East Manchester woman turns fish hobby into business

This is not an article about a scientist, but it is an interesting story on how to follow a passion into a profession.

(Edited to remove incorrect assumption that she lived in England. She's in Pennsylvania!)

YorkDispatch.com: East Manchester woman turns fish hobby into business

His name is Captain Crankypants.

Rachel O'Leary brought him home for her husband, thinking a charismatic and interesting Oscar cichlid would be the perfect fish to invite him into her world of breeding fish and invertebrates.

"I thought he would enjoy a big, mean cichlid," she said. "What he got was a prissy, moody cichlid trying to blend into the back of his aquarium."

Standing in the basement from which she operates Invertebrates by Msjinkzd,

she stared into Crankypants' habitat and gave him a look that said, "We both know how you are, don't we?"

He was in one of his moods, floating against a black wall in his aquarium, playing chameleon. His white stripes had gone dark and he wore a pretty serious look on his mug.

"It's not just you," she explained to a visitor. "It's anything different. ... He ignored Chris (her husband) for a year. He pouts for months on end when you change anything. He'll go on hunger strikes."

In one way, he's just like the woman whose stares he seems to be actively avoiding. O'Leary might not be prissy or moody, but both she and the fish aren't what people expect.

He's a moody cichlid. She's a 32-year-old scientist with a foot-high mohawk.

She's a mother of three who likes baking, an academic with a degree in fine art. She's a heavily tattooed homebody who's more likely to spit out a term like "Cambarellus patzcuarensis" than an expletive.

Hobby turned business: Like a growing number of entrepreneurs, O'Leary conducts most of her business on the Internet, where she has a website and sells through online aquaria networks.

She specializes in rare species, many of which are imported from Asia, India and South America, and she sells retail and wholesale, she said.

Many of her customers are people who have exotic plants and are looking for species to accent their water-garden arrangements.

She started formally selling invertebrates and nano fish, which are generally shorter than two inches, out of her East Manchester Township home about 18 months ago but has been breeding for about eight years.

It all started, she said, after she received a frog for Mother's Day and wanted to fill its habitat with other creatures that wouldn't bite it. Employed as a veterinary technician, she said she has "had a lot of jobs and a lot of interests," but there's always something new to learn about fish and invertebrates.

She developed a voracious appetite for information on the hobby, soon becoming a respected expert in the field who speaks at conventions and serves on the board of the Capital Cichlid Association. She is paid to appear at events for aquatic organizations and fish clubs.

"There's not many people who look like me," she said. "Fish people are typically middle-age men."

But those "fish people" might be an easier crowd to win over than the PTO moms. She said people who share her interests rarely misjudge her because she's respected and her reputation precedes her mohawk.

"I'm focused and thoughtful in what I do, and that's something that trumps my appearance," she said. "People tend to get over it pretty quickly."

A Mountain of a Lady

Huffpost Women: A Mountain of a Lady
[...]
Mary Moriarty Galvani, who died on Friday at the ripe old age of 96, was one of those truly great figures. She was raised in Shakopee, Minnesota and was one of five great kids who would all go on to serve in some capacity in World War II. Her father was an estimable judge whose name was well known across Minnesota. At the age of 7, she became deathly ill with pneumonia. The doctors feared that the disease would mean the end for Mary Galvani, but as she proved time in and time out throughout her life, it would take a hell of a lot more to stop her. She learned two valuable lessons that she would live by through that experience. One, to always treat those around you as if they were kings and queens. The second: that you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story. The combination was deadly and had those she met bedazzled and gleaming till the end.

Although her youth was impressive, Mary was one of those rarest of flowers that bloom late. A scientist at a time when few women attempted the feat, Mary Moriarty Galvani constantly found herself the sole woman in an environment filled with gentlemen. At a plant in Indiana she met her late beloved husband Vincent Galvani, who would go on to develop the trigger for the atomic bomb. However like many women in the 50's she would retire to devote herself solely to the raising of her three beautiful children. But not content with retirement, Mary Galvani decided when her last child was 14 to once again make a proverbial splash onto the scientific scene.

She applied for a high level position in the water plant in 1967as a response to an ad she had seen in a "Help Wanted: Male" classified advertisement. When asked by the St Paul Pioneer Press why she had made the gutsy decision to enter an all male department in her twilight years she smiled and said confidently, "It didn't say women need not apply. So I did." When she walked into the water department for the first time, she was confronted with beady-eyed stares and vicious glances, but when she finally begrudgingly retired, those same men were struck with grief. While there, she patented a process and media for the speciation of strep, which became a much-cited patent in the investigation of e-coli contamination, and has led to the saving of many lives. She had made feminists out of sexists, and she did it without raising her voice, lecturing them, complaining to her supervisors and more remarkably, did it with a smile on her face and a strong right hook ready just in case they didn't evolve

Mary Moriarty Galvani transformed from "one of the guys" to the world's greatest grandmother in 1984 when she was called to Southampton to help her youngest daughter raise a difficult new baby. The one condition her daughter told her: "Leave the cigarettes in Minnesota." Although she had smoked for more than 50 years, she quit and renewed, she moved to New York to take on the role of matriarch to the third generation. Mary Galvani, like an expensive wine, got better with age. Her stories became richer, her delivery more fine tuned and her effect dramatic. While at the end she at times needed a walker to maneuver herself, the woman could outrun most people 30 years younger, and not as a consequence of hordes of vitamins or years of yoga, just from an indomitable spirit that plowed on.

Although I'm only 22-years-old, I've been blessed with an opportunity to meet some of the truly great figures of the 21st century; but none of them compare to Mary Galvani. In fact not a single one of them comes even come close. At the age of 94 she was diagnosed with dementia, the unstoppable plague that is wreaking havoc on our elderly loved ones and sadly is still incurable. She didn't panic; she didn't cry. All she did was to embrace it fully and to take it on as she had all the challenges of her life: with unprotected optimism, strong resolve and a zest for life.

