tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-362064862024-03-12T17:43:36.415-07:00Women in SciencePeggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.comBlogger469125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-26797583948091506542010-03-02T23:08:00.000-08:002010-03-03T02:32:00.443-08:00Scientiae Carnival @ A Lady ScientistAmanda at A Lady Scientist has posted the <a href="http://biochemgradstudent.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-scientiae-continuity-illustrated_01.html">March Scientiae Carnival.</a><br />
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This month's theme is "continuity", as Amanda explains:<br />
<blockquote>I chose this month's theme because it is constantly coming up in my life right now. I am hoping to graduate sometime this year. This has spurred a lot of talk in my lab and in my home about continuity. In the lab it tends to be in the form of sharing my knowledge and skills with Advisor and my fellow grad students. At home it's of the where will we live and what shall I do variety. With this in the forefront of my mind, I decided to make Continuity the theme of this month's Scientiae Carnival. It seems, from most everyone's posts, that we, as scientists, have very little continuity in our lives. However, sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.</blockquote> There are some excellent posts, so<a href="http://biochemgradstudent.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-scientiae-continuity-illustrated_01.html"> go check it out</a>!Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-62631335750913646242010-02-17T23:34:00.000-08:002010-02-18T03:51:51.741-08:00Neither gone nor forgottenI know it's been months since I posted here, but the blog hasn't been forgotten.<br />
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I've been working on some needed updates to the web site's theme. It's still a work in progress so the blog (and site) may be down occasionally.<br />
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I'm also going to start updating the too-long-neglected list of women science bloggers. I'll be making the updates gradually over the next month or so, but feel free to drop me a note <a href="http://sciencewomen.com/contact/">here</a> if you'd like me to consider including your blog. <br />
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And if you are a blogger yourself, consider contributing to the <a href="http://scientiae-carnival.blogspot.com/2010/02/march-scientiae-call-for-posts.html">March Scientiae Women in Science blog carnival</a>, hosted this month by <a href="http://biochemgradstudent.blogspot.com/">Amanda at A Lady Scientist</a>. The theme is "continuity".Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-61910705999582069502009-10-08T19:12:00.000-07:002009-10-08T19:12:48.265-07:00National Medal of Science WinnersYesterday <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-the-National-Medal-of-Science-and-National-Medal-of-Technology-and-Innovation-Ceremony/">President Barak Obama presented the National Medal of Science to nine "eminent researchers" and the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to four inventers</a>, the "highest honors bestowed by the United States government on scientists, engineers, and inventors."<br /><br />Three women were honored this year with the <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/medal.jsp">National Medal of Science</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=1010&template=Today"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 282px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT4qpsoBUF3gSxk5Dg3xqRYYTD74DXOHmj-H_gDI9CEuy9NAoleTeZC7AVGbRm6bodOdVGbujupeD4FPpBL7MDrZ8iShPtJAIRR9d0zbWOZku5m0ektix_7U9iBKg3C-N13Mj0vA/s320/fowler_obama-300px.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390407595509149698" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dr. Joanna Fowler</span>, Senior Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York<br /><blockquote>[. . . ] for her pioneering work in chemistry involving the synthesis of medical imaging compounds and her innovative applications of these compounds to human neuroscience, which have significantly advanced our understanding of the human brain and brain diseases, including drug addiction.