What They're Saying
thusspakezuska | February 14, 2008Abel Pharmboy reports on inaccuracies in breast cancer websites:
So it was no surprise to me and actually quite alarming to read a recent report suggesting that while only 1 in 20 breast cancer websites offer incorrect information, CAM-focused [CAM = complementary and alternative medicine] websites were 15 times more likely to contain inaccurate or incorrect information.
Go read the whole post, and the comments too.
thusspakezuska | February 14, 2008If you find yourself in the condition of being unavoidably female, and you aren't willing to undergo a sex change operation, then your best publication strategy may be to hide the XX affiliation.
The title of a recent publication on this issue is self-explanatory: "Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors" by Budden, Tregenza, Aarssen, Koricheva, Leimu, and Lortie. Sadly, as the authors note, double-blind review is "rarely practised". If your name screams out "woman", you may be better off with an initial.
Of course, this is nothing terribly new; just a…
thusspakezuska | February 13, 2008Sciencewoman ponders seen and unseen parenting responsibilities. In a discussion about parceling out responsibilities for a large project, the department chair expressed his desire not to unduly belabor a Department Dad because of his Very Special Parenting Responsibilities; Sciencewoman, however, he had no problem assigning the task to her. Until reminded by her colleague that Sciencewoman, too, is a parent. Why was Daddy's time more worth protecting than Mommy's? Well, one hopes the department chair has learned a lesson.
What really burns my shorts even more, however, are the…
thusspakezuska | February 11, 2008Here's the word, from Sheril at The Intersection - and the word is exciting!
For months everyone has been asking us, when will there be an invitation sent to candidates...a date... a venue...
Well it's finally happened! It's official. Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Barack Obama have been invited to ScienceDebate2008.
The location? Philadelphia's Franklin Institute, named after one of our nation's greatest scientists (and greatest patriots). The date? April 18, days before the Pennsylvania Primary.
We're so close to seeing this through and now more than ever, we need you're…
thusspakezuska | February 1, 2008Science policy, 20 years of sexual harassment, French women students as prostitutes: a round-up of stuff from the Chronicle:
Dan Greenburg of Brainstorm complains that the U.S. has no national science policy. Some commenters say "that's a good thing".
Over at Chronicle Careers, Julie Vick and Jennifer Furlong talk about how to write good letters of recommendation. They include this advice:
The dean also talked about an issue that merits more discussion in academe: the difference in recommendation letters written for men and women. He suggested that people writing reference letters read…
thusspakezuska | January 30, 2008The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article today about the "issue of cultural sensitivity...in the world of comedy". Comedy: When The Laughing Stops looks at how comedians struggle with knowing where to draw the line - and when to go ahead and cross that line.
Some people fear that when comics don't delineate boundaries, it gives the public the impression that it, too, can freely utter offensive comments. [Chris] Rock addressed the subject during his sold-out New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden. Fat girls make fun of skinny ones, he said, but skinny ones can't do the…
thusspakezuska | January 28, 2008Mrs. Whatsit pointed out that Propter Doc has recently written on the topic of blogging under a pseudonym. It's a very thoughtful post and touches on many of the issues we discussed at the NC Science Blogging Conference. In the middle of the post, Propter Doc says the following:
If you blog about being a scientist then you are probably in a position where you need to take steps to conceal your identity. The world doesn't need to know what flavor of scientist you are, or even your gender.
Is this really the case? That is, does your gender not matter in science blogging, even (or especially…
thusspakezuska | January 24, 2008Make your blog more interactive! but do it ethically..
Two great sessions at the 2008 NC Science Blogging Conference offered up great insights on these two aspects of the blogger's craft. Janet Stemwedel ran the session on ethics and Dave Munger did the one on interactivity. That truly was an opportunity to learn from the experts. So just what did they have to say? You may want to read Janet's report, in which she calls for readers to help build the science blogging ethics wiki. Dave has posted "helpful stuff from my presentation..."
Their posts are very helpful but I thought I'd give…
thusspakezuska | January 22, 2008Coffee, good food, and the world's best popsicles - these were just a few of the perks associated with attending the 2008 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference! Not to mention mingling with 200 other bloggers, journalists, educators, and students. I've been so out of touch with the blogging world for so long recently; it was delightful to feel the energy and ideas sparking off each other. Plus, I got to meet Sciencewoman and Minnow!
Karen Ventii and I had planned to webcast our session on Gender and Race in Science Blogging, and we did, in a manner of speaking...unfortunately, it…
thusspakezuska | October 29, 2007Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily introduced today a new set of icons that will help readers identify blogging on peer-reviewed research. You can find the full announcement below the fold, including info on where to find the icons, how to use them, and how to find blog posts tagged with the icons.
