Comments on: Ego and ID http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/ I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:57:22 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: The Disco ‘tute’s lack of scope | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-98259 The Disco ‘tute’s lack of scope | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:20:40 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-98259 [...] "Intelligent Design" "think tank" has given money to Guillermo Gonzalez, who was denied tenure at Iowa State U for not doing anything he needed to do to actually get tenure. Things like, oh say, publish papers [...] [...] "Intelligent Design" "think tank" has given money to Guillermo Gonzalez, who was denied tenure at Iowa State U for not doing anything he needed to do to actually get tenure. Things like, oh say, publish papers [...]

]]> By: Sue Mitchell http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-36438 Sue Mitchell Thu, 17 May 2007 16:24:57 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-36438 Phil said: "I want to see scientific departments being biased against antiscience." Why not accentuate the positive rather than the negative? We want to see scientific departments being biased *in favour of science* - genuine science. It's what science departments are about, after all. It's not then quite so easy for the whackos to to whinge about that bias without outright admitting that they are anti-science. If they do admit they're anti-real science, then they're cutting the ground out from under their own feet. IYSWIM? -- Phil said: “I want to see scientific departments being biased against antiscience.”

Why not accentuate the positive rather than the negative?

We want to see scientific departments being biased *in favour of science* – genuine science. It’s what science departments are about, after all.

It’s not then quite so easy for the whackos to to whinge about that bias without outright admitting that they are anti-science.

If they do admit they’re anti-real science, then they’re cutting the ground out from under their own feet. IYSWIM?
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]]> By: MO Man http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-36437 MO Man Thu, 17 May 2007 13:02:17 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-36437 If you haven't yet read what Rob Knop had to say on tenure, I recommend the link to his blog. Very illuminating for us non-academicians. Say, is this Gonzalez the same one who used to be the attorney general? Oh, wait, that's wishful thinking. Must be his half-wit brother. If you haven’t yet read what Rob Knop had to say on tenure, I recommend the link to his blog. Very illuminating for us non-academicians. Say, is this Gonzalez the same one who used to be the attorney general? Oh, wait, that’s wishful thinking. Must be his half-wit brother.

]]> By: Rob Knop http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-36436 Rob Knop Thu, 17 May 2007 04:45:28 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-36436 <i>I am first struck by the gut-wrenching nature of the bifurcation. On the one-hand lies the possibility of a secure lifetime position, and on the other, the prospect of being torn from one’s first choice of a career.</i> It sucks on toast, man. Push-one-deep-into-clinical-depression kind of suckage. <i>Do any astronomers ’round these parts have a sense of Gonzalez’s professional reputation in the astronomy community?</i> I don't really know much about his actual published work. Astronomers who have heard of him have mainly heard of him because of his public notoriety as an DI fellow and ID proponent. "Our worst enemy" is the term I heard one astronomer use to describe him once. Suffice to say that amongst at least a fair subset of the astronomy community, he did not have a good reputation, but it was entirely from his public work. Browsing adsabs.harvard.edu, it seems that his professional work was on spectroscopy of stars hosting extrasolar planets. That's pretty far out of my field, so I wouldn't likely have run across it myself. A quick perusal makes it look like respectable stuff. -Rob I am first struck by the gut-wrenching nature of the bifurcation. On the one-hand lies the possibility of a secure lifetime position, and on the other, the prospect of being torn from one’s first choice of a career.

It sucks on toast, man. Push-one-deep-into-clinical-depression kind of suckage.

Do any astronomers ’round these parts have a sense of Gonzalez’s professional reputation in the astronomy community?

I don’t really know much about his actual published work. Astronomers who have heard of him have mainly heard of him because of his public notoriety as an DI fellow and ID proponent. “Our worst enemy” is the term I heard one astronomer use to describe him once. Suffice to say that amongst at least a fair subset of the astronomy community, he did not have a good reputation, but it was entirely from his public work.

Browsing adsabs.harvard.edu, it seems that his professional work was on spectroscopy of stars hosting extrasolar planets. That’s pretty far out of my field, so I wouldn’t likely have run across it myself. A quick perusal makes it look like respectable stuff.

-Rob

]]> By: wright http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-36435 wright Thu, 17 May 2007 04:45:03 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-36435 From what I've gathered on other blogs discussing this case, getting tenure is something of a crapshoot. One can meet all the stated criteria and still run afoul of personality clashes and so forth. So even if Gonzalez did original research, brought in grant money, published books and peer-reviewed papers, etc., that wouldn't have necessarily guaranteed a tenured position. Unfair, but so is a lot of life. That he also promoted the latest dressed-up Creationist collywollop was probably not a plus. From what I’ve gathered on other blogs discussing this case, getting tenure is something of a crapshoot. One can meet all the stated criteria and still run afoul of personality clashes and so forth.

So even if Gonzalez did original research, brought in grant money, published books and peer-reviewed papers, etc., that wouldn’t have necessarily guaranteed a tenured position. Unfair, but so is a lot of life.

That he also promoted the latest dressed-up Creationist collywollop was probably not a plus.

]]> By: Davidlpf http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-36434 Davidlpf Thu, 17 May 2007 04:34:42 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-36434 A science department that will not give tenure to creationists,"well duh". A science department that will not give tenure to creationists,”well duh”.

]]> By: T Jammer http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/comment-page-1/#comment-36433 T Jammer Thu, 17 May 2007 00:46:28 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2007/05/16/ego-and-id/#comment-36433 Do any astronomers 'round these parts have a sense of Gonzalez's professional reputation in the astronomy community? He got a fair bit of work published, but e.g. if his book The Privileged Planet was viewed as cranky then that would be a significant negative in both internal and external evaluations. Do any astronomers ’round these parts have a sense of Gonzalez’s professional reputation in the astronomy community? He got a fair bit of work published, but e.g. if his book The Privileged Planet was viewed as cranky then that would be a significant negative in both internal and external evaluations.

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