Not all women scientists are good...

If I share the good news, I've also got to share the bad...


The Indian Express: Outrage! Woman scientist says girl's intestine would have been intact if she didn't resist rape

“Had the girl simply surrendered (and not resisted) when surrounded by six men, she would not have lost her intestine. Why was she out with her boyfriend at 10 pm?” These comments made by an agricultural scientist at a seminar organised by the police provoked an outrage in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, and demands for punitive action against her.
Dr Anita Shukla, a scientist at the Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, had been invited to the seminar on “Women’s Empowerment” in her capacity as the president of Lion’s Club on Wednesday. Women, Shukla said in her speech, had misused the facilities and rights given to them.
Following an uproar, Shukla apologised in the evening: “I empathise with the victim and pray to God for her speedy recovery.”
Before coming out with the apology, Shukla, however, had appeared to defend her comments by saying the victim would have been better off not putting up resistance. “When a group of men intend to rape, they will do it. The victim should save herself for bringing the perpetrators to book.”
Senior police officers and the State Women's Commission said they were examining Shukla’s comments.

 If anyone has been following the story...this rape victim has now died.

In the States, we say this kind of thing if the girl is out at 3:25 in the morning, has been drinking with two guys at a bar and then invites them back to her bedroom.

But a girl out with her boyfriend, at 10 pm?????

 

 

A scientific pioneer and a reluctant role model

From the Globe and Mail:  A scientific pioneer and a reluctant role model

In the early 1950s, Wilder Penfield, one of the world’s leading neurosurgeons at the time, performed what should have been a straightforward elective surgery. The patient, an engineer who headed his department, had come to the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, affiliated with McGill University, with epileptic seizures. The results of the surgery were catastrophic. “He couldn’t remember anything that happened. He couldn’t go out for dinner and follow a conversation,” recalls the neuropsychologist Brenda Milner. “He had to be demoted to draftsman. But there was no loss of intelligence, no loss in reasoning.”

Dr. Milner was then a 30-something PhD candidate, one of the few women employed by The Neuro (as those who work there call it). “Dr. Penfield was shocked. He didn’t know what happened.” She and the master surgeon wrote up the case, not knowing what would come of it. Soon after, she received an invitation from a neurosurgeon at Harvard. He had a similar case he hadn’t thought significant; did she have any interest?
“I couldn’t imagine why he would invite a young woman to study this case,” remembers Dr. Milner, who at 94 continues her research full-time. The patient, identified for decades only as H.M., became the most important case study in the history of neuroscience, leading to many discoveries about how the brain creates memories. Although doctors had assumed H.M. was unable to form any new memories, Dr. Milner’s groundbreaking research showed that he could develop new motor skills and spatial memories, proving for the first time that there are different types of memory. The Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel credited Dr. Milner with creating a whole new field called cognitive neuroscience.
On November 21, Dr. Milner became the ninth woman to be named to the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame, joining 53 other history-making researchers such as Alexander Graham Bell and J. Armand Bombardier. But she doesn’t like to to be recognized as being one of the few women who have reached the highest ranks of science in Canada.
After her Hall of Fame acceptance speech, a group of young female scientists swarmed her eagerly to snap photos with her, showing how Dr. Milner, albeit somewhat unwillingly, has become an icon of what female scientists can accomplish in a male-dominated field.
“I have not set myself up to be a role model for women, but it does seem to be more of an issue than it used to be,” Dr. Milner explains, recalling how she increasingly gets mobbed by women after public lectures in the past five years. “There is rarely a man in the group.”
Although the landscape, particularly at medical schools, has changed significantly since Dr. Milner began her career, women continue to be underrepresented in many scientific fields. They make up only 39 per cent of students in physical sciences and 17 per cent in engineering and computer science.  According to a recent study from the Council of Canadian Academies, only a third of faculty members in Canada are women, and that number shrinks to 15 per cent in the physical sciences, engineering and computer science.
Yet the toughest competition that Dr. Milner says she ever faced was against other women. When she was in high school she announced her intention to pursue mathematics against her headmistress’s wishes she go into languages. The best science students in her native Britain went to Cambridge, yet the school’s rigid college system only allowed for 400 female students to enroll. “It was tremendously difficult to get in,” she says. “My competition was all women.” Her all-girls school didn’t have the calibre of teacher in math and physics to get her up to a competitive level, so they sent her elsewhere to a male lecturer.
For the rest of her career, however, Dr. Milner was determined to compete with the best scientists, male or female. “She never wanted to win prizes that were only for women, she wanted to win prizes open to both genders so she could beat the men,” says Denise Klein, who has worked at The Neuro since starting a post-doc with Dr. Milner in 1992.
Early in her studies at Cambridge, Dr. Milner realized she would never be a great mathematician and switched to psychology, earning her degree in 1939. She met her husband Peter Milner while working for the military during the Second World War. They hastily married when he was asked to launch Canada’s atomic energy program, and moved to Montreal.
After a teaching stint at the Université de Montréal, she realized that “in North America you were nobody if you didn’t have a PhD.” Dr. Milner wanted more than a teaching career. “I knew I had it in me to do something big,” she says.
When she arrived at The Neuro in June, 1950, to begin her PhD, she was one of few women. “The institute was authoritarian,” Dr. Milner recalls. “People who were junior would not speak out of turn. But it was not sexist.” Dr. Klein goes a step further in describing it as a “chauvinistic environment.”
Dr. Milner’s response to the male-dominated atmosphere was to challenge stereotypes about psychology being a less rigorous approach to brain science than the work of the primarily male neurosurgeons. “She took what she did seriously enough that other people took her seriously and did not dismiss her work as soft science,” says Dr. Klein. “She showed people that her field could be as scientific, as useful and as data-driven as other fields that are taken more seriously.” During this period before brain imaging, when surgery was required to see what was happening in the brain, Dr. Milner’s behaviour-based diagnostic work was eventually seen as crucial.
Dr. Milner insists she never encountered any barriers because of her gender. Her resistance to being recognized as an outstanding woman seems to stem from her desire to be a great scientist in general. “Brenda was good at showing people she was necessary,” says Dr. Klein. “She showed people that the pieces of information she was providing from thinking about the brain and behaviour were important. She told me to make myself useful and I would have a job.”
Far from being dismissed as a woman, Dr. Milner intimidated people. “Remember that she was a very strong woman,” explains Gabriel Leonard, a clinical scientist at The Neuro. “There were very few people that had the courage and the necessary tenacity to fight her. She was a formidable person to debate, with a large vocabulary and a great knowledge of literature.”
Three years ago, Dr. Milner received the prestigious international Balzan Prize, netting $1-million for her research. Now, she is in the midst of launching into a new research area looking at how the hemispheres of the brain interact. This year she is taking on two new post-docs and her colleagues reckon that she may be the oldest scientist in the world to do so.

 

Unequal Access to Resources Depresses Women Scientists' Publication Rates, Study Finds

From ScienceMag:  Unequal Access to Resources Depresses Women Scientists' Publication Rates, Study Finds

Why do women scientists publish less than their male colleagues?   A study appearing in  PLOS ONE  on 12 December suggests an answer: women get a "lower level of institutional support" from their universities. 

Jordi Duch of Northwestern University and her co-authors took a circuitous route to this conclusion.  They compared the publication rates of male and female research university faculty in chemical engineering, chemistry, ecology, industrial engineering, material science, molecular biology, and psychology. These seven disciplines vary considerably in the amount of resources that scientists need to do research, as measured by what they typically spend in a year.  At the low end is industrial engineering, in which much of the work is "theoretical and computational in nature" and "faculty tend to train a small number of students at a time."  At the high end is molecular biology, which requires extensive labs, lots of expensive equipment, and, often, numerous grad students and postdocs to do the bench work.

Because of their relatively small requirements,industrial engineering faculty "do not need to compete against one another for limited resources," the authors state. The "institutional support" needed to do battle for funding is therefore a relatively unimportant "factor in productivity" in the field, the authors suggest.  For molecular biologists, on the other hand, winning large competitive grants is crucial to supporting their labs.  "Institutionally granted resources or institutional support for securing large grants" are vital to this competition and therefore become "crucial components of academic success," the authors write.

Universities have a long history of favoring men over women when allocating resources and support among their faculty members, note the authors, who reason that differences in publication rates should be expected to reflect this discrepancy. Gender differences in publication rates, the hypothesize, should therefore be much smaller in fields like industrial engineering that impose low resource demands than they are fields like molecular biology, where resource demands are very high.

An analysis of the publications of more than 4000 faculty members "fully confirms our hypotheses," the authors state. The differences between the publication rates of male and female industrial engineers are negligible. Female molecular biologists, on the other hand, "consistently publish at a rate significantly lower than" their male colleagues.  This shows, the authors conclude, that "gender differences in institutional support have had a crucial effect on the publication rates of females."