We're pleased to announce that BPR3's Blogging on Peer Reviewed Research icons are now ready to go! Anyone can use these icons to show when they're making a serious post about peer-reviewed research, rather than just linking to a news article or press release.
Within a month, these blog posts will…
thusspakezuska | October 27, 2007Some great posts on other blogs you may have missed reading:
Language Log has a great critique of the new PBS show WordGirl, which I found via Fairer Science. If that's not enough to make you grind your teeth, then read Pat's roundup on the Bionic Woman, Ubisoft's Imagine video games, and Barbie Girls. Bleah.
Female Science Professor ran into Dr. Troll this week upon coming out of a committee meeting. Dr. Troll asked her if she was taking a class from the other committee members. I am not making this up. You can read about it here. I mean, really. You have to work at being that much…
thusspakezuska | October 27, 2007Since Jim Watson's recent self-destruction, there's been a lot of talk about pseudo-scientific racism versus actual "scientific" studies of race. Earlier this summer, Lennard J. Davis had an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled A Grand Unified Theory of Interdisciplinarity in which he had this to say about race and ethnicity in the sciences/medicine versus the humanities/social science:
A truly interdisciplinary approach is potentially dangerous: Some kinds of knowledge might refute or negate other kinds of knowledge. For example, if we took the advances the humanities have made…
thusspakezuska | October 26, 2007By now everyone knows that Jim Watson has resigned his position at CSHL. But the damage he's done will live on long afterwards. Consider this comment from a reader (emphasis added):
As a non-scientist, I'd like to point out an unpredictable side-effect of Watson's remarks that might make scientists cringe. Yesterday a student in my women's studies class used Watson's comments on race and differential intelligence (along with an NPR interview with Phil Rushton on the same theme) to illustrate scientific findings on that subject. Her larger point was to suggest that the singular enterprise…
thusspakezuska | October 25, 2007So you're despairing of your future as an academic research scientist, and looking for "alternative" careers. When I was a grad student and postdoc I often heard my fellow students/postdocs say things like "well, I'll just get a teaching job" or "I'll just go teach at a community college". The implication was that any community college would be so incredibly grateful that such a fabulous research scientists had deigned to come teach at their lowly ranks, they would jump at the chance to hire them.
Admittedly I was a graduate student a hundred years ago, and maybe this kind of attitude no…
thusspakezuska | October 24, 2007PZ Myers is a really nice person and I love Pharyngula - I just spent a nice half hour reading it, and among other good stuff I encountered there was a link in this post to Robert Hooke's notebooks online. Very cool indeed, and totally geekalicious.
But I'm also aware of this recent distasteful post wherein PZ offers up an apologia for Jim Watson. You know, he just has these repellent personal opinions; he's an asshole; but we all have to learn to tolerate this because he's such a fucking hero.
A healthy dose of puke for your shoes, PZ. If Watson suddenly announces that design theory…
thusspakezuska | October 16, 2007Really. I am not making this up. As quoted in The Guardian:
He smiles. "Rosalind is my cross," he says slowly. "I'll bear it. I think she was partially autistic." He pauses for a while, before repeating the suggestion, as if to make it clear that this is no off-the-cuff insult, but a considered diagnosis. "I'd never really thought of scientists as autistic until this whole business of high-intelligence autism came up. There is probably no other explanation for Rosalind's behaviour.
Oh, yes, a considered diagnosis, I'm sure. He's been considering since 1953 what he'd like to preemptively…
thusspakezuska | September 6, 2007Diane Rhoten writes in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education about the concept of networked science. The Manhattan Project, she says, brought us the era of Big Science: ambitious projects, organized in a "top-down, hierarchical, vertical" manner, requiring lots of cash, fancy equipment, dedicated facilities, and a long-term outlook.
Next we got Team Science, fueled mostly by the life sciences. Big Science was shaped by instrumentation - what kind we do with this nifty supercollider? - while Team Science is "tailored to the parameters of the specific investigation" - hey, let's…
thusspakezuska | August 30, 2007Perusing Google Reader tonight, and here are some items of note:
Absinthe seems to be in a bad way, at least as regards blogging and the blogosphere. Doesn't seem to be much we can do to cheer her or change her mind, as she promises to delete all comments from her blog post. It's a shame to see her dismantling so much of her blog.
There's an interesting post at Fairer Science on Five Myths about Girls and Science, with a link to a story on the NSF website. Check it out.
Female Science Professor's life never ceases to amaze. Read the tale of her second encounter with the moron who…