Forced to move to the 80th street residence, it became her new palace, the new employees her father's old confidants, and the friends, new Dukes and duchesses. When she died on Friday from an aneurism that burst while she was surrounded by her family, the entire residence insisted on coming to visit this mountain of a woman. When asked why everyone from the chefs, to the janitors, to the other residents all insisted on visiting this woman, one mid 30's aide on the third floor said, "We are here because we are hoping to get just one more story, just one more chance to hear something from this woman." I said staring at this hopeful and optimistic woman, "you realize that she is no longer with us, right?" And the woman looked at me and smiled, "Mary Moriarty Galvani will never die." I smiled thinking back to what Welles had said about Cornelia Lunt and I too realized that one of the greats had passed. Perhaps, not a famous name, but an indelible figure that neither I, nor anyone who came across will soon forget.

H.B. woman gets National Science Foundation fellowship

Orange County Register: H.B. woman gets National Science Foundation fellowship
A Huntington Beach resident and recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach is set to join the likes of Google founder, Sergey Brin; the co-author of "Freakonomics," Steven Levitt; and Steven Chu, the U.S. Secretary of Energy.
Delora Gaskins, who recently completed two bachelor's degrees, one in chemistry and the other in mathematics, was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the oldest fellowship of its kind. Brin, Levitt and Chu along with 30 other Nobel Prize winners are among a select group of people who have received this prestigious award.

Gaskins will take her fellowship to Brandeis University this fall where she will earn her Ph.D in chemistry while working in the laboratory of Irving Epstein.
"It became clear to me while working in the Epstein laboratory that this is really my research passion," Gaskins said. "There are so many interesting dynamical features to explore and I'm so excited to get started."

According to the professor's profile on the university website, Epstein's research focuses on patterns in time and space, primarily in chemical systems.
Gaskins said she wasn't always so clear on which career path to take.

"Reflecting back on it, there were times when I didn't know what I wanted to do in the big picture. But I kept finding things I liked, often in random situations, and then pursued them," she said.

Gaskins, a Marina High School graduate, said finding a Japanese calligraphy group on campus clinched her decision to attend CSULB.

"There's so much intellectual exchange [at Long Beach] and being part of the scientific community helps you grow as a person and as a scientist. I can't emphasize that enough," she said.

Gaskins will receive a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $10,500 allowance for tuition and fees and will have access to the TeraGrid supercomputer.

Scientist thrives in Miss. environment

Clarion Ledger.com: Scientist thrives in Miss. environment
All her life, Melissa Pringle has been surrounded by strong, determined women.

Her grandmother, Edna Thomas Lobrano, worked as a bookkeeper at Perry Automotive and John Deere in Centreville at a time when most women stayed home and tended to domestic affairs.

Lobrano recently passed away at age 98.

"She was a really strong, feisty woman. She even carried a small derringer in her purse," exclaimed Pringle, laughing. "She was tough!"

Lobrano's tenacity was passed on to her daughter, Jacqueline Lobrano Gordon, a retired medical technologist in Meridian, and eventually her granddaughter, who today is vice president and senior principal scientist at Eco-Systems Inc. in Jackson.

Born in Oxford and reared in Meridian, Pringle had dreams of becoming a doctor like her father. Her interest changed when she enrolled at Millsaps College and was introduced to environmental science by professor Sarah Armstrong.

"I shifted from pre-med, the study of the human body, to the environment as a whole," she said. "I'm fascinated by the interconnectedness of science in all aspects of life. It's like a puzzle, and you have to put all the pieces together."

Upon graduation from Millsaps, Pringle began her graduate studies in oceanography and coastal sciences at Louisiana State University, where she met another influential mentor, professor Margaret Reams.

Pringle conducted her post-doctoral fellowship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C., in 1998, which also happened to be the International Year of the Ocean.

Pringle launched her consulting career in southern California. Though she enjoyed her work, she missed Mississippi.

"It was time for me to come on home and apply what I learned here," she said.

Eco-Systems, an environmental engineering and consulting firm, has been Pringle's professional home for 12 years.

There, she specializes in policy and management with a focus on natural and coastal resources. She currently serves on the Gulf of Mexico's Action Plan's Resilience Group and assisted in the development of the five-year resiliency plan for the Gulf.

As Eco-System's sole female senior principal scientist, Pringle said working alongside her colleagues is a rewarding experience.

"Engineers do not think like scientists and men do not think like women, but you learn from different viewpoints," she said. "There are times when we may not see eye to eye, but we always try meet in the middle."

At home, Pringle is a wife and mother of three children ages 4, 6 and 15.

She wants to instill in them the same strong-willed determination shown by their trailblazing great-grandmother.

"I can teach my children that hard work pays off," she said. "You can be hardcore and hardworking, but also have the passion and compassion that makes you relatable ... that makes you real."

Naked female scientist tries to tame belugas

[I really don't think whales can tell the difference between naked humans and humans wearing wetsuits, but, I share this article here anyway...

HeraldSun (Australia): Naked female scientist tries to tame belugas
BRAVING sub-zero temperatures, she has thrown caution and her clothes to the wind to tame two beluga whales in a unique and controversial experiment.

Natalia Avseenko, 36, was persuaded to strip naked as marine experts believe belugas do not like to be touched by artificial materials such as diving suits.

The skilled Russian diver took the plunge as the water temperature hit a freezing minus 1.5C.

Belugas are famed for the way in which their faces are able to convey human-like expressions. Certainly, Matrena and Nilma seemed to enjoy frolicking with Natalia.

The taming of the whales happened in the Murmansk Oblast region in the far northwest of Russia at the shore of the White Sea near the Arctic Circle branch of the Utrish Dolphinarium.

An area of the sea is enclosed to stop whales and dolphins getting out, and instructors tame the mammals before they are taken to dolphinariums around the world - a practice many animal conservationists consider cruel.

Belugas have a small hump on their heads used for echo-location and it was thought that there would be more chance of striking up a rapport with them without clothes as a barrier.

The average human could die if left in sub-zero temperature sea water for just five minutes.