Although the authors caution that their results show only correlation, co-author Luis Amaral of Northwestern University finds them "very suggestive of causality," according to a an article in Inside Higher Ed. You can read the PLOS ONE study here.

 

New posting schedule

Now that I've got this new full-time job, I'll be posting in this blog twice a week - on Monday's and Wednesdays.

So the next post for this blog will be on Monday.

Thanks for your patience.

Posts resume this Wednesday

I'm a freelance writer and I am way behind on a job I have to do, so I won't be posting here until Wednesday..

Thanks for your patience!

Three female Rebel pilots were discharged from ‘Return of the Jedi’

From YahooNews:  Three female Rebel pilots were discharged from ‘Return of the Jedi’

Photo: Star Wars Aficionado Magazine

The Rebel Alliance now seems a little bit less like a galactic Boys Club.
The final battle against the Death Star in "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" (1983) used to have a bit more of a woman's touch as it's been revealed that there were actually three female Rebel pilots taking on TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers as they waited for Han Solo and the gang to blow up the shield generator bunker on Endor (ah, old war stories!).
There were three unnamed lady pilots in "Jedi," two of which can be seen in the extras for the Blu-ray release of the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Both of them were A-Wing pilots, with one even getting a line ("Got it," which was actually dubbed by a male actor in post-production) before getting shot down by a TIE Fighter seconds later. The second pilot is, surprisingly, considerably older ... and could now indeed be the inspiration for a new wave of fan fiction (she's a retired Rebel vet who's allowed to come back for one last hurrah against the Empire after being deemed too old for duty during the Battle of Yavin in "A New Hope," perhaps?).
There was a third female pilot in the Battle of Endor as well. French actress Vivienne Chandler didn't make it into the Blu-ray extras, even though she spent three days on the "Jedi" set and had an entire line of dialogue between herself and another pilot. She also got to fly the much more iconic X-Wing, the ship of choice for her Rebel colleague, Luke Skywalker. Even though actual footage of her in full Rebel mode doesn't seem to exist, she's managed to stay a part of the "Star Wars" universe as she's now a staple on the convention circuit.
There's been no official explanation as to why these characters were cut, though fan speculation suggests that the filmmakers may have deemed the sight of ladies getting blown to smithereens to be too intense for moviegoers ... especially when one could pass for your grandmother.
We have a feeling a lot of the Rebellion's apparent gender discrimination will have dissolved in time for "Episode VII." "Star Wars" needs women, and "Star Wars" will get them if Disney has anything to say about it.

US Dept. of State Announces Webinars for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Fields

From eNewsChannels:  US Dept. of State Announces Webinars for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Fields

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, in partnership with the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the global engineering firm CH2M HILL, will host a series of webinars starting November 29th to support emerging women leaders in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields who are studying in the United States as part of Brazil’s “Scientific Mobility Program” (also known as “Science Without Borders”).
The first webinar on “Career Paths for Women in STEM” will focus on the successes and challenges of women leaders in the STEM fields, and will take place at 12:00 p.m. EST Thursday, November 29th. IIE’s Center for Women’s Leadership Initiatives will moderate the panel, which will include a top executive from CH2M HILL, a leading scientist from the National Cancer Institute, and a leading engineer from Juniper Networks. To view a recording of the webinar after the event, visit www.iie.org/women.
This series of webinars for women in STEM falls under the U.S. – Brazil Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the Advancement of Women signed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim in March 2010. Through the MOU, the United States and Brazil focus on recruiting, retaining, and advancing women and girls in STEM fields. The two countries have jointly conducted numerous professional and educational exchange programs and events to promote these goals.

 

NOAA chief says she will leave in February

From WKRN Nashville:  NOAA chief says she will leave in February

NEW YORK (AP) - The woman who was a key figure in the federal government's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 said Wednesday she will leave her post at the end of February.

"I have decided to return to my family and academia," Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote to NOAA employees.

No successor was immediately announced for Lubchenco, who has held the job since 2009. She became well-known to the public for her role in response to the BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana in April 2010.
Her agency was accused of accepting for too long the oil company's low estimates for the amount of oil leaking. It also was criticized for a report saying that by August of that year most of the spilled oil was gone, or at least not visible. The agency said much of it had dispersed naturally, had burned or was removed.

A few weeks later, a study by independent scientists reported an invisible, 22-mile underwater plume of oil ingredients. And NOAA acknowledged the deepwater oil was not degrading as fast as they initially thought.

Still, Lubchenco was praised Wednesday by the Ocean Conservancy. "Dr. Lubchenco and NOAA were quick to respond to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and continue to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the Gulf region, including the marine ecosystem, is restored," said interim president and CEO Janis Searles Jones.
Lubchenco also oversaw in 2010 the controversial transition to a new fishery management system in New England that allots fishermen individual shares of the catch, which they pool and manage in groups.

The system aimed to give fishermen flexibility to fish when the market and conditions were good, and free them from being restricted to an ever-dwindling number of days they were allowed to fish. And it pleased environmentalists because it established hard, enforceable catch limits to better prevent overfishing.

A marine ecologist and environmental scientist by training, and a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Lubchenco is one of several prominent scientists hired by the Obama administration.

She was a professor at Oregon State University when the president appointed her in 2009. She said in her email Wednesday that "as many of you know, my home and family are on the West Coast."

 

Encouraging women in science

From IowaNow:  Encouraging women in science

With 100 billion nerve cells interconnected via a vast network of neural pathways, the complexity of the human brain is awe-inspiring.
Your brain serves as command center for your body’s vital functions, houses your future hopes and cherished memories, and serves as the seat of consciousness through which you draw purpose and passion.
Shreya Ahuja marvels at how the human brain executes these countless functions, especially after holding one in her hands.
“It was a lot lighter than I thought it would be,” Ahuja says. “For the number of capabilities the brain has, it is pretty amazing it only weighs three pounds.”
Ahuja and Emily Wechsler, 16-year-old high school students at The Hockaday School in Dallas, received an intensive two-week introduction to neuroscience at the University of Iowa last July. Melissa Duff, faculty member in the UI’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, hosted the students in her laboratory as part of this pilot program. Duff holds a faculty appointment in Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The Hockaday School—an independent college preparatory day and boarding school for girls—has established an informal partnership with the UI allowing its students to gain summer research experience in UI laboratories. The relationship between the two schools was initiated by Hockaday science teacher Katie Croft, who earned her doctorate in neuroscience at the UI in 2009.
“Melissa is a perfect choice to work with. Her research is cutting edge, very accessible, and very interdisciplinary,” Croft says. “She’s had lots of experience mentoring students with all different abilities. Furthermore, she’s a perfect role model of a young, successful female scientist. I want our students to have an appreciation for science and feel like they have a good understanding of the real scientific process, which is best taught by doing it.”
Duff, who was a postdoctoral scholar in neurology at the UI when Croft was a graduate student, enjoyed introducing the young women to the world of neuroscience.
While at the UI, the students gained hands-on experience working alongside Duff. The students observed patients with neurological disease, read basic neuroscience research papers, assisted on a project in Duff’s lab, and learned more about traumatic brain injury.
“I’ve never mentored 16-year-old ladies, so I was intrigued about how this research experience would look for younger women,” says Duff, director of the Iowa Traumatic Brain Injury Registry. “As a woman in science and the mother of a little girl, it was fantastic. We talked a lot about the science process, the experience of going to graduate school, and what careers in science look like.”
Ahuja and Wechsler presented a poster about their Iowa experience at the Society for Neuroscience’s 2012 annual meeting in New Orleans in October. Their presentation was part of the conference session Teaching of Neuroscience: K-12.
“The poster focused on what we learned and the partnership between The Hockaday School and the UI,” Ahuja says. “It also was about how we plan to carry this experience to Hockaday.”
Both students agreed that the most valuable aspect of their research experience at Iowa was the people.
“We talked to graduate students, Ph.D.s, undergraduates,” Ahuja says. “Picking up on those conversations throughout the two weeks expanded our knowledge tenfold.”
“The most important thing we did was talk to all different people. They’re who made this experience great,” Wechsler says. “This was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Being here and doing the things we did probably has changed what I will do later on in life. Now, I might do neuroscience because I absolutely love it.”
Barbara Fishel, dean of studies and director of the Hockaday Research Program, wants Hockadaystudents to participate in authentic scientific investigation, and says the UI is a great place for that to happen.
“(In our research program), we’ve seen a maturing in our girls’ scientific reasoning and understanding of the process of science, which enriches their learning experience,” Fishel says. “We would like to make this partnership a formal partnership. This has potential to be a flourishing long-term model for us.”
In addition to presenting a poster at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, Ahuja wrote an essay about traumatic brain injury for the International Science Essay Competition at Dartmouth College.
Ahuja’s entry—“Humpty Dumpty without the King’s Men”—placed second out of more than 80 submissions from more than 20 countries and has been selected for publication in the Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science.
In her essay, she calls for more researchers, funding, and awareness to be given to patients with traumatic brain injury—an “invisible” condition that is complicated to diagnose and treat. The essay was inspired by the two weeks studying neuroscience at the UI.
“I wanted to go into medicine, and I had been leaning toward surgery,” Ahuja says. “When I came to the University of Iowa, I knew nothing about neuroscience. This experience opened up a whole new world of research. Now, there are so many more possibilities for me to look at.”
Those words bring a smile to Duff’s face.
“What’s exciting about this partnership is the mission of The Hockaday School to give young women opportunities in science, coupled with the investment to make neuroscience more accessible and more attractive to younger and younger people,” Duff says.

