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 4, 2007
Since scientist-on-scientist communication is a longstanding topic of interest in these parts, I wanted to point out a recent (August 13, 2007) article in Chemical & Engineering News (behind a paywall, but definitely worth locating a library with a subscription) that offers tips for writing…
September 4, 2007
My tenure dossier is due in 24 days.
My application for a sabbatical leave is due in 3 days.
Is it really possible to wrap your head around the possibility of a sabbatical, let alone map out the projects you might complete during such a leave, before the tenure dossier is wrapped up?
(Maybe they're…
August 31, 2007
On Stranger Fruit, there's a response by historian of science Naomi Oreskes to recent criticisms of her 2004 paper in Science discussing the consensus position regarding anthropogenic climate change. While the whole trajectory of these sorts of "engagements" is interesting in its way -- attacks on…
August 31, 2007
It has been noted before that the Free-Ride offspring have a fondness for LOLcats. (After all, what six- to eight-year-old wouldn't like LOLcats?)
But it turns out that even captioned kitties can be the impetus for a conversation about matters scientific.
Oh noes!
Younger offspring: That…
August 30, 2007
Dave Munger pointed me to an article in the New York Times that claims "switching to a plant-based diet does more to curb global warming than switching from an S.U.V. to a Camry."
Dave is a critical consumer of information and notes that there is little given in this particular article (which…
August 29, 2007
Even though I've been frightfully busy this week, I've been following the news about the launch of PRISM (Partnership for Research Integrity in Science & Medicine). I first saw it discussed in this post by Peter Suber, after which numerous ScienceBloggers piled on. If you have some time (and…
August 28, 2007
This is a follow-up, of a sort, to the previous post on why serious discussions (as opposed to shouting matches or PR campaigns) about the use of animals in research seem to be so difficult to have. One of the contentious issues that keeps coming up in the comments is how (if at all) such…
August 27, 2007
Lately it's struck me that when I post on the issue of research with animals, many of the comments I get on those posts see the issue as a black and white one. Mind you, these commenters don't always agree about whether it is the scientists or the animal rights activists who are on the side of the…
August 27, 2007
This is our third teaching day of the semester (which started last Thursday), so of course, WebCT's servers decided that it would be a good time to freak out. (The official description:
... experiencing network latency within our VA2 data center that may be affecting your Blackboard environment.…
August 24, 2007
The other day I received a DVD made by Americans for Medical Progress called Physicians - Speaking for Research. (They indicate on their site that the DVDs are free for the asking.)
This is a DVD aimed at physicians, rather than at research scientists or the general public. However, the aim of…
August 24, 2007
One of the best things about Fridays on my campus is that hardly anyone is around. Not only does this make parking less of a headache, and interruption mid-task less probable, but it means that there's even less pressure to dress in a manner that asserts, "I am a responsible adult!"
I mean, I am a…
August 24, 2007
As an added bonus, this week's entry includes a behind the scenes peek at our FSB "process". Yeah, I'm scared, too.
Walking across a large field at the junior high school where we sometimes play soccer:
Younger offspring: My foot almost went in a hole.
Elder offspring: Be careful! There are lots…
August 24, 2007
A reader made sure I saw this today. (Thank you, reader!)
From Brian May's website:
Yes. It's done, and after about 37 years, I am finally a doctor. The oral examination of my thesis, and of me, lasted about 3 hours, and then I retired with Prof Rowan-Robinson, for a few moments, for my two…
August 23, 2007
* After watching The China Syndrome tonight, I will henceforth refrain from saying "Coffee is for closers!" when I see Jack Lemmon on screen. Getting mad about falsified X-rays of welds makes his character, Jack Godell, an official friend of this blog.
* My online Philosophy of Science course has…
August 23, 2007
Since you all were so helpful in response to my query about how engineers are different from scientists, I hope you won't mind if I pick your brains again.
Specifically, I'm after information about the sorts of engineering labs (or whatever the right engineering analog for "labs" would be --…
August 23, 2007
Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a Luddite who composes her posts on wax tablets before uploading them.* So it may seem curious that nearly every semester I teach at least one section of my Philosophy of Science course online.
What would possess me to do such a thing? The ability to…
August 22, 2007
A regular reader of the blog emailed me the following:
Have you ever considered setting up a section for laymen in your blog where posts related to the philosophy of science, how research is conducted, how scientists think etc. are archived? An example of what I think might be a good article to…
August 21, 2007
Perhaps you've heard the news that Leona Helmsley died yesterday. Her obituaries have noted the the "Queen of Mean" came to be viewed as the embodiment of the greed of the 1980s (at least as it played out in the world of Manhattan real estate).
The public didn't like her much.
I have no real basis…
August 21, 2007
In the aftermath of the ScienceBloggers' assault on Manhattan, Mark Chu-Carroll put up a nice post on the ways in which bloggers' real-life manner seemed to match or depart from their online personae.
Maybe philosophy's to blame, but I think there's a deep and interesting question here.
Mark writes…
August 21, 2007
Actually, my memories of the semi-spontaneous confluence of ScienceBlogs sciblings in the vicinity of the Seed mothership this past weekend are quite vivid, and I'll put up a proper post on that later today.
But in the event that I hadn't remembered things so clearly, and had to piece it all…
August 17, 2007
Last Friday, instead of composing a sprog blog, the sprogs and I were offline and in nature (specifically, Yosemite, pictured above). This is not to say we weren't talking about matters scientific, but we didn't have an internet connection with which to check any assertions or hunches.
Some…
August 16, 2007
On the basis of this article about emissions from laser printers, our department administrator came by this week to take my HP 1200 series LaserJet away.
I said I wanted to keep it.
The worry is that the particles of toner emitted when printing with a laser printer may be just as bad for human…
August 15, 2007
As I mentioned in my last post, I was sucked out of the blogosphere for much of last week by the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC) 2007 Summer Symposium .
I did not live-blog the conference. I did use overheads. Why, other than being a tremendous Luddite, would I use…
August 15, 2007
Two items in particular.
From Julie:
post something! :)
I'm starting to worry!
From Super Sally:
no blog since we left causes a mother to worry
Hope you are just busy.
"Busy" gets the general idea (and careful readers will have anticipated from this post that I had some serious three-…
August 3, 2007
Today the BBC reports that Queen guitarist Brian May has submitted his doctoral dissertation in astronomy (titled "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud") at Imperial College, London.
Some theses take longer to write than others. May completed his after a 36 year gap.
Granted, during that…
August 3, 2007
Even though August has barely started, it turns out that the Free-Ride offspring have already been to quite a number of museums and related centers of edutainment this summer. We review the line-up:
The Exploratorium (also discussed here)
Best thing to see:
Elder offspring: The animals on the…
August 2, 2007
Or is there just something wrong with this instrument for self-evaluation?
The average score is pegged at 15 for a woman, 18 for a man. The "Asperger's" range is 32-50.
I scored 30.
Now, I have this reputation (at least in the geek circles with which I run) of being social and diplomatic and…
August 1, 2007
The Des Moines Register reports a bit of a to-do at the University of Iowa about whether the College of Public Health will be accepting a "naming gift" from Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Some objections have been raised on the basis that a giant of the health insurance industry might have (…
August 1, 2007
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 currently in place -- whether you think they do too…
July 31, 2007
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 the big concerns raised…