But Natalia is a yoga expert and used meditation techniques to hold her breath and stay under water for an incredible 10 minutes and 40 seconds.

There are about 100,000 belugas in the wild.

The first to be held in captivity was shown at Barnum's Museum in New York in 1861, and there are belugas in aquariums and sea-life parks across Europe, North America and Asia.

Their large range of "facial expressions" comes from them having a more flexible bone structure than other whales.

Certainly, these two had a big smile for the naked Natalia.

Esri Appoints Dawn J. Wright as Chief Scientist

PRNewswire: Esri Appoints Dawn J. Wright as Chief Scientist
REDLANDS, Calif., June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean scientist, geographer, and geographic information system (GIS) author Dawn J. Wright will join Esri as its chief scientist on October 3, 2011. She will help formulate and advance the intellectual agenda for the environmental, conservation, climate, and ocean sciences aspect of Esri's work while also representing Esri to the national/international scientific community.

"As a scientist, Wright brings a background of rigor that will strengthen our alignment with the requirements of the scientific community," said Jack Dangermond, Esri president. "In her capacity as chief scientist, she will interface with government, business, industry, and the public and collaborate with them to understand and find solutions for our planet."

A notable authority in geographic information science, Wright has for the past 16 years teamed with scientists worldwide who use GIS to map and analyze terrains, ecosystems, and habitat. She combines her expertise as a geographer and GIS user to map the seafloor; design geospatial solutions for coastal mapping and charting; and advise organizations on oceanography and fisheries, including her current service on the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board. She has worked with the GIS community to develop data models and create solutions for analyzing the ocean.

"I am honored and excited to serve with Esri in this capacity, and I look forward to helping advance Esri's science vision and scientific strategy as well as new initiatives to strengthen ocean GIS," said Wright.

Wright is currently professor of geography and oceanography at Oregon State University and will continue to be affiliated with the university. In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education named her US Professor of the Year for the State of Oregon. She is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a new fellow of Stanford University's Aldo Leopold Leadership Program in science communication. Her research interests include geographic information science; ocean informatics and cyberinfrastructure; benthic terrain and habitat characterization; and the processing and interpretation of high-resolution bathymetry, video, and underwater photographic images. Wright received a PhD in physical geography and marine geology from the University of California, Santa Barbara; an MS in oceanography from Texas A&M; and a BS with honors from Wheaton College in Illinois. She is also certified by the GIS Certification Institute as a GIS professional (GISP).

About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at esri.com/news.

First Person Singular: EPA administrator Lisa Jackson

WashingtonPost.com: First Person Singular: EPA administrator Lisa Jackson
My godfather, Father Joseph Verrett, encouraged me [as] a very young girl when he realized that I was academically gifted to be a scientist. very influential in just making me believe that that was totally normal. My pediatrician was a woman, and it just never occurred to me that women weren’t doctors or scientists, ’cause in my family and in our culture there were no limits on what I could do. It wasn’t unusual at all to think about science.

The definition of an engineer is somebody who can formulate a problem and then solve it. And usually the language of science and engineering is mathematics, so it’s the ability to take our problems and challenges, whether it be in the chemical world or the electrical world, and then solve them through problem solving. Some of the science-focused careers have the reputation of being emotionless, and so, in order to be a good scientist, you have to divorce emotions from the equation, and I don’t think that’s true.

Part of my message to young women is that your natural human compassion is actually a strength in solving problems, because it means you see more than just the technical challenges — you see the human challenges. So, when the president talks about energy efficiency, I can explain many reasons why energy efficiency makes sense in terms of controlling pollution and making our country less dependent on foreign oil, but oftentimes it’s about the things that matter most to people, which is the pocketbook, the impact on the health of their children, the impact on air pollution and public health. The best scientists are very much compassionate; they’re very much humanists, and they understand that man and mankind, womankind, are part of the ecosystem, so we have to do our part and protect it.

The politics right now inside the Beltway are very tough. It’s probably as polarized a time as we’ve ever seen, and I work on an issue that I don’t believe is political. We rely very heavily on the science and following the law and being transparent. If you’re going to talk about people’s health, you need to be as transparent as possible. Communities that are overburdened with a lot of pollution — smokestacks or tailpipes; old, dirty diesel trucks — they are keenly aware of the connection between those sources and their health. Oftentimes, communities that are the poorest, that you might think would quote, unquote, worry about more important things, understand that it is absolutely fundamental to their health to have a strong EPA that enforces the Clean Water Act or enforces the Clean Air Act.

What’s amazing about this job is, it doesn’t matter if they voted for this president or not — they care deeply and believe overwhelmingly that clean air means health, and dirty air means sickness and death. And a community can’t thrive without clean water. It’s universal. It’s a very American belief.

The NS Interview: Precious Lunga, epidemiologist

NewsStatesman (England): The NS Interview: Precious Lunga, epidemiologist
Do you ever feel in a strange position because you're a woman in a male-dominated field?
It's more the reaction of other people when I say, "I'm a scientist" - and you can see them blinking. I did an outreach event at a school in Camden where I dressed up as a scientist and explained the whole point of science, and a girl said to me, "Wow - you're a woman and you're a scientist!" And that's in London.

How did you get involved in Aids research?
In a roundabout way, because I trained as a neuroscientist. I enjoyed it and yet there was always a niggle that I wanted to interact with women and children, and be out in the field.

So what's your job description now?
I'm an epidemiologist, working as a consultant for a children's foundation.

You've been involved with antimicrobial gels to combat HIV. Why are they important?
It's almost a kind of chemical condom that will allow women to protect themselves against HIV but also keep options open for them. So if they want to have babies they could do so with far less risk of catching HIV, because most women catch HIV in long-term relationships and they can't always negotiate condom use. It gives women that agency in their lives.

And when you talk about your fieldwork, which countries have you been to?
Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique. I've done a lot of work in South Africa. That's where the burden, the bulk, of the epidemic is.