 

Book recounts activism, struggles of U.S. women scientists

From Chronicle Online: Book recounts activism, struggles of U.S. women scientists

For four decades, Cornell science historian Margaret Rossiter has been researching, writing and publishing on the history of women scientists in America. She started in 1972, when everyone assured her that there had never been any women scientists in the United States, or anywhere, she said.
"Not even Madame Curie counted. But the more I looked, the more I found," said Rossiter, the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History of Science.
Rossiter has completed a trilogy on the topic, with her third book focusing on women scientists' most recent pioneering efforts and contributions. In "Women Scientists in America: Forging a New World Since 1972" (Johns Hopkins University Press), she guides us from the "rather quiet, mundane, even ladylike" emergence of female researchers' first interest groups to their later direct confrontations.
Central to this story are the struggles and successes of "clever, astute, hardworking and determined" women scientists in the era of affirmative action. Scores of previously isolated women scientists were suddenly energized to do things they had rarely, if ever, done before: form organizations and recruit new members, start rosters and projects, put out newsletters, confront authorities and even fight (and win) lawsuits. Rossiter follows the major activities of these groups in several fields -- from engineering to the physical, biological and social sciences -- and their campaigns to raise consciousness, see legislation enforced, lobby for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and serve as watchdogs of the media.
The 528-page book also covers the changing employment picture in the federal government, academia, industry and the nonprofit sector and discusses contemporary battles to increase the number of women in the National Academy of Sciences and of women presidents of scientific societies.
Rossiter mined nearly 100 previously unexamined archival collections and more than 50 oral histories to write the book.
The previous books in her series are "Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940" and "Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-72," also published by Johns Hopkins University Press. The former won an award for the best book by an American woman from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians. The latter was the winner in 1997 of the History of Science Society's Pfizer Award for Outstanding Book in the History of Science.

Women in Science: Florence Bascom 1862-1945

From Daily Kos:  Women in Science: Florence Bascom 1862-1945

When the subject of geology is raised it is only recently that women usually get some mention (although there were more in the past than is generally thought.) It took the efforts of a very unusual person to break the ground for other women. Florence Bascom's work resulted in our knowledge of Appalachian geology being to a large extent defined by a women, who was also a top-notch scientist and recognized as such even fairly early in her career. She was in fact the first professional female geologist in the United States.  Although not the first woman to obtain a Ph.D. in geology (Mary Holms did that at the University of Michigan in 1888), she was the first to be hired as a geologist by the United States Geological Survey and, not only the first, but the sole woman listed in the premier issue of  "American Men of Science" in 1906.
Florence Bascom was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1862, during the Civil War. Her mother was active in the women's voting rights movement and her father, who was a professor of rhetoric, supported equal opportunities for women.  She was awarded a Ph.D. by Johns Hopkins University in 1893, after having earned two bachelor's degrees at the University of Wisconsin in 1882 and 1884. She was able to go to the University of Wisconsin because when her father became president in 1874, one of the first of his actions (1875) was to admit women to classes. She also was awarded a master's degree from the same institution before going on to Johns Hopkins.  Bascom went on to establish herself as one of the formost geologists and experts in crystallography in the country. Her life was a series of being the first woman in a number of other geological areas. In 1901, she became the first woman speak at a meeting of the Geological Society of Washington. In 1924 she was elected as the first woman on the Council of the Geological Society of America and became the society's first woman officer. She published more than 40 articles and became recognized as an expert especially in the geology of the Appalachian Mountains.
Not only a researcher, she taught at several colleges and universities, including one for blacks and Native Americans, finally being appointed to teach geology, then considered to be a secondary subject, at Bryn Mawr in 1895. She founded the geology department there and made geology into a respected discipline at the college. The graduate program that she developed trained the majority of women geologists in the first third of the Twentieth Century. She also built up the geological collection.  Bascom was a demanding, but highly respected teacher and was a pioneer in both research and instruction. She deserves much more than being virtually unknown except to those in the field.
Internet References
Florence Bascom, Pioneer Geologist http://www.usgs.gov/...
Florence Bascom http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Rock Stars: A Life of Firsts: Florence Bascom http://www.gsahist.org/...

 

Women scientists join the men on Antarctica mission to collect meteorites

From Cordis:  Women scientists join the men on Antarctica mission to collect meteorites

A team of women scientists will be joining their male counterparts on a mission to collect meteorites in Antarctica, from 3 December until 12 December.

The meteorite research team consists of five Belgian scientists, led by Vinciane Debaille (Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Laboratoire G-Time, Faculty of Science), and three Japanese scientists from the National Institute for Polar Research (NIPR) in Tokyo.

This mission follows the success of a previous Belgo-Japanese collaboration, the Belgian SAMBA team (Search for Antarctic Meteorites, Belgian Approach), with the collection of over 800 meteorites in the Sør Rondane Mountains region. Now they are set for their latest mission to take on the Nansen blue ice field, to the south of the Princess Elisabeth station, in Antarctica.

Meteorites provide valuable information on the 4.5 billion years of evolution of the solar system and planets, including Earth. Studying these helps researchers to better understand the formation and age of the solar system, the planets, asteroids and comets. Micrometeorites constitute the largest fraction of the extraterrestrial material that falls on Earth, totalling an average of approximately 40,000 tonnes per year.

The systematic collection of meteorites, using Ski-doo snowmobiles, will concentrate on the southern and eastern sections of the Nansen blue ice field, where the scientists hope to find a piece of Mars or the Moon.

However, their research may be hampered by the fierce weather conditions expected in Antarctica. Climatic conditions are set to be very difficult, with temperatures in the region of -20 degrees Celcius, and with an average wind speed of 50 km/h giving a perceived temperature of -37 degrees Celcius. These inclement weather conditions will dictate the pace of work, as strong blizzards can sometimes halt all specimen gathering for several days at a time.

During the previous mission in 2010-2011, after searching for 13 days, 4 to 6 hours a day, a team of 5 people had found a total of 218 meteorites, varying in size from 1 to 15 cm. However, it was the types of meteorites found that proved exceptional. Among the 218 meteorites, two rare types of achondrite (stony meteorites that attest to magmatic activity in the solar system) and a carbonaceous chondrite (the most primitive meteorites having a similar composition to that of the initial material of the solar nebula) were identified.

Their mission will be carried out as part of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and ULB research programme, run by Philippe Claeys (VUB) and Vinciane Debaille (ULB). Funding for the mission has come from the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and logistical support is provided by the International Polar Foundation (IPF).

In 2010, Steven Goderis (VUB) and Vinciane Debaille (ULB) were awarded the InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship to carry out a detailed study of micrometeorites in order to better understand the formation of the planets and the development and evolution of our solar system. Recent studies have shown that micrometeorites can accumulate in the cracks and interstices of the nunataks in the Frontier Mountains, Queen Maud Land, Antarctica.

For more information, please visit:

Expedition blog:
http://antarctica.oma.be/

Université libre de Bruxelles:
http://ulb.ac.be

 

Teen Starts Campaign for Gender Neutral Easy Bake Oven

From ABC News:  Teen Starts Campaign for Gender Neutral Easy Bake Oven
Like most four year olds,  Gavyn Boscio knows what he wants for Christmas — a dinosaur and an Easy Bake Oven.
But the budding chef and his 13-year-old sister McKenna Pope, weren’t thrilled to find out the only colors the Hasbro oven comes in are pink and purple or that the ads and packaging don’t show a single boy.
McKenna decided to take the issue into her own hands and began a petition on Change.org asking Hasbro to alter its packaging and color options. To date, the petition has garnered nearly 10,000 signatures.
“He should know that it’s okay for him to go against societal norms and gender roles,” McKenna said.
Hasbro did not immediately return requests for comment on whether they plan to make the Easy Bake Oven in any other colors.
Jeff Gardere, a child psychologist, said gender neutral toys are crucial to child development.
“In order for children to not face limitations in their occupational choices, we need to present them with gender neutral toys,” he said.
VIDEO: Girl, 4, Blasts Companies for Pushing Girls to Buy ‘Pink Stuff’
This holiday season, overly-gender-specific toys are a hot button issue.  The Butterfly Beauty Shop from Lego’s Friends line has drawn the ire of a group called the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
They’ve nominated it for one of their “TOADY” (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) award, saying it’s “so jam-packed with condescending stereotypes it would even make Barbie blush.”
Lego did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  But previously, in response to the criticism which began late last year, Lego officials said in a statement that their “goal with LEGO Friends is to engage more girls in the positive benefits of construction play.”
Read: Top 5 Nominees for 2012′s Worst Toy
In contrast, in Sweden, the Top Toys group just published a catalog of gender-neutral toy images, showing girls playing with toy guns and boys with blow dryers.
The company is even selling a blue and green kitchen, and depicts a budding chef, a boy like Gavyn, using it.

