Blogospheric science
jstemwedel | January 3, 2010Two weeks from today, at ScienceOnline '10, Dr. Isis, Sheril Kirshenbaum, and I will be leading a session called "Online Civility and Its (Muppethugging) Discontents". In preparation for this, the three of us had a Skype conference last night, during which it became clear to us that there are many, many interesting issues that we could take on in this session (and that we come to the subject of online civility from three quite different perspectives).
To try to get a feel for what issues other people (besides the three of us) might want to discuss in this session (or on blogs, of whatever),…
jstemwedel | December 9, 2009I have a couple of substantive posts percolating, but I need to scrape some ice first. (Plus, you know, attend to some grading and administrative tasks.)
In the meantime, I wanted to share a sampling of some of the search queries that have brought people to this blog:
"originally designed with good intention but no longer makes sense"
"do people willingly vaccinate their trees?"
"ANATOMICALLY CORRECT COOKIES"
"philosophy paper grading drinking games"
"my work has been tolerated"
"animals that lay perfectly round eggs"
"three toed sloth sex jokes"
"america stop listening to scientists"…
jstemwedel | November 7, 2009Yo dawg! This is a soccer tournament weekend for the Free-Rides. (First game: 8:00 AM. Time of departure from Casa Free-Ride: 6:30 AM. Zombification complete!)
At the moment, the younger offspring and I are chilling before the younger offspring's team's second game; the younger offspring is watching Fred videos, while I am filling in gaps in my knowledge with the help of Know Your Meme.
Know Your Meme is a good way to catch up on memes that are currently part of the collective memory of the internets, but which might have peaked before some of us Luddites were sufficiently plugged in to…
jstemwedel | October 1, 2009You already know that we're working with DonorsChoose to raise some money for public school teachers who are trying to give their students the engaging educational experiences they deserve (and who, owing to dismal state and local budgets, need our help more than ever). You also know that our benevolent overlords at Seed will be randomly selecting some donors to receive nifty prizes (details about this to be posted as soon as I get them).
Of course, helping public school teachers deliver the education their students deserve is it's own reward, but that doesn't mean you might not want a little…
jstemwedel | September 30, 2009Around this corner of the blogosphere, folks frequently bemoan the sorry state of the public's scientific literacy and engagement. People fret about whether our children is are learning what they should about science, math, and critical reasoning. Netizens speculate on the destination of the handbasket in which we seem to be riding.
In light of the big problems that seem insurmountable, we should welcome the opportunity to do something small that can have an immediate impact.
During the month of October, a bunch of us ScienceBlogs bloggers will be participating in the annual…
jstemwedel | September 28, 2009GrrlScientist is in a contest to become Quark Expedition's official blogger from Antarctica. (So is DN Lee from Urban Science Adventures.)
Grrl has been doing pretty well getting votes in this contest, despite the fact that her competition includes a radio personality from Portugal and a member of the Osmond family.
Of the top vote-getters, it is clear to me that Grrl would do the best job with the specified task (blogging from, and about, Antarctica). She has a personal and professional interest in nature, science, the environment, and conservation. She has a history of writing pieces…
jstemwedel | July 8, 2009In case you're interested, Paw-talk, a website aimed at humans with pets, invited me over to chat about philosophy, ethics, science, and the use of animals in research. You can find that interview here.
It's also worth noting that the site features a number of interviews with science bloggers you may recognize ... perhaps because the Paw-talk team has a hunch that people surfing the web for pet-related information may also have a latent curiosity about matters scientific. Good on Paw-talk for feeding that curiosity!
jstemwedel | June 13, 2009
You may recall a couple years ago when the Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute and Above Average Physique started issuing badges.
Now, the Science Scouts have a spiffy new webpage and many new badges ... and there are rumors (or should I say rumours) that actual, physical badges, suited for stitching onto sashes or lab coats, will be available.
So it seems like a good time to review the badges I have earned thus far as a Science Scout.
The "talking science" badge:
I don't need to explain this one, right?
Even before I had a blog about matters scientific, I talked science. At…
jstemwedel | June 5, 2009"Hey, buddy! My eyes are up here!"
Just a quick reminder that the voting is still open for the 3 Quarks Daily contest for the best science blogging of the past year.
My post How does salt melt snails? currently has 15 votes, which is not enough to push it into the top-20 vote-getters and move it on to the judging round..
If you haven't voted yet, you still can (until June 8, midnight Eastern time). How about showing a little love for my scientific explanation of gastropod destruction?
jstemwedel | June 1, 2009Remember those prizes 3 Quarks Daily is offering for the best science blogging of the past year?
Well, the nominees are now up, including four of my posts:
How does salt melt snails?
SVP Ethics Education Commitee statement: lessons learned from 'Aetogate'
The Hellinga Retractions (part 1): when replication fails, what should happen next?
The Hellinga Retractions (part 2): when replication fails, what should happen next?
If you have several hours and a taste for some informative and entertaining writing about science, the full list of nominees will provide lots of good reading.
