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
January 26, 2007
Since the internets are abuzz with discussion about truth, I decided to get some input from the smartest members of my household.
Dr. Free-Ride: Wakey wakey!
Younger offspring: (groggily) I don't want to get out of bed yet.
Dr. Free-Ride: That's fine. Can I ask you some questions?
Younger…
January 25, 2007
Abi at nanopolitan nudged me to have a look at Nature's recent article on what has become of targets of recent scientific fraud investigations. He notes that, interspersed with a whole bunch of poster boys for how not to do science, there are at least a couple folks who were cleared of wrongdoing…
January 24, 2007
ACS LiveWire is hosting a "blogversation" (don't shoot me, I didn't coin it!) about nanoscience and nanotechnology. Here are the panelists:
Rudy Baum is the Editor-in-Chief of Chemical & Engineering News.
David M. Berube is author of Nano-Hype: The Truth Behind the Nanotechnology Buzz and the…
January 24, 2007
Larry Moran posts a response to my response to his earlier post on the advisability of putting ethical discussions into science classes. Careful fellow that he is, he's decided to stick to a single issue per posting, so he starts with "the relationship between science and technology and where '…
January 23, 2007
If you ever wonder why state employees are so marvelously equipped to believe six impossible things before breakfast, this story from Inside Higher Education will provide some context:
Who would have thought that doing too well on a test could get you in trouble?
Certainly not Tony Williams. After…
January 22, 2007
While I'm readjusting to my own time zone (just in time for the start of spring semester -- whee!), I thought I'd share some pictures from the Science Blogging Conference. Here, for example, is intrepid conference organizer Bora Zivkovic. He could have sat back and just enjoyed his pre-…
January 22, 2007
In a post about curricular issues in genetics and biochemistry courses, Larry Moran raises some good questions:
It's almost a requirement these days that introductory genetics courses include a section on genetically modified crops. This invariably leads to tutorials, or labs, or essays, about…
January 21, 2007
The wifi at the hotel is a little tentative, so I'll save detailed posting about the Science Blogging Conference until I'm back on the west coast. In the meantime, I wanted to note some of the questions raised in various sessions during the conference:
Is it enough (for the good of scientists and/…
January 20, 2007
I promised the folks who were listening to my talk at the Science Blogging Conference that I'd post the links to the various blog posts whose screenshots I used to illustrate my points. Here they are:
Results of "tone deafness" test published.Reversal of Progress on Folate SupplementationFirst…
January 19, 2007
Bora just said, "There are twenty bloggers here. Who's live blogging the dinner?!"
I guess the answer is: Me.
Although really, it's not like I can give a comprehensive account of the dinner, since I've mostly been sitting here conspiring with Bill Hooker and Zuska about ways to change the culture…
January 19, 2007
Since I'll be in transit much of the day today, it may take longer than usual for your comments to appear. Imagine yourself in solidarity with me in a line at an airport.
In the meantime, here's who's on notice:
January 19, 2007
The past week or so, I've been on a little bit of a cooking jag. This has not gone unnoticed by the Free-Ride offspring.
Elder offspring: Why have you been making us so many yummy things to eat this week?
Dr. Free-Ride: I guess I'm going to miss cooking for you while I'm away at the conference…
January 18, 2007
I've decided that the "intersession" we have between semesters is a cruel hoax. Though it promises a few weeks in which one might actually get some writing done, what it delivers is an endless list of tasks (many spawned by bureaucracy) that one must scurry to accomplish before the next semester…
January 18, 2007
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the University of California is getting serious about ethics -- by requiring all of its 230,000 to take an online ethics course.