 

Top secret Doctor Who script found by student in taxi on night out

Okay, not really science related, but interesting!

From Wales Online :  Top secret Doctor Who script found by student in taxi on night out

If you found a top secret script for a new episode of one of TV’s most popular shows, would you be able to hand it straight back without releasing any spoilers?
That’s exactly what one Cardiff student did after finding a Doctor Who script in the back of a Cardiff taxi.
Hannah Durham stumbled upon the script for a forthcoming episode of the sci-fi show during a night out with friends.

Producers, scriptwriters and fans of Doctor Who thanked her for returning the missing script and preventing precious plot details from being leaked online.
Hannah told WalesOnline she was unaware of the significance of the find until she was bombarded with praise from the show’s “Whovian” fans.
She said: “I had never even heard of a Whovian before. I have had so many tweets from people thanking me for returning it – it has just been crazy.”
She added: “I like Doctor Who but I haven’t seen it in a while, so the whole significance passed me by a bit.”

Hannah discovered the script on Halloween night at about 10pm after getting into a black cab with friends in Cathays.
Dressed as a skeleton, Hannah spotted the top-secret script, entitled The Last Cyberman, tucked inside a seat pocket.
The 20-year-old said she placed the script in her bag and only fully realised it was a Doctor Who script the next day.
Hannah said she wasn’t tempted to read the contents – or sell it.
She said: “I glanced at it enough to see that it was a script and I saw the title and everything, but I didn’t feel the urge to read through it or copy it or anything.”
Hannah set about attempting to return the script to show bosses by e-mailing and tweeting scriptwriters and producers.
Her friend Ben Rowling, a fan of Doctor Who, helped her get in touch with the show’s production team.
Cardiff University student Hannah said: “He was more excited than me to be honest. It made his life really. He was just really happy that he could help out.”
She eventually arranged to hand in the script at the BBC’s Roath Lock studios in Cardiff Bay.
The final year English Literature student’s good deed was widely praised.
And scriptwriter Neil Gaiman, who wrote the episode, personally offered his thanks.
He wrote on Twitter: “A world-sized pat on the back to Hannah who found a copy of the Dr Who I wrote, an actress left in a taxi, and returned it safe & sound.”
Hannah said she hoped the BBC would be able to offer her some work experience after returning the Doctor Who script.
What can Doctor Who fans expect from The Last Cyberman?
Doctor Who villains the Cybermen will make a reappearance when the show returns for a run of eight episodes in Spring 2013.
An all-star cast has been lined up to appear in the episode, including Eastenders actress Tamzin Outhwaite and Warwick Davis, the star of Ricky Gervais’ sitcom Life's Too Short.
Jason Watkins, from Being Human and Lark Rise to Candleford, will also appear among the stellar cast.
The official Doctor Who team blog said the guest stars would portray “a band of misfits on a mysterious planet”.

Courtney Stevens assigns outreach projects to inspire her students

From WIllamette University:  Courtney Stevens assigns outreach projects to inspire her students

Sydney Moberg ’13 was nervous about dissecting a sheep brain. But once she held a scalpel in her hand, she discovered the only thing she didn’t enjoy about it was the smell.
“I was fascinated by how the brain looked, how it felt and where each individual part was located,” says Moberg, a psychology major. “When it came time to choose an outreach project, I knew I wanted to teach a brain dissection lab. I wanted other students to have the same type of experience I did.”
Through professor Courtney Stevens’ Cognitive Neuroscience course at Willamette University, students pick an outreach project that connects neuroscience to real-world issues, and in doing so, act out the university’s motto, “Not unto ourselves alone are we born.”
Some, like Moberg, have helped high school students dissect a sheep brain, while others have taught a brain class at Bush Elementary School or discussed the effects of drug addiction with incarcerated teens.
Through community outreach, Stevens hopes to link neuroscience content to her students’ individual career goals and interests. She also wants to connect her students with neuroscience content and resources they can access after graduating.
“Some students come in not believing that cognitive neuroscience is relevant to their future,” Stevens says. “But as they begin to work on their projects, they see the connections between neuroscience and the real world.”
Stevens’ program has been adopted in classes at the University of Oregon. Her program also received praise from the Society of Neuroscience, which awarded Stevens the Junior Faculty Next Generation Award in October for outstanding contributions to public communication, education and outreach about neuroscience.
“For me, the beauty of the outreach project is that students take ownership of the material,” Stevens says. “They choose what they will do. They’re the ones making connections within the community.”

Community Partnerships

Stevens developed the Cognitive Neuroscience course in 2008. Back then, outreach activities were relatively uncommon in undergraduate, neuroscience classes — and they still are today.
“For large classes of 300 students, there would be concerns about quality control,” Stevens says. “There’d be little incentive for faculty members to do this because it’s too much of a burden.”
But in Stevens’ class, not only is there no need for outside funding, students absorb the responsibility.
First, they pick a neuroscience project that interests them. The project features a tangible component that may be evaluated — such as a video or a set of lesson plans.
Students then develop an evaluation rubric that describes what A-, B- and C-level work looks like. Prior to implementing their projects, they submit a project proposal, which Stevens evaluates to help them refine their plans.
When delivered, supervising teachers and participants help grade the presentations, worth up to 10 percent of the students’ final grade.
So far, more than 75 Willamette undergraduates — most of whom are psychology, exercise science and biology majors — have taken the upper-division course.
Two of these students are Linnea Hardlund ’13 and Jennifer Wade ’13, who taught a brain class at Bush Elementary. Through pictures and demonstrations, they showcased the lobes of the brain and the functions of each lobe.
As part of the interactive class, the primary students colored worksheets on the brain and ate a “brainfood” snack of frozen blueberries, which stimulates healthy brain function.
Hardlund and Wade say the outreach project not only challenged them to think critically, it forced them to find creative ways to share their knowledge.
“Professor Stevens’ class was one of the best I have taken at Willamette,” says Hardlund, a biology major. “The outreach project allowed us to take our knowledge from the classroom and bring it full circle in a real-life situation.”

Making a Difference

Maxx Kaplan ’11 also enjoyed Stevens’ class. For his project, he and another student gave a PowerPoint presentation to youths incarcerated at the Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility in Salem.
The presentation focused on the neural effects of drugs and the biological explanations for cravings and addiction.
“We wanted the youths to come away with an understanding that the brain is a growing, changing organ, and that they weren’t necessarily doomed by their family history or past experiences, ” says Kaplan, a psychology major who had interned at the facility.
For Kaplan, seeing the teens make connections between his presentation and their own experiences proves Stevens understands the value of community outreach.
“Professor Stevens knows what she’s talking about, and everyone in the classroom knows it,” he says.
Going forward, Stevens plans to continue soliciting feedback from students and area partners to improve the outreach activities.
“I want my students to do more than read a textbook and take an exam. I want them to be creative and to take ownership of the material,” Stevens says. “They’ve done that. Some of their work has blown me away.”

 

Science careers start with young girls

From the Globe and Mail (Canada):  Science careers start with young girls

On a recent morning, in a spacious boardroom at the Mozilla office in Toronto, 25 girls experimented with writing code that would bring an animal to life on their laptops. The girls, who ranged in age from nine to 14, were taking part in a twist on Take Our Kids to Work day, aimed at empowering girls to become the next generation of software developers and designers.

