Author Archives: admin

Friday Sprog Blogging: Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization.

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This summer, I had the pleasure of having coffee in Palo Alto with Eva. She had been to the Exploratorium the day before, where, in the gift shop, she picked up a couple cool science books for the sprogs. “Of course, you’ll have to blog them!” she said.
Of course!
Today, we look at one of those books.

Pasteur.jpg
Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization
Written by Jennifer Fandel
Illustrated by Keith Wilson, Rodney Ramos, and Charles Barnett III
This book isn’t a biography of Louis Pasteur. Instead, it’s a discussion of what he discovered and (more importantly, from the point of view of the Free-Ride offspring) how he discovered it.
We start with a glimpse of life in the mid-1800s, when the guy who milks the cow coughs into his hands and then sets about the task of milking without stopping to wash those hands.
Hands which the sprogs would call “germy” but which people at the time would not, since no one knew that germs caused disease.

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Students plagiarize, professor publicizes.

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… and the university, in turn, fires the professor.
You’ve probably already seen this story. Loye Young, an adjunct professor at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, warned his students (as we all do) against plagiarism. Indeed, as reported by Inside Higher Ed, he included this statement in his fall course syllabus for his management information systems course:

No form of dishonesty is acceptable. I will promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating, or stealing. That includes academic dishonesty, copyright violations, software piracy, or any other form of dishonesty.

While grading an assignment, Young discovered (at least) six students taking the course had committed plagiarism. Then he followed through on what he had promised in his course syllabus and publicized the names of the six on his (public) blog for the course.

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Permanent budget crisis.

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There are some newspaper stories that must be pretty easy to write at this point because it seems like they’re essentially the same year in and year out. California is having another budget crisis, and the Californians who are going to take it in the teeth are students — especially students in the California State University (CSU) system, to which the university that employs me belongs.

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Women, scientists, and ordinary human beings.

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So, at the end of the PSA I was so sick that I took to my overpriced hotel bed, forgoing interesting papers and the prospect of catching up with geographically dispersed friends in my field who I can only count on seeing every two years at the PSA. I managed to get myself back home and then needed another eight days to return to a “functional” baseline.
Checking in with the internets again, I feel like maybe I was in a coma for six months.
In particular, I was totally sidelined when Isis the Scientist issued her manifesto and when Zuska weighed in on the various reactions to Isis and her manifesto. Both posts are must-reads, and if my head were not still swimming in mucus I might be able to add something substantive to advance the discussion.
However, since my head is still swimming in mucus, I’m afraid you’ll be getting something rather more stream-of-consciousness.

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Friday Sprog Blogging: dog days.

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I’m still trying to get out from under the monstrous head cold given to me by the younger Free-Ride offsrping just in time for last week’s trip to Pittsburgh. The sprogs have actually given me wide berth this week, as if they expect me to mutate the germs and give them back.
How well they know me.
In the meantime, there’s been some idle chatter about dogs. For instance, in recounting the adventures of the young Border Collie that lives next door (whose human says, “For a member of a really smart breed, she’s pretty dumb”), the sprogs have puzzled over whether canine intelligence (or lack thereof) is primarily a heritable trait, and whether a good mutt might be smarter than your average representative of even a “smart” breed.
They’ve also been drawn into the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam. What could be better than live video of six puppies, with occasional glimpses of their mom (who looks ready to wean them) and of the tattooed arm that takes care of them?
Walking to school this morning after “checking in” on the Shiba Inu puppies, the sprogs also mentioned an item from the news that I seem to have missed while I was traveling.

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Access rare books without being made to wear white cotton gloves.

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It turns out that the session on electronic scholarship I mentioned didn’t really get into the defining characteristics of electronic scholarship, nor how it might differ from “digital media”. (Part of this had to do with trying to fit spiels from nine speakers into a 75 minute session while still allowing time for discussion. You do the math.)
Anyway, one of the panelists, Stephen Greenberg, is from the National Library of Medicine, and he gave us a peek at some digital materials that warm my old-timey, hide-bound heart. Specifically, I am ga-ga for the Turning The Pages project.

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Friday Sprog Blogging: practical thermodynamics.

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A conversation last Thursday, amid rain and wind, as we watched the elder Free-Ride offspring’s soccer game:
Dr. Free-Ride: How are you doing?
Younger offspring: Brrr!
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, why don’t you zip up both your warm layer and your raincoat?
Younger offspring: OK. Why does zipping them up keep you warmer?
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, what do you think?

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