What's that experience like?
You don't get that many African women travelling around on their own, staying in hotels, and so people often come up to me and ask me what I'm doing. I went through Johannesburg [airport] so often that I got to know some of the people there. There was a woman, and I told her what I do. I noticed she didn't look very well. She said: "I have a friend who might have HIV. Is it true people die of that?" I said yes, but it doesn't need to happen now; tell your friend to go to the hospital for drugs.A couple of months later I walked through the airport and saw her, and she looked so well. We had this interaction and I just hugged her. It was as if I knew her.

Because presumably the drugs were for her?
Yeah, it was a way of having the conversation with her. And when you see that, you see the fruits of the research.

Did any other individuals you met stand out?
The community stood out. You ask the women why they do this and they come out with all sorts of reasons. One of them might say: "Well, I'm doing it for my sisters and my children."

Why are we so bad at dealing with Aids?
It requires a lot of commitment. It requires an investment; it goes beyond an election term. The time and effort haven't quite matched up to the scale of the problem.

Have we avoided an "Aids epidemic" by making HIV manageable rather than fatal?
There are countries such as Zimbabwe, which is where I'm from, where you can see declines in the epidemic because fewer people are getting [infected], more people are getting treatment. But we can treat HIV yet we can't cure it, and we need to find new methods of prevention.

What was life like in Zimbabwe?
I grew up there until I was 17, then I came to the UK to do my studies and I stayed. I went to a convent school; most girls didn't do science. When I was at school I loved history and all these other subjects. I remember one of the nuns saying to me, "Well, you're good at science, so you must do science." And my parents always encouraged me.

How is the situation in Zimbabwe now?
Things are in a flux. People are hopeful that it will get better. In terms of HIV, I think it's a good sign that fewer people are dying than there were five years ago, but it's anybody's guess what's going to happen next.

Since your marriage to the Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, has the focus on your personal life overshadowed your work?
Only really in the past year - because if you'd googled me ten months ago, you'd have seen all my professional stuff. But no, when I'm interacting with people it doesn't come up. Perhaps they're all very polite and don't mention it. I don't google myself, so I don't know.

Will you always be a scientist?
Yes, but what sort of science I'll be doing in ten years' time, I don't know.

Is there anything you'd like to forget?
Loads, but actually when you try to forget something you remember it.

Are we all doomed?
No. Saying we're all doomed is fatalistic, and by nature I'm an interventionist. If I think something is not going well, there must be a way of fixing it: that's my approach to life.

Defining Moments
1974 Born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
1998 Gains first-class degree in neuroscience at Edinburgh University
2003 Is awarded PhD in neuroscience at Cambridge University, where she captained the women's karate team
2005 Starts work for the Medical Research Council, focusing on HIV/Aids
2008 Becomes a Yale World Fellow
2011 Joins the Children's Investment Fund Foundation

Topper aims to be a space scientist

The Times of India: Topper aims to be a space scientist
KANPUR: The examination stress is a common symptom which can be seen in the eyes of students we are waiting for the results. But those born to win are always confident. Neha Dixit of BNSD Shiksha Niketan is a confident girl, who made her parents proud by securing 90.6 per cent marks and emerging as the topper in the city in this year's Intermediate examinations.

Like previous years, this year too girls outperformed the boys. The city topper is a boy but the number of girls passing this year is comparatively better. Talking to TOI, Neha expressed her gratitude for her teachers. She also gave credit to her parents and friends for her success.

"I believe that there is no shortcut to hard work and I am thankful to my parents, teachers and friends who stood by me in every up and down," said said.

Talking about her daily routine, Neha said: "I used to study for six to eight hours each day and gave time to relaxation as well."

Discussing about the other areas of interests, she said: "I love playing chess and reading books. I like watching TV but rarely got time to do so during the Board examinations."

Talking about her future objectives, Neha said: "I want to be a space scientist. I love reading books related to space technology."

When asked about the impact of reality TV shows and social networking sites on students, Neha said: "I don't have a Facebook account and I never felt any need for it. I do watch reality shows but only to get entertained as too much involvement would have affected my studies."

Neha said that she supports Baba Ram Dev and Anna Hazare and wants corruption to end.

The talented girl has also managed to crack the All India Engineering Entrance Examination. Neha now wants to prepare for IIT-JEE next year for realising her dreams of becoming a space scientist

A Nobel Laureate's Advice to Women Scientists

Blogs.ScienceMag.org: A Nobel Laureate's Advice to Women Scientists

When Rosalyn Yalow was young, her mother often expressed gratitude that the girl "chose to do acceptable things," Yalow recalled many years later. Yalow was such "stubborn, determined" girl that, she continued, "if I had chosen otherwise, no one could have deflected me from my path." Fortunately Yalow, who died on May 30 at the age of 89, chose the acceptable -- if, at the time, highly unconventional -- path of science. But, as she recounted in her Nobel Prize autobiography, it took all the stubbornness and determination she could muster, plus the aid of some very supportive teachers and the good luck of the World War II draft, for her to achieve the career that made her, in 1977, only the second female laureate in medicine or physiology.


She also achieved the life she wanted beyond science. She felt a "duty to speak to young women, to encourage them to have careers, and particularly careers in science," according to the Washington Post. But she also advised that "all women scientists should marry, rear children, cook and clean in order to achieve fulfillment, to be a complete woman." Live-in hired help supplemented her own domestic efforts while her two children were small. Her daughter, the Post reported, considered her "a pretty wonderful mother."


Honored for "the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones," a technique that has revolutionized biology and medicine, she almost didn't have a scientific career at all. Born in 1921 to parents who had not finished high school, she received a degree in physics -- the first that Hunter College, the highly competitive public women's college in New York City, had ever awarded -- with high honors at the age of 19. But she only got a job somewhat related to science -- as a secretary to a biochemist at Columbia University -- with the help of her professors and because she "agreed to take stenography." (For those too young to remember, that was the special notation system used to take dictation, which the secretary then typed up in regular English.) "The position was supposed to provide an entree for me into graduate courses."