The event at the Canadian headquarters of the software company was organized by Ladies Learning Code, which offers workshops in designing Web pages and developing other computer skills. Shortly after starting the group, director Laura Plant realized that encouraging tech career paths required targeting a younger demographic by showcasing role models and providing hands-on experience. So was born Girls Learning Code, which offers one-day workshops and summer camps.
“We’re trying to position technology to girls in a way that helps them see it as a creative outlet, and something that can help them change the world,” said Ms. Plant, a former technophobe and human-resources consultant who was encouraged by friends to experiment with technology.
On university campuses, women make up 60 per cent of those enrolled in life sciences, but 39 per cent of undergrads in math and physical sciences and only 17 per cent of undergraduates in engineering and computer science, according to data from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Efforts to attract high-school seniors to STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) come too late. Learning experts say it is crucial to reach girls before their enthusiasm wanes and they drop science and math courses which are optional in high school.
As girls grow up, they are socialized to believe that women are caring and empathetic, making careers that nurture others appealing; more abstract fields like math and physics do not seem as female friendly. Drawing women to these areas requires countering these perceptions.
“When girls think they want to contribute to society, they want to work with people. There are other things that probably say that more than physics,” said Marie-Claire Shanahan, an associate professor of science education at the University of Alberta. “But physics is the basis of a lot of biomedical testing. Communicating about that hasn’t been as successful as it should be.” Then there is simple gender stereotyping: In a culture that prizes physical attractiveness, women in lab coats are not frequently depicted as role models.
“Whether it’s obvious or not, there’s still a picture in everybody’s head of what a good scientist or what a good engineer looks like. And it’s often not a pretty young woman. There’s a responsibility among adults to show kids role models that reflect the reality, which is that there’s lots of women in science,” said Sandra Eix, vice-president of programs for the non-profit Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology.
Changing the culture and a girl’s perception of appropriate careers is a long-term project. Establishing mentor relationships is one of the fastest and easiest ways to dispel myths and show young women that female scientists and engineers exist. “It’s about having the capacity to identify with somebody, to aspire to what they’ve been able to achieve because suddenly you see you can do it,” said Bonnie Schmidt, president of Let’s Talk Science, a non-profit organization that engages young people in science.
Nicole Bowal is hoping that talking to female engineers will help with her career path. Three years ago, Ms. Bowal, who lives in Calgary, joined Cybermentor, which matches young girls with women who have chosen careers in math, science and engineering. The program was the brainchild of Elizabeth Cannon, former dean of engineering at the University of Calgary and now president of the institution.
Ms. Bowal, 16, heard of Cybermentor through one of her siblings, who is now studying chemical engineering at the University of Calgary. In the past two years, she has been linked with two undergraduate engineering students, and more recently is talking to Melanie Swanson, in Edmonton, who works in the telecommunications field.
Ms. Swanson hopes the young girl sticks with her decision to enter engineering. When Ms. Swanson attended school a couple of decades ago, there were only 10 girls in her engineering class of 100 – and the situation has barely changed.
“I want to get more girls involved in science and technology. We have a lot to offer,” Ms. Swanson said. “We have different ideas. We have a different take on life. And I want to see that mentality around engineering change.”
Still, the process is challenging. Elisa Patel, 14, who participated in Girls Learning Code, was more interested in becoming a doctor, and finding a cure for cancer. Why did she come? “I don’t really know a lot about it [technology], so I want to learn some new things,” she said.
That gives Ms. Plant hope. “[Technology] was not positioned to me in a way that was attractive to me. I think that is the biggest part of the problem, and why there are fewer women than men getting into the field of technology,” she said. “We’re trying to be pro-active and connect with young girls to help get them excited about technology and feel confident with it.”

 

Iris Critchell

Ever day, I check Ebay to see if anyone is offering anything about the Powder Puff Derby.  Today someone was offering a Pilot magazine from 1958, which talked about the Derby (then in its 11th year) and Iris Critchell. Whi is Iris Critchell?


From Harvey Mudd College : Iris Critchell Celebrates 90th Birthday

Feb 24, 2011 - Claremont, Calif. - 
Community members gathered Feb. 19 to celebrate their favorite aviatrix—Iris Critchell, instructor of aeronautics emerita, on the occasion of her 90th birthday.
In attendance were over 100 people, including family, many alumni, faculty and friends, who shared personal stories about Iris and her husband, Howard ("Critch"). HMC students receiving aeronautical scholarships were also in attendance.

• Claire Robinson '11- The Hale Chapin Field Memorial Aeronautical Endowed Scholarship
• Joseph Min '12- The Lois & Joseph Marriott Aeronautical Endowed Scholarship
• Johnson Qu '12- The Adele & David Foley Aeronautical Endowed Scholarship
• Keiko Hiranaka '12- Isabel Bates Aeronautical Endowed Scholarship
• Christopher Cotner '13- The Adele & David Foley Aeronautical Annual Scholarship
• Benjamin Liu '12- The Iris & Howard Critchell Aeronautical Annual Scholarship

Included among the guests were Bates Aeronautics Program alumni whom Iris and Howard had taught to fly. In 1962, Iris prepared the curriculum for the Bates Foundation for Aeronautical Education, which later became HMC's Bates Aeronautics Program and was run by Iris and Howard, until 1990. The two-year curriculum of classes and flight was designed specifically for the needs of the science and engineering students at HMC. Critchell, who was named the local FAA Instructor Pilot of the Year in the early 1970's, served as the chief flight instructor of the flight portion and on the faculty as Aeronautics Program Director.
Critchell, who served as a designated pilot examiner for the FAA FSDO for more than 20 years, began flying in 1939 at Mines Field, now known as the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). From then on, her diverse flight experience helped define the role women were able to assume in the field of aeronautics.
In 1941, Critchell's became the first woman to complete the Civil Pilot Training Program at the University of Southern California (USC), where she also earned a degree in physical sciences and mathematics.
As a member of the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP), Critchell went on to ferry military planes across the county during World War II for the U.S. Army.
Following the WASP disbandment, she continued her flight training and designed the curriculum for USC's aeronautical courses for veterans at its College of Aeronautics in Santa Maria in 1946. While there, Critchell served as chief ground instructor and chief instrument rating flight instructor for three years.
After retiring from HMC as instructor emerita of aeronautics in 1990—the year the college's Bates Program officially ended—Critchell continued to serve as a faculty advisor on numerous projects. Over the years, she also assisted the HMC Engineering Clinic's aeronautics projects and performed equipment flight tests.
Critchell's lifetime achievements also include swimming in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, winning the 1957 Powder Puff Derby (a transcontinental race performed by women pilots) and being inducted into the National Flight Instructors Hall of Fame in 2000 and receiving a Congressional Gold Medal in 2010 along with fellow members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. Today, she lectures and consults on various phases of aviation education and history.

The Engineering Toy That Teaches Girls There's More to Life Than Being a Princess

From YahooNews:  The Engineering Toy That Teaches Girls There's More to Life Than Being a Princess

When Debbie Sterling graduated from Stanford with an engineering degree, she was the only woman in a class of 181 students. She then entered a field where women account for only 11% of its population. Always bothered by that, the young engineer decided to do something about it.  And that something was “GoldieBlox,” an engineering-based toy geared at getting girls interested in science.

In a particularly moving video that recently went viral, Sterling says she was never encouraged as a child to pursue anything other than traditionally feminine roles. In fact, she didn’t even know what engineering was until her senior year in high school. But after graduating from Stanford, she decided her purpose on earth was to get girls interested in science, and so she invented GoldieBlox, the toy she wished she had been given as a child.

What is it? GoldieBlox is a toy set that includes a pegboard, axles, cranks, wheels and washers, which are joined by an accompanying book series starring “Goldie, the kid inventor who loves to build.”  As girls read along, they get to build whatever Goldie builds along with her ragtag group of colorful friends. In the first story, they build a “belt drive,” which Sterling cleverly names a “Spinning Machine.” Later in the series, they erect a pulley elevator, design a vehicle, and so on.

It may sound like a simple idea, but it’s actually radically different from any building-based toys available.  After taking a look at what was out there, Sterling quickly discovered when toys like LEGOS or Lincoln Logs try to sell to girls, they generally just paint the sets pink and call it a day. But as Sterling says, “Yeah it’s true, girls do like pink, but there’s a lot more to us than that.”
In fact, having spent a year researching how girls learn and what appeals most to them, she found the differences in children can be boiled down very simply and they have nothing to do with color choices. Instead she found that boys like to build, girls like to read.
And that’s why GoldieBlox isn’t just an erector set, but a set with accompanying books, because for girls the narrative is what first engages them and gets them hooked, and then while that’s happening, they learn to love building.
So far, it’s been a radically successful endeavor. After Sterling’s video went viral, the attention spurred her Kickstarter fund to top $285,000 in five days, taking her creation from dream to prototype to production. In the interim, she’s racked up some pretty impressive media exposure through outlets like Forbes, FastCompany and TIME.
Sterling isn’t alone in her quest to make science more accessible to girls. Jennifer Kessler, Alice Brooks, and Bettina Chen (also Stanford engineering alums) were so disappointed that there weren’t more women in classes with them, they too created a toy (and a quickly-funded Kickstarter campaign) called “Roominate,” a buildable dollhouse with a customizable infrastructure and wiring capability. And for girls in their teens, nonprofits like “Girls Who Code” are establishing free summer programs to teach them marketable computer science skills.
Why the push? Why not just let girls keep playing with pink nailpolish and Barbie if that’s what they’re drawn to? Because they’re not only drawn to those things―it’s that they’re offered almost nothing else outside of those traditional toys during the time they’re establishing their core interests. And when we normalize ideals like, “Science is for boys” other facts, like “Girls are very spatial and naturally geared for engineering” go unnoticed, even disbelieved.

But obviously the most important reason behind encouraging girlsto pursue science is their future. Just as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained to Abby Cadabby on a recent episode of Sesame Street, “’Princess’ is not a career.” And though there is nothing inherently wrong with a little girl wanting to be a princess, there is everything wrong when she believes that’s all she can be.

