Feminism and Science - [Guest Vlog]
Jess talks about the difficulties of persuading girls to study science and has a rant about a couple of recent instances where sexism has made the situation worse.
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To test scientist’s reactions to men and women with precisely equal qualifications, the researchers did a randomized double-blind study in which academic scientists were given application materials from a student applying for a lab manager position. The substance of the applications were all identical, but sometimes a male name was attached, and sometimes a female name. Results: female applicants were rated lower than men on the measured scales of competence, hireability, and mentoring (whether the scientist would be willing to mentor this student).
(via Scientists, Your Gender Bias Is Showing | Cosmic Variance | Discover Magazine)
“16-Year-Old Egyptian Scientist Finds Way to Turn Plastic Waste Into $78 Million of Biofuel!”
What Azza proposes is to break down the plastic polymers found in drinks bottles and general waste and turn them into biofuel feedstock. (This is the bulk raw material that generally used for producing biofuel.) It should be noted that this is not a particularly new idea, but what makes Azza stand out from the crowd is the catalyst that she is proposing. She says that she has found a high-yield catalyst called aluminosilicate, that will break down plastic waste and also produce gaseous products like methane, propane and ethane, which can then be converted into ethanol.
Although the title is absolutely ridiculous, the Wall Street Journal does a profile on neuroscientist Ben Barres.
Ben Barres Ph.D. is spoken of highly in the article, “Being first a female scientist and then a male scientist has given Prof. Barres a unique perspective on the debate over why women are so rare at the highest levels of academic science and math: He has experienced personally how each is treated by colleagues, mentors and rivals.
Based on those experiences, as well as research on gender differences, Prof. Barres begs to differ with what he calls “the Larry Summers Hypothesis,” named for the former Harvard president who attributed the paucity of top women scientists to lack of “intrinsic aptitude.” In a commentary in today’s issue of the journal Nature, he writes that “the reason women are not advancing [in science] is discrimination” and the “Summers Hypothesis amounts to nothing more than blaming the victim.”
This article is actually pretty great - read it!
![somekindofbecca:
spacewatching:
Melba Roy heads the group of NASA mathematicians, known as “computers,” who track the Echo satellites. Roy’s computations help produce the orbital element timetables by which millions can view the satellite from Earth as it passes overhead.
[In the days when computers wore skirts - ed]
Mandatory reblog for a badass scientist woman of colour!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7ovb2mT3Z1rsjtoco1_500.jpg)
Melba Roy heads the group of NASA mathematicians, known as “computers,” who track the Echo satellites. Roy’s computations help produce the orbital element timetables by which millions can view the satellite from Earth as it passes overhead.
[In the days when computers wore skirts - ed]
Mandatory reblog for a badass scientist woman of colour!
Sally Ride, the first US woman to travel into space, died on Monday after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, according to her organisation, Sally Ride Science. She was 61.
Ride broke new ground for American women in 1983 when at the age of 32 she and four crewmates blasted off aboard space shuttle Challenger. She returned to space for a second mission a year later.
“Sally Ride broke barriers with grace and professionalism – and literally changed the face of America’s space program,” Nasa administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said in a statement.
“She will be missed, but her star will always shine brightly,” Bolden said.
Ride grew up in Los Angeles and attended Stanford University, where she earned degrees in physics and English. She joined Nasa’s astronaut corps in 1978.
She was assigned to a third shuttle flight, but training for the mission was cut off after the fatal 1986 Challenger accident that claimed the lives of six colleagues and a schoolteacher.
Ride served as a member of the presidential commission that investigated the accident, then assisted the agency as an administrator with long-range and strategic planning.
She left Nasa in 1989 and joined Stanford as a professor. Ride’s interest in education extended to younger students, particularly women whom she targeted with her science education startup Sally Ride Science in San Diego.
The company creates science programmes and publications for elementary and middle school students and educators.
Ride also authored five science books for children and served on dozens of Nasa, space and technology advisory panels, including the board that investigated the second fatal space shuttle accident in 2003.
Ride, who was also a science writer, is survived by her mother, her partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, a sister, a niece and a nephew.