Getting admitted to graduate school was problematic for Rosalyn Sussman, as she was then known. As the New York Timesrecounts, one of the schools she applied to, Purdue University, feared she would have no employment prospects a scientist. In a letter to her professor at Hunter, Purdue listed her apparent drawbacks. "She is from New York. She is Jewish. She is a woman. If you can guarantee her a job afterward, we'll give her an assistantship." (To give Purdue credit, among its antique notions was the idea that departments accepting students for graduate study have a responsibility to think about their future career possibilities.)

The offer of a graduate assistantship finally came from the University of Ilinois, where "at the first meeting of the Faculty of the College of Engineering I discovered I was the only woman among its 400 members," she noted in her Nobel autobiography. "The Dean of the Faculty congratulated me on my achievement and told me I was the first woman there since 1917," during World War I. "It is evident that the draft of young men into the armed forces, even prior to American entry into the [second] World War, had made possible my entrance into graduate school."

When an A-minus in the laboratory portion of an optics course marred her otherwise straight-A record in her first term, the department chair drew a scientific conclusion: "That A- confirms that women do not do well at laboratory work,"' the autobiography continues. "But I was no longer a stubborn, determined child, but rather a stubborn, determined graduate student. The hard work and subtle discrimination were of no moment."

In 1943 she married fellow physics graduate student Aaron Yalow, and in 1945 received her Ph.D. in nuclear physics. Returning to New York that same year, the Yalows eventually settled in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and had two children while Rosalyn pursued her career, first as a faculty member at her alma mater, Hunter, and then as a full-time researcher at the Veterans Administration in the Bronx. The family lived "less than a mile from the VA. With sleep-in help until our son was 9, and part-time help of decreasing time thereafter, we managed to keep the house going and took pride in our growing children."

Rosalyn Yalow's stubbornness and determination served her well not only in gaining her education, establishing her career, and running her household, but in the pioneering scientific work she did at the VA in partnership with Solomon Berson, who died in 1972. Not only did they publlish the "brilliant, now classical papers [that] described the radioimmunological assay method (or RIA) in detail," a feat "accomplished by a spectacular combination of immunology, isotope research, mathematics and physics," according to the Nobel press release. They also rejected a "prevailing concept" about diabetes.

Another thing she rejected was an award as "woman of the year" that she considered demeaning. In her autobiographical statement, however, the people who inspired her and recognized her intellectual worth receive full credit. Her parents always assumed their children would graduate from college. A "great" high school chemistry teacher "excited [her] interest" and two outstanding college professors -- all three of these mentors were male, by the way -- guided her toward "physics, and in particular nuclear physics," which during her college days was "the most exciting field in the world." The biography of Marie Curie, "which should be a must on the reading list of every young aspiring female scientist," was an important influence, she adds. And when admission to graduate school appeared "unlikely" and her parents thought that elementary school teaching was a much more attainable and practical career, her professors encouraged her aspirations. With their support, and true to her "stubborn, determined" nature, "I persisted." The rest, as they say, is scientific history -- and an example of an full life inside and outside of science.

Young paleontologists ready to dig into Dinosaur Club

WiltonBulletin.com: Young paleontologists ready to dig into Dinosaur Club
Quick, name the two Connecticut dinosaurs known from skeletons that were discovered in a Manchester sandstone quarry in the late 1800s.

Answer: Anchisaurus and Ammosaurus.

These are the type of questions students in grades 4-6 are asked in the annual Paleo-Knowledge Bowl held at Yale’s Peabody Museum in November.

Wilton students are gearing up to “defend Wilton’s history of paleontological prowess” in the bowl, with the launch of the second annual Dinosaur Club, according to coach Darrell Fennell. Meetings will take place in the Wilton Library beginning June 6, from 4 to 5.

Mr. Fennell said the sessions are “rigorous and challenging, and will involve experiments, model-building, multi-media presentations, and research in geology, paleontology, paleobiology and evolution. The ultimate goal will be to field a team to enter the 14th annual Paleo-Knowledge Bowl.”

The Peabody Museum is known for its “Great Hall,” which houses the massive, life-sized skeletons of a Stegosaurus and an Archelon, an extinct turtle species around the size of an SUV, and is surrounded by a 100-foot long “Age of Reptiles” mural.

Mr. Fennell said the competition consists of “a battle of knowledge among teams of young paleontology buffs done in rounds in a ‘College Bowl’ format. The questions are tough and largely center on dinosaurs, but may involve all aspects of the study of ancient life including the identities of the discoverers, theories of the behavior of ancient animals, early hominids and continental drift.”

In 2007, a Wilton team finished second, then followed with first, second and third place awards. Mr. Fennell, a retired lawyer, said approximately 20 teams from across the state usually compete.

For the youthful paleontology experts, the Peabody Museum “provides fossils and books to the winning teams; and for the top two teams a family membership for each teammate and a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum,” Mr. Fennell said. “The tours allow the students to see some of the collections not on display to the public, and also to meet some of the world famous scientists working at Yale.”

Mr. Fennell said the Wilton tradition started with Emmy Miller, a young dinosaur buff, and her mother, Michelle. The family was from Utah, where Emmy had gone on a dinosaur dig. When they came to Wilton, they learned of the Paleo Knowledge Bowl, and went to see it.

Ms. Miller said she was “blown away” by how technical the questions were and the competitive level of the participants.

The next year, Ms. Miller coached a team that included her daughter that took second place. The following year, Emmy and Katherine Fennell, Mr. Fennell’s daughter, won the competition.

“They were able to beat a team from Hamden by correctly identifying a fossil skull as belonging to a whale rather than a reptile,” Mr. Fennell said.

So how could they tell?

“The key lies in how a whale’s skull is hinged onto its jaw,” he said.

Last year, the Wilton Library sponsored the team from Wilton, and hosted a summer Dinosaur Club. Under the direction of Children’s Librarian Lesley Keogh and with assistance from Mr. Fennell, “students spent the summer learning about dinosaurs and other early life forms with hands-on examinations of fossils and vertebrate skeletons, experiments, modeling and slide presentations in various aspects of earth sciences and the history of life on earth. It will show the interrelatedness of life, and the preciousness of life,” he said.

