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
September 19, 2008
The elder Free-Ride offspring drew this lovely rat in a thought-bubble. The critter who is dreaming of an encounter with this rat is revealed below.
Technical note:
I'm sure some eagle-eyed (owl-eyed?) readers will have noticed that I uploaded this drawing from a digital photograph. For some…
September 19, 2008
As I mentioned yesterday, the elder Free-Ride offspring will be participating in the school science fair this year. Last night at the dinner table, the Free-Ride family started brainstorming project ideas.
Elder offspring: I was thinking about seeing how well plants grow in different kinds of…
September 18, 2008
Back in June, I wrote a post examining the Hellinga retractions. That post, which drew upon the Chemical & Engineering News article by Celia Henry Arnaud (May 5, 2008) [1], focused on the ways scientists engage with each other's work in the published literature, and how they engage with each…
September 18, 2008
The elder Free-Ride offspring, having entered fourth grade this year, will be participating in the school science fair in the spring. The elder Free-Ride offspring is very enthusiastic about the whole science fair thing.
Meanwhile, I'm having a very hard time.
I'm very committed to the idea that…
September 17, 2008
There's a neat article [1] in the September-October 2008 issue of American Scientist (although sadly, this particular article seems not to be online) in which Brian Hayes discusses the Monty Hall problem and people's strong resistance to the official solution to it.
Now, folks like Jason have…
September 17, 2008
Not the financial market, but the market for highly trained folks in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In particular, why do people keep talking about the need for a larger talent pool in STEM when so many Ph.D.s and postdocs are having a rough time finding permanent…
September 16, 2008
In a post last week, I mentioned a set of standards put forward by Carol Henry (a consultant and former vice president for industry performance programs at the American Chemistry Council), who says they would improve the credibility of industry-funded research.
But why does industry-funded research…
September 16, 2008
... but the questions that they were answering!
Regular readers will know (from these posts, among others) that I think the extent to which presidential candidates have gotten right with science (or with reliable advisers on same) is important information for voters to have.
Indeed, I was hoping to…
September 12, 2008
Reader hp asks:
Do you (or your commenters) know what to look out for in a small-child-friendly telescope? My daughter (now aged 4.5) has been space-obsessed for over a year now, and I'd like to encourage her but am nervous of spending a lot of money on the wrong thing.
For those of you who look…
September 12, 2008
Last night as we sat down to eat, a spider scuttled out from under Dr. Free-Ride's better half's napkin.
Younger offspring: Spider! Where'd it go? Where'd it go?
Dr. Free-Ride: I think it's hiding under that serving plate.
Younger offspring: I don't want a spider in our food!
Elder offspring: The…
September 10, 2008
Since it's been a while, I thought it was time for another update on the plant denizens of our raised garden beds which we planted back in July.
The first thing to note is that, to a first approximation, the automatic drip irrigation system we set up to water the beds works reasonably well. There…
September 10, 2008
In the August 25, 2008 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, there's an interview with Carol Henry (behind a paywall). Henry is a consultant who used to be vice president for industry performance programs at the American Chemistry Council (ACC). In the course of the interview, Henry laid out…
September 9, 2008
Sean assesses his familiarity with the Omnivore's Hundred. I thought about playing along, but it's pretty meaty, while my diet is not so much. However, Sean was kind enough to post a link to the Vegetarian's Hundred, a list of one hundred vegetarian food items everyone should try at least once…
September 9, 2008
If you make your way to this blog by way of the ScienceBlogs homepage, you may have noticed the "Comments" ticker clicking ever closer to 1,000,000. Our benevolent overlords at Seed Media Group have decided that crossing the millionth comment mark is cause for celebration, and they would like to…
September 9, 2008
While other ScienceBlogs bloggers (notably Revere and Orac) post periodically on the state of the scientific evidence with regard to whether cell phones have biological effects on those using them, I've mostly followed the discussion from the sidelines. Possibly this is because I'm a tremendous…
September 8, 2008
After a longer than anticipated delay, here are the answers to the circus animal poop identification challenge from back in August.
