Scholarometer (?)

Scholarometer^beta is a social tool to facilitate citation analysis and help evaluate the impact of an author's publications.

O mundo é a nossa casa

De visão absolutamente essencial!

O poder da "ciência"

Vídeo muito interessante. Tocam todos os pontos certos: a suposta superioridade do "cientista", a ausência de espírito crítico perante a ameaça óbvia, a justificação económica da tecnologia a todo o custo.

Experts Agree Giant, Razor-Clawed Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

Poder e exploração no mundo científico

Brian Martin é Professor de Ciências Sociais na School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication da University of Wollongong. Tem escrito recentemente uma série de artigos muito interessantes sobre plagiarismo, quer em termos académicos quer científicos.

Mas foram os seus textos mais antigos sobre a fraude em ciência e sobre a estrutura do poder científico que me trouxeram aqui. Li em diagonal três artigos, de que deixo citações.

I have argued that links between powerful groups inside and outside the scientific community, and vested interests in disciplinary exclusiveness within scientific organisations, are two major features of the power structure of science which lead to suppression of dissident viewpoints. These two features should not be seen simply as bases for overt attempts at suppression such as blocking publications or appointments. The basis for suppression is institutionalised in science through the very nature of scientific research and scientific organisations.

Martin, B., 1981. The Scientific Straightjacket: The Power Structure of Science and the Suppression of Environmental Scholarship. The Ecologist, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 33-43.

The vaunted image of many academics who have a high research output, especially those academics with many subordinates, should not be accepted uncritically. How many famous scholars made their greatest breakthrough on the basis of ideas or work of wives, assistants or students? It is impossible to know. But until more information is available, it would be unwise to uncritically accept publication and citation counts as reliable indicators of research capability.

Martin, B., 1986. Academic exploitation. In: Brian Martin, C. M. Ann Baker, Clyde Manwell and Cedric Pugh (editors), Intellectual Suppression: Australian Case Histories, Analysis and Responses (Sydney: Angus & Robertson), pp. 59-62.

In the routine practice of scientific research, there are many types of misrepresentation and bias which could be considered dubious. However, only a few narrowly defined behaviours are singled out and castigated as scientific fraud. A narrow definition of scientific fraud is convenient to the groups in society -- scientific elites, and powerful government and corporate interests -- that have the dominant influence on priorities in science.

Martin, B., 1992. Scientific fraud and the power structure of science. Prometheus, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 83-98.

O meu obrigado à Regina Nabais, pela dica.

Promiscuidade feminina, ou de como nascem os esterótipos

Victorian values and the censoring presence of his prudish daughter blinded Charles Darwin to female promiscuity and delayed the study of sperm competition for 100 years, says Tim Birkhead.

For a long time it was unclear how females could benefit from being unfaithful. Unlike males, who can potentially father dozens or even hundreds of offspring, the females of most species are limited in their reproductive output, so promiscuity is unlikely to increase the number of offspring they produce. Eventually, it was realised that by the careful choice of extra-pair partners, a female might increase the quality of her offspring, and studies of several different animals have since confirmed this.

I don't think Darwin thought this subject through. I don't think he ever thought carefully enough about the reproductive consequences of individual selection. As far as I can see, there isn't a hint of this kind of thinking in his voluminous correspondence. This is curious because the idea of female choice was such an integral (albeit controversial) component of his concept of sexual selection. For Darwin, mate choice simply stopped at copulation.

Ler mais

As quatro áreas da Biologia

Randolph Nesse é professor de Psiquiatria e de Psicologia. Conheci-o primeiro através do seu livro, Why we get sick.

Cheguei hoje a um seu diagrama com o título acima e que é uma interessante forma de classificar as linhas de investigação em Biologia nos quadrantes que resultam de haver dois tipos de questões (próximas, que procuram saber como os organismos vivem, e evolutivas, com o objectivo de saber porque são como são) e dois objectos de explicação (históricas, que explicam uma forma actual em termos de uma sequência, e descritivas).

A Biologia oferece, se acordo com este esquema, 4 tipos de explicações:

• de desenvolvimento
• mecanicistas
• filogenéticas
• adaptacionistas
  

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Hans Jonas - um dos pensadores mais relevantes de que você nunca ouviu falar

E a web tem destas coisas. Lemos o blogue dos amigos, seguimos os links indicados, e daí saltamos para a Wikipédia e para vários outros sítios, incluindo os artigos de David Kaufman, de onde fui copiar o título desta entrada, de V. Soromenho Marques e de Ana Sofia M. Estanqueiro.

Já tinha lido algo deste autor, mas deixo aqui esta nota para a ele voltar em breve. De facto, alguém que escreve um livro intitulado "Organismus und Freiheit. Ansätze zu einer philosophischen Biologie" (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973) [Organismo e liberdade: abordagem a uma filosofia biológica] honra-me de o referir aqui. E leva-me a citar um dos seus aforismos:

Age de tal modo que os efeitos da tua acção sejam compatíveis com a permanência duma vida humana autêntica na Terra.

Darwin's Gifts

Uma colecção de ensaios tendo Darwin por tema.

To mark in 2009 the bicentennial of the birth of Darwin - on Feb 12 - and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species - on Nov 24 - The Lancet has commissioned a commemorative book of essays about Darwin's life and work and the enduring legacy of his remarkable theory of evolution.

Uma das muitas iniciativas planeadas para este ano.

Interessante, a interface.