Kids are fascinated with dinosaurs, according to Mr. Fennell, and the club and competition is a “good way of getting them into a high level science enrichment program ... Dinosaurs are the most successful form of life ever created on Earth. They dominated the planet for 140 million years, until an asteroid ended their reign.”

The first session at the library will involve “fossilization and the nature of the fossil record over deep time,” Mr. Fennell said.

To register, visit the Wilton Library’s Web site and click on the entry for the Dinosaur Club in the events section of the home page. Information: dkfennell@yahoo.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Andrea McElroy at amcelroy2@optimum.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Women in Science: Their Personal Journeys

Sciencemag.org: Women in Science: Their Personal Journeys
NEW YORK, NEW YORK—The venue couldn't have been more fitting. Last night, at a small performance hall in Brooklyn known as the Galapagos Art Space, nearly 200 scientists gathered to celebrate the trials and triumphs of women in science as part of the World Science Festival, a 5-day series of panels and talks on the latest scientific issues and research. Like the creatures of Darwin's famous archipelago, these females often thrived as an isolated species—on isles in a sea of men.

As prominent women scientists took to the stage to chat about their journeys, attendees sipped cocktails named for female science pioneers. One drink was concocted to honor Agnodice, a Greek physician and gynecologist who lived between the 3rd and 6th centuries B.C.E. and dressed in drag because it was illegal for women to practice medicine. Alessandra Giliani, who lived from 1307 to 1326, was the first woman to inject fluids to trace blood vessels and had a beverage in her name. And attendees could imbibe the Herschel Cocktail, at tribute to Caroline Herschel, the first woman to discover a comet, which is named for her, in 1786.

Jean Berko Gleason, professor emerita of psychology at Boston University and a founder of the field of psycholinguistics, said that during her undergraduate days in the 1950s at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the women's college affiliated with Harvard College, women were barred from writing for the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson and excluded from Harvard's Wagner Library for fear that they would "excite men." Things have changed, though. National Science Foundation (NSF) statistics show that women received 67.4% of doctorates in psychology in 2000 and 72% in 2008.

Next, cosmologist and published poet Priyamvada Natarajan traced the origins of her fascination for mapping dark matter and the growth of black holes. Growing up, the Yale University professor wanted to be an explorer because she was enthralled with maps, but she didn't want to go on long, grueling voyages and "didn't want to get scurvy. So I became a cosmologist." Celebrating the calculations of women who classified and cataloged stars for the Harvard College Observatory from the 1890s to the 1930s, Natarajan noted that their maps of the heavens are so accurate that they are still used to calibrate Harvard's telescopes. "We've come a long way. I'm wearing a much more comfortable skirt than them," she quipped. "And yet, it's still not clear to some that women are adept at abstract mathematical calculations." According to NSF, 39 women received Ph.Ds (23.9% of the total) in astronomy in 2008, compared with 25 (24.8%) in 2000.

Emcee Faith Salie, a CBS News Sunday Morning contributor, a panelist on NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!, and the only Rhodes scholar who performs stand-up comedy, wondered how people react to Natarajan's specialty. "When people hear you're a cosmologist, do they think you're an expert in make-up?" she asked.

Salie introduced Joy Hirsch, a neuroscientist at Columbia University who researches ways to image human brain activity during complex behaviors. Hirsch confessed that she was terrified of speaking about herself. But in reflecting on her passion for her field, she realized that pioneers, the thrill of the chase, and going after what's unknown are in her blood. In the 1890s, Hirsch's great-grandmother was hired to defend a wagon train headed for Oregon because she was such a good shot. Hirsch showed a photo of her holding her great-grandmother's rifle. That frontier spirit informs her teaching. Hirsch tells her students, "If you know what you're doing, you shouldn't be doing it because the job of a scientist is to go where no one has gone before." Approximately 50% of Ph.Ds in biology went to women in 2008, up from 44.1% 8 years before, according to NSF.

Cryptographer Tal Rabin, who works at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, studies multiparty computations and proactive security. "People often mishear me when I tell them what I do. They say 'Oh, you're a photographer,' or, 'You're a cartographer,' " she said. There are very few women in cryptography, and only three or four others are senior to Rabin. She is surrounded by men at work all day, which is unfortunate, she said, "because diversity is good for any field. People have different ways of improving science, and I'm saddened that there are not more women involved." NSF reports that women earned 22% of Ph.Ds in 2008 in computer science versus 16.9% in 2000.

Finally, Harvard mathematician Corina Tarnita spoke about her career as a mathematical biologist and her recent collaboration with Harvard biologist and mathematician Martin Nowak and sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, also at Harvard, on modeling networks that change dynamically through time in ant colonies. Her interest in math is rooted in her childhood on the family farm in Romania, where her grandmother was responsible for the finances. Her earliest memory was of her mother giving her an apple only after Tarnita solved the problem, "If I have three apples, and I give you one, how many do I have left?" When she was an undergraduate at Harvard, not one math course was taught by a woman, and the first woman mathematics professor got tenure just last year, she said. The NSF study showed 31.1% of Ph.Ds went to women in 2008, 25.3% in 2000.

Working with Wilson changed Tarnita's life and how she looks at life, she said. The research demystified the altruism of worker ants by showing that their behavior helps the queen reproduce more, "a new way of reproducing [in that it] helps someone else reproduce." Wilson was happy with the results, but a few days later he called her at 6 a.m. He wanted her to walk him through the equations she formulated for the model. "The fact that at 81 the man who started more fields than most wanted to learn mathematics was a surprise," Tarnita says. "But that I could explain it to him was a wonderful experience. .... I see it as proof that even though women have a long way to go, ... it reinforced what I always hoped for--that there are people who just want the best person for the job."

Ocean Science Saturday: The Pelagic Zone

The Pelagic Zone
In order to learn about a new subject, it is necessary to learn the vocabulary of that subject. Every subject has its own specialized own vocabulary. If it’s a scientific subject, the vocabulary features words usually culled from Latin or Greek or both.