While there are some handy flowcharts and poop identification picture on the web, I haven't yet found such a guide for African or Asian wildlife. Since many, if not…
September 8, 2008
Back in July, Science ran an interesting news article about an on again, off again clinical trial of chelation therapy in the treatment of autistic children. I found the story fascinating because it highlights some of the challenges in setting up ethical research with human subjects -- not to…
September 5, 2008
OK, I don't actually believe in earthquake weather, but it was really hot today and the house just shook. (I could see the shaking as well as feel it.)
I'm going to check what others are reporting to the USGS. Be right back.
UPDATE: So far, it seems to be a magnitude 4 or so -- a wee temblor.…
September 5, 2008
In a comment on another post, Blatnoi asks for my take on a recent news item in Nature:
An Italian-led research group's closely held data have been outed by paparazzi physicists, who photographed conference slides and then used the data in their own publications.
For weeks, the physics community…
September 5, 2008
In which we become acquainted with one aspect of the classroom culture in the younger Free-Ride offspring's second grade.
Younger offspring: In my class, we earn ten play cents for coming to school on time, and I earned sixty play cents for bringing back those signed forms, and for bringing in my…
September 3, 2008
The sprogs were beside themselves with excitement yesterday on the eve of the first day of a new school year. Will this excitement persist? Will the first homework assignments deflate it? It remains to be seen.
The "Yay! We get to go to school tomorrow!" mood extended to our divvying up of the…
August 29, 2008
Today is "Twin Day" on the last day of daycamp before the new school year.
Of course, the younger Free-Ride offspring was very enthusiastic about the idea of dressing like twins with the elder Free-Ride offspring. The elder Free-Ride offspring, on the other hand ...
"People already get us mixed up…
August 22, 2008
Yesterday, the Free-Ride family visited Circus World. It was a full day, and we're still working on digesting the experience, but there were some animal performers that made an impression, including dogs, a pony, a camel, and an elephant.
This put us in mind of our visit with Bora last July to…
August 22, 2008
The nature walk in question happened mere hours ago, at Kettle Moraine State Forest (Southern Unit), where we had occasion to notice that the local conditions support a much larger population of flying (and biting) insects than the Free-Ride family is accustomed to.
Younger offspring: What happens…
August 18, 2008
The Free-Ride family is spending a week communing with Free-Ride forebears on neutral turf in Wisconsin. Internet access is spotty, so while I have access to the tubes, a few quick observations:
It's really green here in August. Back in our part of California, it's never this green unless you're…
August 15, 2008
Thanks to longtime friend of the Free-Rides LO, the elder Free-Ride offspring will be participating in Kids Day @ SLAC, 2008 today.
Of course, the younger Free-Ride offspring is chagrined to be two years too young to participate as well. "You know, I'm about to start second grade, and I'm going…
August 12, 2008
As a follow-up to my last post, it looks like I should offer a more detailed explanation of why exactly scientific activity is a group activity -- not simply as a matter of convenience, but as a matter of necessity. Helen E. Longino has already made this case very persuasively in her book Science…
August 12, 2008
Chad Orzel takes a commenter to task for fetishizing peer review:
Saying that only peer-reviewed articles (or peer-reviewable articles) count as science only reinforces the already pervasive notion that science is something beyond the reach of "normal" people. In essence, it's saying that only…
August 8, 2008
One afternoon, the Free-Ride offspring were in the mood for some spur of the moment experimentation.
So, we cleared the kitchen table, rummaged through the cupboards, and came up with a plan.
The question we decided to investigate:
What happens to different dry ingredients when you add water to…
August 7, 2008
The state of the seedlings in my raised beds, nearly three weeks after the seeds were sown:
Look at those happy scarlet runner beans! Soon I'm going to have to give them some help climbing up that fence.
The bush beans are also coming right along, as are the soy beans:
Indeed, we're getting…