Yeah, throwing coursework at the problem will solve it.*
Indeed, I'm not sure I'd even want to count this as "coursework" given…
January 12, 2007
Because everyone is doing it, here's the card catalog entry for this here blog:
I miss physical card catalogs. I would totally buy one for Casa Free-Ride if I could get my hands on one. (Although, would buying them up amount to contributing to their demise in libraries?) The sprogs have only…
January 12, 2007
You may have heard that the very dangerous professor is putting his blog on mothballs so he can play more hockey. But, it's not over until the WAAGNFNP Minister of Justice says it's over. And, she says (at comment 71 on this post) "We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball. Now Party!":
Le Blogue-…
January 12, 2007
Chad and Tara have spilled the beans on a highly classified backchannel discussion we ScienceBloggers have been having. Since the cat is already out of the bag (presumably a bag of beans), I suppose I'll chime in.
What basic concepts would you like me to explain here?
The idea, of course, would be…
January 12, 2007
We have been dancing near record low temperatures in these parts. It's not quite as cold as the dark side of the moon, but it is cold enough that the water in the garden hoses is frozen in the morning and there's frost on the ground. (Also, cold enough that ice needs scraping off the windshield…
January 11, 2007
At the AAS meeting in Seattle, Rob Knop risked his own well-being to get the details on a poster that was, shall we say, waaaay out of the mainstream. Quoth Rob:
Now, don't get me wrong. There will be a lot of posters with data or theory that turns out to be wrong, and there are a lot of posters…
January 11, 2007
Hey, for those of you coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, don't forget to sign up for the dinners! There's one big group dinner on Friday, January 19, from 7 to 10 PM, and a bunch of group dinners on Saturday, January 20, right after the official conclusion of the…
January 11, 2007
As John Lynch points out, today marks the first anniversary of the launch of ScienceBlogs, an experiment in gathering conversations about science in a dedicated corner of the blogosphere. (Yes, I know that spheres don't have corners. Let me enjoy my mixed metaphor.)
You'd never know to look at it…
January 10, 2007
Chad has an interesting post explaining the timescale of a faculty search at his college. One of the rate-determining steps he notes in the process is the posting of the job (and its deadline for applications):
So, why does it take so long? Well, to start with, you need to post the job and set…
January 9, 2007
Liz reminds us that Paper Napkin has declared the second week of January to be National Delurking Week.
What does this mean?
It means that if you are a reader of a blog but have not commented on that blog, you should "delurk" by leaving a comment to indicate that you're out there. Good person…
January 9, 2007
Since our technical guru Tim Murtaugh seems to have cleared the squirrels out of the ScienceBlogs server, I have managed to update my blogroll. (It's in the left sidebar -- scroll way down and you'll see it.)
In the main, the updates have involved:
Clearing out moribund blogs.
Updating URLs for…
January 9, 2007
There was an interesting story today on Morning Edition about new research on potential bias in nutrition studies funded by industry. Dr. David Ludwig of Children's Hospital in Boston led a team that analyzed 206 nutritional studies published between 1999 and 2003. More than half of these studies…
January 8, 2007
As some of you will have noticed, I'm scheduled to give a talk at the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference in just under two weeks. This morning, I finished (kind of) working out that talk.
A few things worth noting:
This is not a completely drafted speech or anything like that. It's a…
January 7, 2007
I've been wanting to blog all weekend, but instead I've been making (and canning) lemon curd and lemon marmalade. It was either that or the Free-Ride family was going to have to face down an Exodus-scale plague of lemons.
The batch of lemon marmalade consumed 12 lemons (plus 6 cups of sugar and…
January 5, 2007
This morning while I was ensconced in a shower, the younger Free-Ride offspring decided it would be a good idea to bound in and wake my better half.
Younger offspring: Good morning! Look at the sun.
Dr. Free-Ride's better half: (looking around groggily) What sun? It's still dark.
Younger…
January 4, 2007
Don't update your blog for a few days.
Seriously, the fact that I left a message on the machine to let her know that the Free-Ride family made it home safely was apparently not persuasive in the absence of new blog entries since our return.
I was totally offline for a few days. I got some…
December 29, 2006
The elder Free-Ride offspring has lately gotten into playing "poison", a nim-type game for two players. You start with a pile of twelve items that are the same and one item that is different (the poison). Each turn, players can remove either one or two items from the pile. The object of the game…