tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post5864575140948966619..comments2024-03-25T02:33:41.590-05:00Comments on FemaleScienceProfessor: On FecundityFemale Science Professorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-35164678828966644372010-06-15T22:57:36.159-05:002010-06-15T22:57:36.159-05:00A couple comments:
First, I got the seminal joke...A couple comments: <br /><br />First, I got the seminal joke. That's three of us. <br /><br />Second, I can't comment on the Erdos number calculator since I don't know what it is. But genealogy projects often have value to the history of science. These projects can show us how ideas, hypotheses, theorems, or other intellectual trends spread or change - we can often trace schools of thought by knowing who trained with whom.<br /><br />Third, it's worth nothing that some of us are "fecund" DESPITE the mentoring skills of our advisors or professors, not because of them.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17621799040737524033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-33616209748408183132010-06-11T18:15:36.150-05:002010-06-11T18:15:36.150-05:00'A "birth rate" of 9.8 looks complet...<i>'A "birth rate" of 9.8 looks completely unsustainable.'</i><br /><br />Why? population growth depends on both the birth rate and the death rate. Many people leave academic mathematics after getting their degrees, thus leaving the "breeding population".<br /><br />The "birth rate" of 9.8 is only unsustainable if you assume that everyone remains in academia---a bad assumption in every field.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14528751349030084532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-12947422660528723922010-06-11T14:23:29.180-05:002010-06-11T14:23:29.180-05:00A "birth rate" of 9.8 looks completely u...A "birth rate" of 9.8 looks completely unsustainable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-6522630445163773952010-06-10T20:24:56.415-05:002010-06-10T20:24:56.415-05:00On the importance of academic birth control. Alwa...On the importance of academic birth control. Always use protectionEliRabetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07957002964638398767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-90601130803915571862010-06-10T05:46:37.532-05:002010-06-10T05:46:37.532-05:00Another case of severe Gender inequality:
A Berke...Another case of severe Gender inequality:<br /><br />A Berkeley math professor acted in a hardcore porn film:<br /><br />http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/04/erotic-equations-love-meets-mathematics-on-film.html<br /><br />Can a female professor get away with it?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-36720751268678876862010-06-09T21:00:52.916-05:002010-06-09T21:00:52.916-05:00First, linguists believe that the seed meaning of ...First, linguists believe that the seed meaning of seminal predates the semen meaning of seminal.<br /><br />Second, if you have to look it up in a dictionary to realize that it could possibly be discriminatory, then it isn't.<br /><br />Third, if you believe that removing seminal and stimulating from grant proposals in any way helps the status of women, I'm sad to say you've spent too much time in academia. Find a more worthy cause and spend time on that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-559787343889971862010-06-09T20:24:37.292-05:002010-06-09T20:24:37.292-05:00The Tierney/Civil War item was part of a column ca...The Tierney/Civil War item was part of a column called something like "Give the Vixens the Day Off" in late October 2006. If you search on the keywords John Tierney Civil War Vixens, you will find it.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-73607032272596918022010-06-09T20:17:14.503-05:002010-06-09T20:17:14.503-05:00Eek! I meant to be ironic, too! Egregious verbal ...Eek! I meant to be ironic, too! Egregious verbal failure, on my part...b(oston)s(cholar)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14637814104776326602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-60048039033311669552010-06-09T19:36:45.543-05:002010-06-09T19:36:45.543-05:00Regarding mathematician and vanity projects I don&...Regarding mathematician and vanity projects I don't think its quite that simple. Both the genealogy project and collaboration distance are essentially networks. This is likely to appeal to mathematicians anyway. Also your mathematical family is actually quite important. Although no one really cares who your distant ancestors were your immediate family and their standing has a huge impact on your success.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-84432702006401091722010-06-09T18:34:05.256-05:002010-06-09T18:34:05.256-05:00I didn't even notice "seminal" in th...I didn't even notice "seminal" in the post until all these comments brought it up; I had to go back and specifically search for it. <br /><br />Maybe I need to recalibrate my sexismometer? 'Cause "seminal" didn't even register really (although I am female).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-11828371538517673352010-06-09T18:32:55.201-05:002010-06-09T18:32:55.201-05:00Thanks, that is some consolation. One of my collea...Thanks, that is some consolation. One of my colleagues who reads the blog also got the lame joke, so that's two anyway.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-20268179769972782962010-06-09T17:24:02.089-05:002010-06-09T17:24:02.089-05:00If it is any consolation, FSP, I recognized it as ...If it is any consolation, FSP, I recognized it as a joke (and thought it was hilarious) and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Furthermore, "seminal" is used to refer to seeds in plant biology, aka the offspring of the plant with some extra packaging from the maternal parent. I hate the phrase "seminal idea" or "seminal research," for the obvious reasons, but there are contexts in which the word "seminal" is legit, and shouldn't even creep out the most nitpicky of oversensitive literary types.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-86802852231428707942010-06-09T15:51:33.414-05:002010-06-09T15:51:33.414-05:00IT WAS A JOKE. I used the word as a joke. Or, at l...IT WAS A JOKE. I used the word as a joke. Or, at least, I tried to.<br /><br />I do not freak out when I see or hear the word used. Some of my colleagues and I joke about it, hence my delusional idea that it would be funny to use in a sentence about fecundity.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-31163035377764829082010-06-09T15:46:31.421-05:002010-06-09T15:46:31.421-05:00Pardon me for a rather off topic comment, but the ...Pardon me for a rather off topic comment, but the use of the word "seminal" in the post made me want to bring something up: <br /><br />In the May issue of APS News there was a letter (http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201005/letters.cfm) that suggested that we should move away from using the word "seminal" due to its "sexist" nature. I am not a native English speaker, so I has to look up the exact origin of the word before I understood why would anyone have such an idea. Still, I find it nothing short of absurd.