But don't let…
jstemwedel | June 1, 2009This month, Sheril Kirshenbaum and Dr. Isis are spearheading a blogospheric initiative to call attention to a continuing epidemic of mass rapes in Liberia even six years after the end of its 14 year civil war, and to try to do something about it.
Last month, Nicholas Kristof described the situation in the New York Times, touching on the particular case of a 7-year-old rape survivor named Jackie:
[S]omehow mass rape survived the end of the war; it has been easier to get men to relinquish their guns than their sense of sexual entitlement. So the security guard at Jackie's school, a man in his…
jstemwedel | May 27, 2009Actually, the awards will include other sorts of blogging, too, but it's the awards for science blogging that have a fast-approaching nomination deadline.
3 Quarks Daily Announces The Quarks: The First Award for Best Science Blogging Judged by Steven Pinker
Celebrating the best of blog-writing on the web, 3 Quarks Daily will award four annual prizes in the respective areas of Science, Arts & Literature, Politics, and Philosophy for the best blog post in those fields. This year, the winners of the 3QD Prize in Science will be selected from six finalists by Steven Pinker, who will also…
jstemwedel | May 10, 2009Every now and then, I have a look at the logs of incoming traffic to see how people are getting here. A bunch of people arrive via search engines, and here's some of what they've been searching for in the last couple days:
swine flu and air travel
math limerick
ethics, jokes
why would i want to blog
states of matter poems
mothers day ethics
what's the poin of going o college [sic]
substitute oil mashed avocado
keep your wonderful head
importance of intellectual honesty in science
how to fake a fever using a tympanic thermometer
I'm guessing that not all of the people making these searches…
jstemwedel | May 1, 2009It occurs to me that there might be an interesting parallel to the conundrum we discussed about whether it's better to engage with a scientist giving off a shady vibe or to back away with all due haste. It's not a perfect parallel, but there are some similar issues at work.
Should scientists and physicians engage with the Huffington Post?
If you follow the ScienceBlogs frontpage, you will have gathered by now that the view in these parts is that HuffPo's science-fu is not strong. Folks like PalMD and Mike the Mad Biologist and Orac have detailed some of the ways the "health and wellness"…
jstemwedel | April 1, 2009I've gotten word that another blogger who has been tracking IP addresses associated with comments (on his own blog and on the blogs of others) is preparing to blow the whistle on what he is inclined to view as sock-puppetry. I'm not sure how complete this blogger's information is, nor whether it is consistent with other conclusions besides the ones he is drawing.
But at this point, it might not matter that much. So I'm just going to go ahead and tell you what I know.
I am PhysioProf. The PhysioProf persona has its genesis in my mother's pained request that I drop perfectly good words…
jstemwedel | February 2, 2009
I've been derelict in my duty to inform you that 2009 has been declared the Year of Science, which is, of course, just an excuse to celebrate science-y goodness every day. Each month has a theme and a variety of options for exploring that theme.
For February, the theme is evolution (in part because some fellow named Darwin has a birthday this month). In addition to getting a good dose of Darwiniana, you can check in on scientists sharing their thoughts on evolution and science more generally, explore evolutionary thought and the process of evolution, look at the connections between…
jstemwedel | January 17, 2009Some quick thoughts in response to the session led by PropterDoc and Sciencewoman.
In some sense, this is really just an extension of the problem of managing your public persona as you go through transitions in life.
Maybe it's something even deeper than that. Maybe it's a piece of the project of deciding who you are and what kind of person to be.
How we present ourselves to other people leaves traces. Our interactions with others create components of the environments that other people live in and respond to. Our words have consequences, and so do the moments where we are silent.
Now, we…
jstemwedel | January 11, 2009While the ScienceBlogs upgrade was underway, a shiny new Bloggingheads diavlog was posted, featuring yours truly and PalMD.
Mostly we talked about medical ethics, with some time spent on ethical issues around research with human subjects.
jstemwedel | January 9, 2009You've probably already gotten the news that ScienceBlogs is getting a backend upgrade to MT4 this weekend.
While this is going on (from Friday 1 PM Eastern until sometime Saturday, we hope), you'll still be able to read the ScienceBlogs posts that are already up, but Sb bloggers won't be able to publish new posts and you won't be able to leave new comments.
(Actually, I'm hearing rumblings that the comments might already have been disabled. Hold that thought! Jot it down on a Post-it or something, 'cause I want to read it when the comments return in MT4)
During our radio silence, you…
jstemwedel | December 5, 2008I realize that I forgot to mention here that I've been writing posts on the Invitrogen-sponsored group blog What's New in Life Science Research. The blog is hosting discussions about stem cells, cloning, biodefense, and genetically modified organisms. (The cloning discussion just started yesterday.) As you might guess, I'm primarily blogging about the ethical dimensions of these biotechnologies. We'd love to have you get involved with the conversation.
In other news:
As of this morning, we have finished nearly all of our leftovers from Thanksgiving. All that remains is some cranberry…