 

Future Female Scientists Converge on Texas University

From  HispanicBusiness.com:  Future Female Scientists Converge on Texas University

In one classroom, a group of schoolgirls inspected the brain of a dissected shark Saturday afternoon at Schreiner University, while in others, girls extracted DNA from strawberries, built rockets and robots and learned the basics of crime scene investigation.

The sixth, seventh and eighth grade girls were among 190 female students from across the Hill Country who signed up for the university's annual Expanding Your Horizons career conference, intended to get more girls interested in and ready for math and science-related careers. A $12 fee let each student see presentations by women in scientific professions and attend labs led by Schreiner University students. Girls learned the basics of crime scene investigation and diagnosing illnesses, examined local marine life, designed logos with Photoshop, built marble roller coasters and made silly putty, ice cream, beauty products and environmentally-friendly cleaners, among other activities.

Diana Comuzzie, director of the conference, said the day's activities will help girls choose high school classes and give them role models. Parents attended a section of the conference and learned how to better prepare their daughters for high school, college and careers in science.

Comuzzie, dean of the university's School of Science and Mathematics, said women continue to be underrepresented in math and science.

"Girls sometimes don't know that they can be smart, pretty, popular -- all those things together," Cormuzzie said. "Particularly smart -- it's hard to let people know that you're smart. It's great for these girls to be looking around the room and see there's 50 other girls that look just like them and that also like science, and they get to be in this environment where they all get really excited about science."

Kendall Elementary students and Boerne residents Janelle Gallego and Cassandra Muniz said their experiences at Schreiner helped solidify their goals. Together, the friends spent time learning about chemistry and computer graphic design. Muniz, who attended the forensics lab, said she wants to travel the world as an archeologist. Gallego, who attended the aquatic biology lab and caught a frog at the Guadalupe River, is considering a career as a marine biologist.

Asked whether having a scientist as a daughter would make him proud, Tom Gallego said Janelle makes him proud every day. "But it wouldn't hurt," he added with a laugh.

Attending the conference as a sixth- and seventh-grader inspired Jocelynn Machis to major in biology and premedical studies at Schreiner University. On Saturday, the college junior taught a group of girls about closed currents by helping them assemble "Bristlebots" made of toothbrush heads, batteries, pager motors, wires and tape.

"I very much believe that women are underrepresented (in math and science)," Machis said. I think that girls think ... they aren't smart enough to get through the course work, or they weren't exposed to it to see what massive amounts of different opportunities there are in these fields. The only way the trend can be reversed is to get girls interested in math and science, especially during the middle school years, and to support them, challenge them to continue their education and expand their minds. I also think that another big thing to reverse the trend is for these young girls to have role models, to see that these careers are possible, and to not be intimidated by what others say or think."

Comuzzie said having more female scientists will help increase humanity's knowledge and establish more of a balance between competitiveness and cooperation in the scientific community.

"Science is a way of knowing, asking questions, exploring," Comuzzie said. "Scientists ask questions from their own experience, so tackling problems and making discoveries benefits from diversity. If you have a diversity of people trying to solve different kinds of problems ... the more questions we can answer."

The conference was sponsored by the university and by the American Association of University Women. 

 

Seeing sexism in academia - moving up the ranks opens the eyes

From Female Computer Scientist Blog:  Seeing sexism in academia - moving up the ranks opens the eyes

A few years ago I remember reading an article about the fact that as women become more senior in their disciplines they start to encounter more sexism. For a long time I've been trying to figure out how that worked - was it that senior women encountered senior men more often, and were thus encountering old attitudes?

Recently, after a particularly upsetting incident, I realised what it is. It is that as we become more senior and have more experiences, we simply see sexism more. We are more aware. As junior women, when we encounter a microaggressive comment, it's just one papercut. Maybe it's one of those very subtle papercuts that you don't even notice until a few days later when you use rubbing alcohol.

But as you become more senior, you become more aware. You start counting these comments, and noticing them more and more.

"What's the big deal? Who cares what they say?" the well-intentioned male colleague says. The big deal is that at work I am Scientist first, Woman second. Men that treat my science as secondary (or even peripherally) to my gender insult my intelligence and insult my years of hard work to get to the place I am at.

Furthermore, the fact that these comments are unequally delivered is particularly infuriating. If, when my male colleagues had newborns, people said, "OMG! How will you survive as a professor??? How will you keep your research program afloat?! AUGH!!!", it would be ok. If, when my male colleagues wore colorful clothing, their senior colleagues stopped them in the hallway and said, "Please don't take this in the wrong way, but that shirt really brings out the color of your beautiful eyes.", it would be ok.

But it's not equal. Women-as-mother, women-as-sexulized-object - these take first place. Women-as-scholar, woman-as-professor is in the back seat.

So what do I do in these situations when they happen to me? First, my heart starts pounding. I think, "This is A Moment! I am supposed to Say Something!" Then, I stop. I realize this person is just clueless. They have no idea that they are saying all this dreadful stuff only to women and not men. They honestly have no earthly idea. Finally, I ask myself if this is a Teaching Moment or not. It usually is not, at least not right then. 

These attitudes are so ingrained in our culture, they are just a part of how many people think. Publically humiliating the offender will not suddenly make them change their ways. But sometimes I desperately want to.

 Why do gender stereotypes persist?  Because these guys watch a lot of TV, I have no doubt. Ever watch Big Bang Theory, with the beautiful but dumb Penny, the plain but smart - unless her boyfriend gives her a tiara Amy Farrah Fowler, and Bernadette (whom admittedly I don't know much about since I watched the show after Amy Farrah Fowler's character degenerated from a female Sheldon to a female-who-wants-to-get-into-any-man's-pants) . 

Look at any cartoon show - 90% of them have male heroes. 80% of them have male heroes with female sisters who are portrayed as bossy, clueless know-it-alls.

The drama shows? 80% male heroes, 20% female. I don't watch Covert Affairs, but we've got a spy whose not supposed to admit to anyone, let alone her family , that's she's a spy. But she does! (In other words, women are weak.)

House - I really don't understand the popularity of this show. In real life House would have been kicked out of the hospital, but in the show he gets away with everything including his disrepect for his female boss - who is of course in love with him...

But the sit-coms are really egregious. Two Broke Girls? A woman who used to be rich can't figure out how to get a good job so she won't be broke anymore? No, she's too dumb to be anything but a waitress? (Not that there's anything wrong with being a waitress when you're first starting out or earning money while you're going to college - but not something to make a career out of!)

I blame mass media for the continued marginalization of women at a time when women can be anything they want - but don't scale the heights because they've been taught - even subliminally where they don't realize why - that they mustn't and still be liked by the men who surround them.

Male bias persists in female-rich science conferences

From Science Codex:  Male bias persists in female-rich science conferences

Women scientists in primatology are poorly represented at symposia organized by men, but receive equal representation when symposia organizers are women or mixed groups, according to research published November 21 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Lynne Isbell and colleagues from the University of California, Davis.

The authors analyzed women scientists' participation at major scientific conferences for primate scientists and anthropologists, where symposia are largely by invitation but posters and other talks are initiated by participants. They found that within the field of primatology, women give more posters than talks, whereas men give more talks than posters. Their analysis also shows that symposia organized by men on average included half the number of women authors (29%) than symposia organized by women or both men and women (58 to 64%).

They describe their results as particularly surprising given that primatology is a field with a significant history of women scientists. In their discussion of these findings, the authors say, "Regardless of the cause of gender bias against women in invitations to prestigious symposia, its discovery requires attention in a field that is exemplary in being gender-blind in so many other ways."

Lynne Isbell adds, "It is difficult to imagine in this day and age that a gender bias by men against women in primatology could exist, but the evidence clearly reveals the sad truth. If it is still happening in a science that is so heavily represented by women, what does that mean for other sciences where women remain in the minority?"

