Shelley McKellar, Surgical limits: the life of Gordon Murray, University of Toronto Press, 2003, pp. x, 270, illus., £28.00, US$45.00 (hardback 0-8020-3739-9).
Bibliographic record
Abstract
it remains problematic for three main reasons.FirstÐas noted by So Èderqvist himselfÐmany factors influence the scientist's life.And in fact, Jerne's life is shaped not only by his inner motivations but also, for example, by social networks: relatives, friends, colleagues, and, last but not least, his wives and girlfriends.So Èderqvist describes all these factors and in fact he delivers a modern biography, which considers the cultural environment of the scientist.Therefore, I have some doubts whether the ``existential biography'' really serves as a new methodological approach.I think the consideration of the ``inner life'' of a person only complements the variety of aspects which should be considered in biographical writing.Second, the analysis is sometimes rather meagre, and the explanation of why the inner life shapes Jerne's scientific theories is sometimes vague and speculative and not entirely convincing.There is no careful conclusive analysis.Third, when focusing strongly on Jerne's personal motivations and ideas, there is danger in adhering too much to his own interpretation of his life.Jerne loved the existential philosopher Sùren Kierkegaard; So Èderqvist loves him too, and the outcome is an ``existential biography''.So Èderqvist explains the danger of a strong identification with the research subject, but the reader is left feeling uneasy.Notwithstanding these criticisms, this biography is an important contribution to the history of science and medicine.It is a good read, it is very inspiring andÐeven if this is not its primary intentionÐit tells us a lot about the history of immunology.The book is above all a reminder of the need for personal aspects of a researcher's life to be considered much more than hitherto, andÐusing a phrase of the historian Peter MorawÐthat the scientist does not leave his personality and social relations in the wardrobe when entering the lab.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.063 | 0.040 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".