<br /><br /> Most importantly I find it reassuring (that the world has not gone mad) that someone as sensitive to gender issues as the author of this blog, still finds "seminal" to be an acceptable word. I would also enjoy reading your thoughts on the subject (as long as they agreed with my opinion :)).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-72703529588862529542010-06-09T15:34:34.759-05:002010-06-09T15:34:34.759-05:00@William: I don't think these are vanity proje...@William: I don't think these are vanity projects but rather silliness projects.<br /><br />A mathematician no longer completely plugged in to the research community decides that some piece of silliness is worth studying. Sure it's not exactly research at the frontiers of mathematics, but people find it amusing and interesting. Frankly, it's just as good a use of mathematics as the ridiculous examples folks put in calculus textbooks.<br /><br />I think it's a positive aspect of the mathematical community that we appreciate endeavors like the Genealogy Project and Erdos Numbers. (This is excluding the few nutters who actually take these things seriously.) Who knows? Someone might eventually be able to extract some information out of the data.quasihumanistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-63394811933145125772010-06-09T14:55:08.184-05:002010-06-09T14:55:08.184-05:00Yeah, I wonder about the math-ego thing too. We&#...Yeah, I wonder about the math-ego thing too. We've got one member of our dept. who does philosophy of math, so he's mostly a philosophy person, but he's inordinately proud of his math family tree, and he has the whole genealogy traced out. It just makes me gag.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-75326368339284123542010-06-09T14:29:10.484-05:002010-06-09T14:29:10.484-05:00fecundity refers to the ability to reproduce.
f...fecundity refers to the ability to reproduce. <br /><br />fertility refers to the actual number of offspring produced.<br /><br />"Nature" got this wrong? what's that say about their peer review process?inBetweenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17212548401525577878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-7987996267341505492010-06-09T13:12:43.716-05:002010-06-09T13:12:43.716-05:00As a math grad student, I think the more interesti...As a math grad student, I think the more interesting question is why do mathematicians have so many vanity projects, such as the <a href="http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/collaborationDistance.html" rel="nofollow">Erdos number calculator</a> and the <a href="http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/" rel="nofollow">Math genealogy project</a> (I would guess that this is the database mentioned in the post), at all? Or maybe all fields have them, and I just don't know the physics/biology/etc. equivalent.Williamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-18146916144445621742010-06-09T12:20:30.218-05:002010-06-09T12:20:30.218-05:00My use of the word "seminal" was an atte...My use of the word "seminal" was an attempt at humor.Female Science Professorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15288567883197987690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-17724863552378997212010-06-09T12:16:20.602-05:002010-06-09T12:16:20.602-05:00I am a professor in the physical sciences where jo...I am a professor in the physical sciences where job prospects are few outside academia. My personal goal is to "mentor" students who will eventually go into diverse fields, some in academia and others who will adopt a totally different career. I am very proud of one of my mentees who has been a science writer. Does this protégé count against my fecondity?franglaisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-79299115461642550702010-06-09T10:56:40.615-05:002010-06-09T10:56:40.615-05:00I strongly agree with your idea of not just lookin...I strongly agree with your idea of not just looking at academic family trees. If you asked me who my mentor is, my first answer would not be my advisor, it would be another faculty member in the department.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-86396665435626194012010-06-09T08:23:25.815-05:002010-06-09T08:23:25.815-05:00I work at a Big Research University as an administ...I work at a Big Research University as an administrator--lots and lots of editing and writing, in particular. I spend much of my time removing "reproductive" words out of research profiles and bios like vigorous, virile, fruitful, prolific, potent, probing, stimulating, generative, thrust, stroke, and, of course fecund. Some of them are fine by themselves, but used all together in a pile in a short document, one can't help but wonder weird and creepy relationship some researchers bear to their work--and I suppose I can to add to this mix their advisees. And, oddly, it's more common to see these word choices for physics and math, where most researchers (though not all) around here are men... <br /><br />Sorry to nitpick, but "seminal" is also in this class of words. I know it's a common word to use in reference to research, but most of its definition refer to seeds and semen in the OED. Maybe I'm just an oversensitive literary type, but it totes creeps me out. <br /><br />Or maybe, if you're researching advisor "fecundity," "seminal" is the perfect word to use?b(oston)s(cholar)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14637814104776326602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-42533625222815441492010-06-09T08:21:31.209-05:002010-06-09T08:21:31.209-05:00The 2nd conclusion doesn't actually surprise m...The 2nd conclusion doesn't actually surprise me - I've noticed that many of my fellow junior faculty were early students (pre-tenure) for their PhD advisor. I don't know if it's the academically-minded self select for the new/challenging lab situation or if going through that situation where you have a more involved advisor and see what starting a faculty job is like better prepares you. Yes, these are broad generalizations - just something I've noticed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29059245.post-1242123835815992172010-06-09T06:47:45.178-05:002010-06-09T06:47:45.178-05:00It's an interesting idea for a study, but hard...It's an interesting idea for a study, but hard to pull off. I think the (undeniable?) historical events and their effects on mentoring since 1960 would make this time period more interesting and relevant to most of us. In 1960, I suspect I would have been mentored straight into a nice secretarial job, and straight to the stake in 1637.Trabornoreply@blogger.com