 

Kung fu nuns teach cosmic energy to CERN scientists

From Reuters.com:  Kung fu nuns teach cosmic energy to CERN scientists


(Reuters) - A dozen kung fu nuns from an Asian Buddhist order displayed their martial arts prowess to bemused scientists at CERN this week as their spiritual leader explained how their energy was like that of the cosmos.
The nuns, all from the Himalayan region, struck poses of hand-chops, high-kicks and punches on Thursday while touring the research centre where physicists at the frontiers of science are probing the origins of the universe.
"Men and women carry different energy," said His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa, a monk who ranks only slightly below the Dalai Lama in the global Buddhist hierarchy. "Both male and female energies are needed to better the world."
This, he said, was a scientific principle "as fundamental as the relationship between the sun and the moon" and its importance was similar to that of the particle collisions in CERN's vast "Big Bang" machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The nuns, mostly slim and fit-looking teenagers with shaven heads and clad in flowing burgundy robes, nodded sagely.
But the 49-year-old Gyalwang Drukpa, head since the age of four of one of the new independent schools of Tibetan Buddhism centered in India and Nepal, stressed that their visit to CERN was not just scientific in purpose.
GENDER EQUALITY
By taking the nuns around the world and letting people of other countries enjoy their martial displays, he told physicists and reporters: "I hope to raise awareness about gender equality and the need for the empowerment of women."
The nuns themselves -- who star on Youtube videos -- have benefited from this outlook, he said.
For centuries in Tibet -- incorporated into communist China since 1951 -- and its surrounds, women were strictly barred from practicing any form of martial art.
In his homeland Himalayan region of Ladakh, the Gyalwang Drukpa said, women were mainly servants, cooks and cleaners to monks.
About three years ago he decided to break out of this pattern and improve the health and spiritual well-being of women by training them in kung fu and even allowing them to perform sacred rites once also restricted to men.
"And a very good thing too," declared CERN physicist Pauline Gagnon, who recently wrote a blog study pointing to the low, although growing, proportion of women in scientific research around the world.
The visit to CERN, whose director general Rolf Heuer recently sponsored a conference of scientists, theologians and philosophers to discuss the tense relationship between science and religion, was not the first by a top religious leader.
In 1983 the sprawling campus on the border of France and Switzerland hosted the Dalai Lama, Buddhism's most revered figure, who argues that most scientific discoveries prove the truth of the view of the cosmos expounded by his faith -- sometimes dubbed by outsiders an "atheistic religion."
Pope John-Paul II preceded him in 1982 and the present Pope Benedict has a standing invitation from Heuer.

 

UO's Geri Richmond named to National Science Board

From OregonLive:  UO's Geri Richmond named to National Science Board

University of Oregon chemistry professor Geri  Richmond has been appointed to a six-year term on the National Science Board, the UO announced Friday.

President Obama appointed Richmond to the 25-member board, which sets policies and approves programs for the National Science Foundation. The board also advises the president and Congress on science and engineering policy and education.

Richmond specializes in chemistry, materials science and chemical reactions on liquid surfaces, according to a UO news release.

"Dr. Richmond's appointment is the result of outstanding excellence in research, coupled with her significant contributions to the sciences nationally and internationally," said Kimberly Andrews Espy, vice president for research and innovation and dean of the graduate school at the UO, according to the release. "She brings a wealth of experience -- as a scientist, an educator and as an advocate for women in science -- and we are proud that she will be serving the nation's top science policy organization."

Richmond joined the UO faculty in 1985 and served on the Oregon State Board of Higher Education from 1999 to 2006. She co-founded the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists and is working on projects with women scientists in developing countries. Richmond was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, according to the news release.

 

from sugar and spice to the glucose cycle

From The Family That Reads Together Blog:  from sugar and spice to the glucose cycle 

My high school science education consisted of the following memories: breaking a flask (not a big deal, the teacher said), breaking a thermometer (kind of a big deal), breaking many other kids of lab equipment (increasingly a big deal), never (not once) getting the correct results on any physics or chemistry lab despite being studious, careful, and the last to finish pretty much every single time. I had a mild interest in biology but I always assumed I was “bad” at science. Despite good grades, which obviously didn’t reflected the trail of broken equipment I left in my wake, it never (NEVER!) occurred to me that I could be good at science.
Then enter college: I took an introductory biology course and fell in love. Bird migration! Ants who farm aphids! These were stories whose magic nobody could ignore. And to the surprise of everyone (especially myself and my professors who were wary of me from the first moment I refused to dissect a cat (I mean, really, a cat?), I became a bio major.
WHICH IS WHY I LOVED THIS BOOK!
Title: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Author: Jacqueline Kelly
Genre: Historical Fiction
Age: Middle School and Upper Elementary
So many reasons to buy this book for your daughter (and read it yourself!):
1. It’s historical fiction, set in Texas in 1899, but it doesn’t whop you over the head with that fact. There are some interesting details: the first telephone and the woman operator with her long arms, Granddaddy sitting in a car for the first time, etc. But the historical fiction gives you, the parent, an edge: You can talk about societal expectations for girls and your child will likely be very comfortable talking about them in the book, as it was over 100 years ago. Then, once the conversation gets going, you can talk about how things have changed, but how we still have a long way to go.
2. It’s a science-nature story, but you don’t have to be a scientist to like this book. Any girl reader who enjoys character-driven books will like this one. And they will be getting a great female scientist role model on the side! It’s mostly a girl-growing-up story, and this girl, the only one amongst a myriad of brothers, is struggling against the expectations of her family (she’s supposed to learn to sew and cook or how will she ever get a family?), wondering if she might ever be allowed to have dreams beyond that.  And if your girl does get hooked on science after reading this book, don’t let it die out! Give her a field guide and start looking up plants or insects or birds or stars. Or grab some jars and start collecting bugs.
3. The book is beautiful; the sentences read like honey dripping down…well, dripping down something honey would drip down. Trust me, the prose is gorgeous. And that’s good for anyone. (And it is a Newbery Honor book. So there.)
P.S. I did sit through only one dissection. There was this guy in high school who would spend free time working on his frog for AP Bio, and I would hang out and watch him. It was probably disgusting. Maybe unethical. But in his defense, he’s a surgeon now. And in my defense, I’m married to him.

 

Student Who Named The Mars Rover 'Curiosity' As An 11-Year-Old Gets Space Exploration As Well As Anyone

From LA-ist:  Student Who Named The Mars Rover 'Curiosity' As An 11-Year-Old Gets Space Exploration As Well As Anyone

Clara Ma at age 12 (Photo via NASA)

More than three years before the Mars Rover Curiosity touched down on the Red Planet, an 11-year-old in Kansas was only dreaming about how she could get involved in space exploration.
Now that Clara Ma has grown up and had the chance to see the rover touch down, she hasn't lost her sense of wonder. In a column that she penned for Mashable, she writes about how she came up with the name. She says she first read about the contest to name the newest Mars Rover in a kids' issue of TIME Magazine while she was at school one day. It didn't take her long to come up with the perfect name: Curiosity. She says she rushed home to pen the winning essay:

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. When I was younger, I wondered, 'Why is the sky blue?', 'Why do the stars twinkle?', 'Why am I me?', and I still do.

Based on her latest essay, we'd venture to say she probably gets science and space exploration as much as anyone who works at JPL or NASA (including the dude with the crazy mohawk). She writes about how she first became fascinated with space:

My grandmother lived in China, thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas. I loved the stars because they kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them. That’s what I love so much about space. No matter how much we learn, it will always possess a certain degree of mystery.

She reflects on how space exploration means something different now than it did during the midcentury Space Race:

In the past, space exploration may have been a competition to see who got somewhere first or the fastest. But now, it is one of the few things that bring people together. Science is a language that needs no translation. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — you just have to have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning in order to succeed.

The entire essay is worth a read.

On Aug. 5 at 10:31 p.m. PST, a rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars, and I was lucky enough to have a front-row seat.
My name is Clara, and when I was in 6th grade, I won the essay contest NASA held to name its next Mars rover. The essay I wrote was not even 250 words long, but somehow it was enough to change my life.
I still remember that chilly December day, sitting in science class. I’d finished a worksheet early and decided to get a TIME for Kids magazine off of Mrs. Estevez’s bookshelf. It was the 2008 Invention Issue, but that wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye. In the magazine, there was an article about a girl who named the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
The article also talked about the essay contest NASA was holding to name its next Mars rover. Before I even knew anything else about it, a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind: Curiosity.
I couldn’t wait for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay. That afternoon, I raced home from the bus stop, sat down at the computer, and typed until my fingers ached. It turns out I was just in time. A few days later, and the contest would have closed.
Five months later, shortly after I had turned 12, I was watching a National Geographic special on mammoths when the phone rang. My mom answered, and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.
When she told me that I had won, I was happier than I could ever remember being. I screamed and ran up and down the stairs and all around the house. I completely forgot about the mammoths and did not even remember to turn off the TV until it was really late.
When she told me that I had won, I was happier than I could ever remember being. I screamed and ran up and down the stairs and all around the house. I completely forgot about the mammoths and did not even remember to turn off the TV until it was really late.
Curiosity is such an important part of who I am. I have always been fascinated by the stars, the planets, the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl, my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours. She’d tell me stories and point out constellations.
Here in the heart of the country, my grandmother would say, there were no bright city lights to compete with the brilliance of the stars. There was just the chirping of the cicadas and the soft summer breeze.
My grandmother lived in China, thousands of miles awa
The Curiosity rover is more than just a robot. It is more than just a titanium body and aluminum wheels. Curiosity represents the hard work, passion, love and commitment of thousands of people from all over the world who were brought together by science.
Science is so awesome. It is breathtaking and mind-blowing, intertwining and unifying; and sometimes, it’s just a little bit crazy. The discoveries we make about our world are incredibly humbling. They move us forward and have the potential to benefit all of mankind.
This December it will be four years of my life that have been tied to Curiosity in some way. I’ve met so many amazing people through this experience, from scientists to engineers to administrators to volunteers. Their dedication and fervor inspire me immensely. My journey with Curiosity and the MSL mission team has shaped the person that I am today, as well as the person I would one day like to become.
I am deeply grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to have this amazing adventure.
And to you, I hope your curiosity takes you far.
y from my home in Kansas. I loved the stars because they kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn’t know about them. That’s what I love so much about space. No matter how much we learn, it will always possess a certain degree of mystery.
In the past, space exploration may have been a competition to see who got somewhere first or the fastest. But now, it is one of the few things that bring people together. Science is a language that needs no translation. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you look like — you just have to have a thirst for knowledge and a passion for learning in order to succeed.
People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mars. Why do we explore? My answer to that is simple: because we can. Because we’re curious. Because we as human beings do not just stay holed up in one place. We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what’s over the hill and beyond the horizon.

