, a significant portion of those who have gotten add-codes…
January 25, 2006
In one short week (on February 1, 2006), there will be a new edition of the Tangled Bank, hosted here at Adventures in Ethics and Science. Tangled Bank is a blog carnival of the best science writing (broadly construed) in the blogosphere. In previous editions, topics have ranged across many…
January 24, 2006
Via Evolgen, an article by Nicholas Wade on tools to recognize doctored images that accompany scientific manuscripts. Perhaps because "seeing is believing," pictures (including visual presentations of data) have been a favored weapon in the scientist's persuasive arsenal. But this means, as we…
January 24, 2006
Every now and then, I take a moment to read my unsolicited commercial email before binning it. (Note to eMarketers: This moment is generally used to mock and deride the goods and/or services offered in the unsolicited commercial email. Take me off your stupid mailing lists!) The other day, I…
January 23, 2006
I'm excited to be one of the many fine nominees for the "Best New Blog" Koufax Award for 2005. Because I know you want to make an informed decision about your vote (or, you know, put off doing actual work for a little while), here's a quick tour of my posts back at the pre-ScienceBlogs location.…
January 22, 2006
Silly human nature, getting scientists into trouble. Until the robots are ready to take the reins of the scientific enterprise (and personally, I have my doubts that this is first item on the robots' to-do list), we're faced with the practical problem of figuring out how to keep human scientists…
January 20, 2006
(Based on actual events.) Younger offspring (age 4.5): (singing softly to self while arranging a line of nine grapes on breakfast plate) Nine planets, fine planets, in our solar system. Nine planets, fine planets, go ahead and list 'em ... * Elder offspring (age 6.5): You know, in school we…
January 19, 2006
Via Inside Higher Ed comes news that the Food and Drug Administration has changed its mind (do administrative bodies have "minds"?) about rules it recommended on how scientists get approval for their research projects from IRBs (institutional review boards). In particular, the rules were intended…
January 18, 2006
Longtime readers of the previous incarnation of this blog knew me as "Dr. Free-Ride". Most of them, however, never asked where that pseudonym came from. As it happens, the source of the pseudonym was a class discussion (in my "Ethics in Science" course) that, by its very liveliness, inspired me…
January 18, 2006
The commenters here at ScienceBlogs are da bomb! Just look at the insight they contributed to my previous post on fakery in science. Indeed, let's use some of that insight to see if we can get a little bit further on the matter of how to discourage scientists from making it up rather than, you…
January 17, 2006
Well, the new digs here at ScienceBlogs have thin walls (GrrlScientist, will you please turn down that stereo!), which means that sometimes we get sucked into the conversations our neighbors are having. And, almost as if this were the complex at Melrose Place (shut up!), a lot of us have been…
January 15, 2006
Thanks to all the commenters on the last post that raised, in a somewhat half-assed way, the question of what -- if anything -- we should make of the gender (im)balance of the pool of bloggers on the science beat. To paraphrase Homer Simpson, I'm not sure I have enough data and insight yet to use…
January 13, 2006
Regular blog readers are familiar with the rule of thumb that every three months or so there will be another outbreak of blog posts wondering where all the women are. Clancy at Culture Cat provides and extensive list of links to discussions of this question up to March 2005; I'm not sure this data…
January 12, 2006
While folks are often attentive to the harms scientists might do to other people (through unethical treatment of human subjects, or toxic dumping, or whatever), they seem not to worry so much about scientist-on-scientist cruelty. I'm not talking about having your boss in the lab force you to…
January 11, 2006
Because some of you may be new to "Adventures in Ethics and Science" (having found it by way of the high-powered company I'm keeping here at ScienceBlogs), and because a lot of the cool kids here are doin' it, I thought I'd give you a quick run-down of some of my archived posts. A few of these are…
January 11, 2006
Here in California, I had hoped we might be safe from the high school Intelligent Design follies playing out in other states. Turns out, not so much. Frazier Mountain High School in Lebec, California, part of the El Tejon Unified School District, offered a class called "Philosophy of Design" which…
January 10, 2006
An interesting piece of the Korean stem cell fiasco that escaped my notice the first time around is that the Korean investigative television program, "PD Notebook," that exposed the faking of photographs for the now-discredited Science article did so using techniques that violated journalistic…
January 9, 2006
Today, some news that makes me smile (and not that bitter, cynical smile): UCSF has announced that it has received full accreditation for its program to protect research participants from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP). This is a voluntary…
January 8, 2006
I received an email from a reader in response to my last post on PETA's exposing of problems with the treatment of research animals at UNC. The reader pointed me to the website of an organization concerned with the treatment of lab animals in the Research Triangle, www.serat-nc.org. And, she…
January 5, 2006
Since I'm in the blessed wee period between semesters, it's time to revisit some "old news" (i.e., stuff that I had to set aside in the end-of-semester crush). Today, a story from about a month ago, wherein the Rick Weiss of the Washington Post reports on the University of North Carolina's…
January 4, 2006
[Finally I'm actually healthy again, and not in a hotel charging $10 a day for internet access. So, on with the blog!] It must be a law of nature that when past and current graduate students dine together at the end of December the conversation turns, sooner or later, to cheaters. First, of…