</blockquote><ul><li><a href="http://www.bnl.gov/medical/Personnel/Fowler/">Official Web Page for Joanna Fowler</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/PR_display.asp?prID=1010&template=Today">Brookhaven National Laboratories Press Release</a></li></ul><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Dr. Elaine Fuchs</span>, Rebecca C. <span style="font-weight: bold;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__z2SYv6nZU&feature=player_embedded"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRSQJpeeG5v4a46lWq4-x3HSwYwzzVhnqwo8a3VHGRaWvqyx8_2Q28VXVk0ZWJihNqmfHJfq37DY8PsyFML_818YHqMFPqAwPu4XS4QxsAQXyKxj1fQ-3FmdvE2-oJirrIEpSWfg/s320/fuchs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390413983404332914" border="0" /></a></span>Lancefield Professor and Investigator, HHMI at the laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, The Rockefeller University, New York<br /><blockquote>[. . .] for her pioneering use of cell biology and molecular genetics in mice to understand the basis of inherited diseases in humans and her outstanding contributions to our understandings of the biology of skin and its disorders, including her notable investigations of adult skin stem cells, cancers, and genetic syndromes. </blockquote><ul><li><a href="http://www.rockefeller.edu/labheads/fuchs/intro.php">Fuchs Lab Web Site</a></li><li><a href="http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/fuchs_bio.html">Elaine Fuchs HHMI Page</a></li><li><a href="http://newswire.rockefeller.edu/?page=engine&id=969">Rockefeller Press Release</a></li></ul><br />Dr. <span style="font-weight: bold;">JoAnne Stubbe</span>, Novartis Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Somewhere_something_incredible_is_waiting_to_be_known/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgrO9w90lJ2Bo78h5MgetExXoJ8vIEp7WfkzGE-LZvttCeC8PnIhEPh9XhNaB7uSUzNyCexxJKmehaRqz9Jrr13DYLyNdr-1gMFFLKXGdoBNBqT0oa5F4SFvylhdTVjdzBvh_QVg/s400/science_2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390404315795500850" border="0" /></a><blockquote>[. . . ] for her groundbreaking experiments establishing the mechanisms of ribonucleotide reductases, polyester synthases, and natural product DNA cleavers -- compelling demonstrations of the power of chemical investigations to solve problems in biology.</blockquote><ul><li><a href="http://web.mit.edu/biochemistry/">Stubbe Group Web Site</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mit.edu/%7Echemistry/faculty/stubbe.html">JoAnne Stubbe Faculty Page</a></li><li><a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/stubbe-medal-0917.html">MIT Press Release</a></li></ul><br />One woman was honored with the <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/about/nmti/index.jsp">National Medal of Technology and Innovation</a>:<br /><br />Dr. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Esther Sans Takeuchi</span>, Greatbatch Professor of Advanced Power Sources in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__z2SYv6nZU"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNfk6Zio5j2bI0wABflVbEE_QeeNFDdsHjnqExYhtT50rOF1BYisXyfgDmfpH0bK-iMYPK2_mYrDQBJBcIOxZ2vy1a8hp3NQ_Py8mZWDcqzG6JdHo5SW43PWyE6bbUklxvdHS-bw/s320/sanstakeuchi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390415561761508066" border="0" /></a><blockquote>[. . . ] for her seminal development of the silver vanadium oxide battery that powers the majority of the world's lifesaving implantable cardiac defibrillators, and her innovations in other medical battery technologies that improve the health and quality of life of millions of people.</blockquote><ul><li><a href="http://www.cbe.buffalo.edu/people/full_time/e_takeuchi.php">Esther Takeuchi Faculty Page</a></li><li><a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/news/10476">University at Buffalo Press Release</a></li></ul><br /><br /><br />Three women National Science Winners in a single year is <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/results.cfm?action=sort_year&keyword=&state=all&first_name=&last_name=&affiliation=all&discipline=all&award_year=&gender=f&nobel_disc=all">a record high </a>- and historically that number has frequently been zero. While that may seem like an encouraging upward trend, if you <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/results.cfm?action=sort_year&keyword=&state=all&first_name=&last_name=&affiliation=all&discipline=all&award_year=&gender=f&nobel_disc=all">check the stats</a>, more women were NMoS recipients in the 1990s (15) than in the 2000s (10). Hopefully, the 2010s will see an improvement in those numbers.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.uspto.gov/about/nmti/index.jsp">National Medal of Technology and Innovation</a> doesn't provide a way to search<a href="http://www.uspto.gov/about/nmti/recipients/index.jsp"> recipients</a> by gender (and some winners are actually companies), but looking through the list it appears that Esther Sans Takeuchi is the first woman to win since <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Kwolek">Stephanie Kwolek</a> in 1996.