So we’ll start with the two basic regions of the ocean – the pelagic zone, or water column, and the benthic zone, or seafloor.

The word pelagic is from the Latin – and later adopted by the Greeks and was first used in English around 1650–60; < Latin pelagicus < Greek pelagikós, equivalent to pélag ( os ) the sea + -ikos -ic

The pelagic zone (everything in the water) is divided into:
Coastal zone (neritic)
Oceanic zone

Neritic is derived perhaps from the Latin nērīta (sea mussel), or from the Greek nērítēs, ( Nereus – the Greek myth a sea god who lived in the depths of the sea with his wife Doris and their daughters the Nereides) ]

The dictionary definition of neritic: of or pertaining to the shore or coast, used to refer to continental margins, the overlying water, and the organisms that live there.

The oceanic zone is divided into:
1. mesopelagic - of, pertaining to, or living in the ocean at a depth of between 600 feet (180 meters) and 3000 feet (900 meters).

Meso is Greek, and in a slightly diffrent form, Latin, for Middle. So this is the Middle pelagic zone

2. bathypelagic - of, relating to, or inhabiting the lower depths of the ocean between approximately 1000 and 4000 metres

Bathy - [from the Greek bathus deep]

3. abyssal pelagic - of or pertaining to the biogeographic zone of the ocean bottom between the bathyal and hadal zones: from depths of approximately 13,000 to 21,000 feet (4000 to 6500 meters).

Abyssal is from the Latin Abyssus and the Greek Abyssos - bottom of the sea

Rosalyn Yalow, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who co-developed the laboratory technique of radioimmunoassay that permits measurement of once immeasurably small quantities of hormones and other biological molecules, died May 30 in the Bronx. She was 89.

Dr. Yalow, the second woman to win the Nobel in physiology or medicine, had been partially disabled in recent years from a series of strokes. No cause of death was given. She had lived in the Bronx for all but four years of her life.

Dr. Yalow’s measurement method — an “assay,” in scientific parlance — initially transformed the study of hormones, and in particular insulin, which regulates the concentration of sugar in the bloodstream. She and her scientific partner, Solomon A. Berson, who died in 1972, used the technique to make pathfinding observations about diabetes.

The power of the technique was immediately recognized by scientists in other fields.

Radioimmunoassay, or RIA, became an essential tool in diagnostic and research labs and transformed blood banks, where it was used to detect pathogens such as the hepatitis B virus that had been unwittingly passed on to people getting transfusions.

“The technique revolutionized medicine,” said William A. Bauman, a physician and researcher at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. “Before them, there was a lot of guesswork in medicine. They took away the guesswork.”

“Her method contributed enormously not only to endocrinology but to all the biological sciences,” said Andrew V. Schally, a researcher at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami who shared the 1977 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Dr. Yalow and Roger Guillemin. Her co-winners used radioimmunoassay to study the action of hormones produced by the brain. (The first woman to win the Nobel in physiology or medicine was Gerty Cori, in 1947.)

Like Schally, Dr. Yalow did her most important work in the VA medical system, in her case at the Bronx VA Hospital. Schally recalled Thursday that when they won the Nobel Prize, murmurs in Congress about shutting down the VA system came to an abrupt end.

Radioimmunoassay depends on the ability of antibodies, which are Y-shaped proteins produced by the immune system, to bind with other molecules. For example, a molecule of an antibody against insulin will bind and hold a molecule of insulin.

However, another insulin molecule can knock the first one off and replace it, like children competing in a game of musical chairs. That competition between radioactively “labeled” and unlabeled molecules is the basis for the test.

In their original experiment, Dr. Yalow and Berson labeled insulin with radioactive iodine atoms and mixed it with a solution containing antibodies to insulin. The researchers then added a sample of human plasma that contained an unknown quantity of insulin.

Some of the insulin molecules then competed with the radiolabeled insulin for attachment to the antibody. Measuring the amount of free radiolabeled insulin by a Geiger counter or some other method gives an indirect but precise estimate of the amount of insulin in the plasma sample.

Ben-Gurion U awards honorary doctoral degree to former NASA chief scientist France A. Córdova

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL, June 2, 2011 – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev awarded an honorary doctoral degree to former NASA Chief Scientist and Purdue University President France A. Córdova on Monday evening.

Upon conferring the degree, BGU President Prof. Rivka Carmi said, "This award recognizes France A. Córdova's leadership in fostering academic excellence, pluralism, equality and social justice at Purdue University. Her devotion to educating the next generation of scientists while serving in key academic positions and working indefatigably to raise the quality of education and science teacher-training is deserving of this honor."

Accepting the degree, Dr. Córdova said, "It is a distinct privilege to receive an honorary degree from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, an institution known for teaching and research excellence in engineering, technology and the sciences. I share the aspirations of BGU's President Carmi to better the world through research and scientific exploration and am deeply honored to be included in this year's ceremony."

Prior to joining Purdue University, Dr. Córdova served as chancellor and distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California Riverside from 2002 to 2007. Under her guidance, the University became a national model for the academic success of underrepresented students.

She is currently serving a six-year presidential appointment to the National Science Board and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As NASA's chief scientist, from 1993 to 1996, Dr. Córdova served as the primary scientific advisor to the NASA administration and the principal interface between NASA headquarters and the broader scientific community. She was both the first woman, as well as the youngest person to serve as NASA's chief scientist. For her contributions, she was later awarded NASA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal.

Dr. Córdova's scientific career contributions are in the fields of observational and experimental astrophysics, multi-spectral research on x-ray and gamma ray sources and space instrumentation.

Dr. Córdova earned her Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology. She graduated with a B.S. in English cum laude from Stanford University.

Body of work from a scientist bringing innovation to the front line of medicine

YorkshirePost: Body of work from a scientist bringing innovation to the front line of medicine

It’s no surprise that Professor Eileen Ingham has been honoured as a leader, innovator and role model. Sheena Hastings reports.