The New York Academy of Sciences Hosts Science & the City 9th Annual Gala

From the Sacramento Bee:  The New York Academy of Sciences Hosts Science & the City 9th Annual Gala

N EW YORK, Nov. 13, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Last evening, the New York Academy of Sciences brought together more than 400 global leaders in science, education, government, industry, and academia, as well as a host of special guests—including middle school students, science teachers, and graduate student mentors—at its Science & the City 9th Annual Gala. The theme of the Gala, which took place at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, was "Strengthening the STEM Pipeline: Mentoring the Innovators of Tomorrow."
A robust STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) pipeline that nurtures future scientists and engineers from "cradle to career" is vital to the nation's economy, as well as to the future job prospects of current students. The Academy has committed to strengthening the STEM pipeline through a series of ground-breaking initiatives that provide much-needed interventions at critical drop-out points along the STEM pipeline.
"The Academy's STEM-related programs focus on repairing the cracks and bolstering the weak areas in the existing STEM pipeline—from inspiring a first love of STEM subjects in school-age children, to providing opportunities for established scientists to network with peers across fields and organizations. These efforts are vital to creating the next generation of capable scientists who will be able to positively contribute to tackling the world's most pressing problems," said Academy President and CEO Ellis Rubinstein.
A special series of films was premiered, highlighting the Academy's programming in the areas of K-12 education, higher education, professional community building, and international collaboration ("science beyond the city").
On hand to introduce each programmatic area and provide remarks about the Academy's contributions and partnerships in these areas were the following distinguished guests:

• Nancy L. Zimpher, Chancellor, The State University of New York; Board Chair, The New York Academy of Sciences;
• Dennis M. Walcott, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education;
• Barbara Murphy-Warrington, CEO, Girl Scouts of Greater New York;
• Alice Gast, President, Lehigh University; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences;
• Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson; Member, Johnson & Johnson Executive Committee; Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences;
• Laurie H. Glimcher, Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean, Weill Cornell Medical College Provost of Medical Affairs, Cornell University;
• John Sexton, President, New York University; Governor, The New York Academy of Sciences; and
• Dato' Sri Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid, Science Advisor, Prime Minister's Office, Malaysia, and Professor Emeritus.

K-12 Education The Academy's Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program in New York City and Newark, NJ, trains and places young scientists (who need critical teaching experience) in low-income middle schools (where the majority of students receive little to no hands-on STEM education). The mentors inspire the middle school students to take an interest, and gain confidence, in STEM subjects through engaging, hands-on activities that take place in community-based afterschool programs.
The Academy and the State University of New York (SUNY) recently received a prestigious $2.95 million grant from the National Science Foundation that will allow them to scale the Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program throughout New York State. The Academy is also working with the Girl Scouts of the USA to scale the program to hundreds of Girl Scouts Councils nationwide, for which the Girl Scouts of Greater New York is currently serving as a pilot site.
The Academy also supports science teachers through its Pathways to Science programming, which connects teachers, provides helpful resources for teaching STEM subjects, and holds events on timely education-related topics.
Higher Education The Academy, the U.S. State Department (represented at the Gala by the Deputy Science and Technology Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State, Dr. Frances Colon), and a consortium of 39 U.S. women's colleges are collaborating to empower women from countries with predominantly Muslim populations to pursue STEM fields at the undergraduate level through the NeXXt Scholars Initiative, which was launched in December 2011 by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton via video address. The international scholars have been matched with American "STEM-sisters" at their respective colleges; all women receive mentorship from a STEM professional, Academy memberships, and ongoing program support.
The Academy's Science Alliance, a consortium of universities, teaching hospitals, independent research facilities, and organizations, connects more than 8,000 graduate and postdoctoral students to the Academy community. The Science Alliance helps scientists-in-training attain successful and rewarding careers by providing career development courses, as well as unparalleled networking opportunities through events with leaders in academia and industry.
Professional Community Building The Academy creates unparalleled networking opportunities for scientists in a variety of fields and disciplines through Frontiers of Science, its core program for scientific conferences and symposia. Bringing together international experts and partners from academia, industry, government, and beyond, Frontiers of Science provides a neutral forum for participants to exchange information on basic and applied research and to discuss the broader role of science, medicine, and technology in society. In addition to organizing 12–14 international interdisciplinary conferences each year, Frontiers of Science also runs an extensive schedule of events organized around interdisciplinary discussion groups focused on current topics in the life sciences, physical sciences, and green science and sustainability, totaling approximately 80 meetings each year.
International Collaboration The Academy's membership is global and so too is its outreach; it has a rich history of collaborating on pressing social and scientific challenges with countries like Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, Qatar, and most recently, Malaysia. The Prime Minister of Malaysia has invested heavily in all stages of the STEM pipeline and is partnering with the Academy to create programs in Malaysia that will foster the next generation of global innovators. Dato' Sri Dr. Zakri Abdul Hamid, the Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, traveled from Malaysia to convey the Prime Minister's support for global partnerships, including an initiative led by the Academy, the State University of New York, and leading Malaysian education institutes to support the next generation of scientists from cradle to career.
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Sciences Gala attendees celebrated 11 promising young researchers who serve society with their work. "Their exceptional discoveries represent our future and our hope for a better world for all," said Academy Governor Len Blavatnik, Founder and Chairman of Access Industries and Head of the Blavatnik Family Foundation, who congratulated this year's winners and finalists of The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
Established in 2007 by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, this awards program recognizes researchers who make innovative, impactful, and interdisciplinary advances in the life and physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The concept of the awards is unique in that it bridges more than 30 scientific disciplines from the natural sciences to engineering and math.
Out of approximately 170 high-caliber applications, 60 judges named four faculty members and five postdoctoral fellows as winners and two faculty members as finalists. All winners and finalists receive unrestricted cash prizes.
The 2012 Faculty Winners are:

• B. Andrei Bernevig, Condensed Matter Physics, Princeton University;
• Jason Fridley, Ecology & Ecological Economics, Syracuse University;
• Alison Galvani, Public Health & Applied Mathematics, Yale University; and
• Assaf Naor, Mathematics & Computer Science, New York University.

The 2012 Faculty Finalists are:

• Michael Collins, Computer Science, Columbia University; and
• Wei Min, Physical Chemistry, Columbia University.

The 2012 Postdoctoral Winners are:

• Andrey Feklistov, Structural Biology, The Rockefeller University;
• Michael Hahn, Astrophysics, Columbia University;
• Robert Johnston, Developmental Biology, New York University;
• Elisa Oricchio, Clinical Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; and
• Nicholas Stavropoulos, Genetics & Genomics, The Rockefeller University.

Nominations for the 2013 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists will be accepted from December 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013. To nominate a researcher or for more information about the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, visit www.nyas.org/blavatnikawards or contact Awards Coordinator Marley Bauce at mbauce@nyas.org.
The 2012 Gala was underwritten by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Jim & Marilyn Simons, with additional funding from a host of generous corporate and individual supporters.
About The Blavatnik Family Foundation The Blavatnik Family Foundation is an active supporter of educational, scientific, cultural, and charitable institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, and throughout the world. Recipients of Foundation support include, among others, Oxford University, Harvard University, Tel Aviv University, Tate, The Royal Opera House, The Hermitage, The National Portrait Gallery, The British Museum, The National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The New York Academy of Sciences, The White Nights Foundation, The Center for Jewish History and other Jewish causes as well as many other philanthropic institutions. The Foundation is headed by Len Blavatnik, an American industrialist. Mr. Blavatnik is the founder and Chairman of Access Industries, a privately-held U.S. industrial group with global interests in natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications, and real estate.
About the New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization that since 1817 has been committed to advancing science, technology, and society worldwide. With 25,000 members in 140 countries, the Academy is creating a global community of science for the benefit of humanity. The Academy's core mission is to advance scientific knowledge, positively impact the major global challenges of society with science-based solutions, and increase the number of scientifically informed individuals in society at large. Please visit us online at www.nyas.org.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/13/4982028/the-new-york-academy-of-sciences.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/13/4982028/the-new-york-academy-of-sciences.html#storylink=cpy