SHE’S a leading scientist and innovator whose research stands to help tens of thousands of people every year. She has spent the best part of 40 years in labs and clinics, studying everything from spotty skin to the reasons behind the eventual failure of artificial joints and how biology influences the longevity of replacement heart valves.

She is the co-founder and scientific director of a highly-successful university spin-out company marketing a product of new tissue engineering technology for use in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. She’s an inspiring lecturer and role model, and many a scientist or engineer would probably be pleased to accomplish half as much as Eileen Ingham has in her career so far.

When she recently won the award of Woman of Outstanding Achievement from the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, it was in recognition of all of the above and of her leadership within the University of Leeds’s Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, a world leading centre with more than 100 academic researchers and current external grant income of more than £50m. A gentle, good-humoured, no-fuss sort of woman, when she accepted her accolade she simply said she’s been lucky in spending her working life on activities she so enjoyed and in having that work recognised. No bombastic self-promotion, just understated and undisputed fact.

In her own faculty Prof Ingham says women biological scientists are in the majority as undergraduates and there are very healthy numbers staying on to do further degrees and post-doctoral research. The tail-off comes at the upper end of academic posts, where women represent only 20 per cent of the staff. The professor says that women tend to hang back in applying for senior jobs until they feel sure they will succeed. “Men tend to go for promotion sooner, thinking ‘I’ll give it a go’”.

Hearing Eileen Ingham talking about the field that has so engaged her since she first turned up at Leeds as a raw undergraduate in 1972 should be all that any schoolgirl or junior lecturer searching for a new challenge should need to set them on the road to finding their niche. As she describes some of the milestones in her career, her eyes light up. Describing collaborations with engineers and medical clinicians she has worked with along the way, she’s fastidious about naming them all, too many to mention here. In describing some important piece of research, she resists phrases like “ground-breaking” that are too much bandied about in the media. Yet she is acknowledged as a leader in her field.

Born in Manchester, brought up mostly by her dad after her parents’ divorce, and recipient of a solid state grammar school education, Ingham says she “did okay” at school. She loved biology and art, but her biology teacher Miss Morris (again acknowledging the contribution of others) encouraged her to take science A-levels and she applied to Leeds to study genetics and zoology. Shortly after arrival, she’d switched to microbiology and biochemistry, and towards the end of her degree didn’t think she would do well enough to be considered as a postgrad. “I was looking at graduate nursing or health protection, but then I did very well and one of my lecturers suggested a PhD. He sent me to see a professor of immunology at LGI, who offered me a position and I started my research by trying to isolate, characterise and purify the enzymes produced in bacteria involved in acne... I really enjoyed the involvement with patients in clinical trials, sampling young people’s spotty faces.”

Over time Ingham’s research interests widened out into different kinds of inflammatory skin diseases, contributing to the development of better treatments. Then, one day in 1992, medical engineer John Fisher called from across the campus. “He had a problem he thought I might be able to help with. He came to see me with a pot of fluid that carried particles from a hip simulator. There was a hint that the particles might be involved in the failure of artificial hip joints, and he had the insight to see that to understand the role of the particles he needed to collaborate with someone who understood the immune system. It seemed a very interesting problem.”

Ingham set off down a new track, analysing particles taken from simulators and from patients when artificial hips had to be revised (replaced again). “The particles from the plastic joints accumulated in the body, and the body can’t destroy them. Over years the build-up causes chronic inflammation and the load begins to destroy the bone, leading to bone loss around the prosthesis, which loosens. This process can take between 10 and 25 years. Hip and knee replacements don’t fail for mechanical reasons but for biological ones.”

The long-term collaboration between Ingham and Fisher on which particles were the most destructive contributed new understanding which has helped those who manufacture replacement hip and knee joints to modify the polyethylene they use. Research into hips and knees continues, as does newer work on spinal discs. “I don’t think the future of discs is going to be in metal and plastic. It will be in more natural solutions, maybe from stem cell research or biomaterial technology.” In every area of Ingham’s research a team of biologists, clinicians and engineers is involved. “One of the reasons the Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering is so successful is the interdisciplinarity. Clinicians give you the insight into what real patient needs are, so engineers and biologists can focus their work on real problems. More recent work on heart valves and vascular patches have developed in response to direct patient need.

A long-term and ongoing project in conjunction with UK Blood and Transplant Tissue Services, who keep body tissue donated including skin, bone and heart valves for use in transplantation. Ingham and colleagues have spent years on the understanding of how and why the body rejects the “foreign body” (valve) over time, which is particularly problematic in children. “Ideally doctors want the valve to last a lifetime, so the tissue bank people are always looking at ways of improving valves. The question was how to treat the valve so the recipient body did not reject it.”

Eventually a technique was developed for removing the cells from valve tissue, thus removing the mechanism which was essentially “the other person”. The engineers were then able to test whether the valves worked as well without these components. Pig valves were used to further research, and a heart consultant in Brazil helped to further understanding by experimenting with valves taken from pigs and put into sheep. In a still-developing country where heart disease is much more prevalent, clinical need has led to the use of acellular human valves being used for the last seven years.

“Demand in Brazil is higher because there are many more children requiring heart valve replacement. Here in the UK the demand is lower and academics are very cautious,” says Prof Ingham.

Vascular surgeons suggested the same technique was used for a vascular patch – used to close an artery after it has been opened and scraped clean of plaque. “Synthetic patches stay inert in the body and can lead to infection and possibly further surgery to replace part of the artery. With an acellular patch the patient’s own cells move into it and incorporate it into the arterial tissue, helping it to regenerate.” This one product is responsible for the phenomenal success so far of the university spin-out company Tissue Regenix, of which Prof Ingham is scientific director. “It’s very satisfying,” she says. “And I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in such work.”

Does she believe women have something unique to offer to her field? “I don’t know but studies have shown that companies with women in the boardroom tend to do better in terms of profit making. What they contribute that’s unique is hard to define. We’re all scientists. All I can say that this (career) is a great life. Hopefully, I do encourage others.”