<br /><br />Watch the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__z2SYv6nZU&feature=player_embedded">awards ceremony on YouTube</a>:<br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/__z2SYv6nZU&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/__z2SYv6nZU&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />(President Obama also s<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-the-National-Medal-of-Science-and-National-Medal-of-Technology-and-Innovation-Ceremony/">aid some good things about supporting research and math and science education in his speech</a>.)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Nationa+Medal+of+Science" rel="tag">National Medal of Science</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Nationa+Medal+of+Technology" rel="tag">National Medal of Technology</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Joanna+Fowler" rel="tag">Joanna Fowler</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Elaine+Fuchs" rel="tag">Elaine Fuchs</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Joanne+Stubbe" rel="tag">JoAnne Stubbe</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Esther+Sans+Takeuchi" rel="tag">Esther Sans Takeuchi</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-78825442238667980602009-10-07T17:45:00.000-07:002018-02-04T18:45:24.438-08:00Another Day, Another Woman Wins a Nobel Prize for Nucleic Acid BiochemistryOn the Nobel Prize front, 2009 is turning into a banner year for both nucleic acid chemistry and women scientists. <a href="http://sciencewomen.blogspot.com/2009/10/blackburn-and-greider-win-nobel-for.html">As I posted earlier this week</a>, two of the three winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine ("for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase") are women. And today it was announced that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ada E. Yonath along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome."<br />
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The last woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Hodgkin">Dorothy Hodgkin</a>, who won the prize in 1964 for her advancement of the technique of X-ray crystallography for determining the structure of biomolecules such Vitamin B-12. Now, 45 years later, Ada Yonath has been recognized for her work determining the structure of ribosomes, using, once again, X-ray crystallography.<br />
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As most introductory biology texts diagram it, the "usual" flow of information in the cell<sup>1</sup> goes from DNA, which is used as a template for the synthesis of messenger RNA (mRNA), which in turn is used as a template for the synthesis of proteins. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribosome">Ribosomes</a> are cellular organelles that mediate the third step, translation of the nucleic acid sequence into a the chain of amino acids that make up a protein.<br />
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<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:10_small_subunit.gif#/media/File:10_small_subunit.gif"><img alt="10 small subunit.gif" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/10_small_subunit.gif" /></a><br />By Animation by <a class="external text" href="http://mgl.scripps.edu/people/goodsell" rel="nofollow">David S. Goodsell</a>, <a class="external text" href="http://www.pdb.org/" rel="nofollow">RCSB Protein Data Bank</a> - <a class="external text" href="http://www.pdb.org/pdb/static.do?p=education_discussion/molecule_of_the_month/pdb10_1.html" rel="nofollow">Molecule of the Month</a> at the <a class="external text" href="http://www.pdb.org/" rel="nofollow">RCSB Protein Data Bank</a>, Public Domain, <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2839678">Link</a><br />
Ribosomes are usually depicted in textbooks as a large blob and a small blob, but their actual molecular structure is much more complex. Each blob, or subunit, is made up of RNA ("ribosomal RNA" or rRNA) and multiple proteins. The small ribosomal subunit shown at left, for example, is made up of 20 proteins (blue) and one RNA (orange), folded to form a complex 3-dimensional structure. (You can see more such structures on the <a href="http://www3.weizmann.ac.il/Yonath//home.html">Yonath Lab web site</a>.)<br />
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As the <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/cheadv09.pdf">Nobel Prize science backgrounder</a> points out, determining the structure of ribosomes was an important technical achievement:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">The ribosome, with its molecular weight of about 2.5 MDa is not only large but, unlike many virus particles, does not display symmetry properties that would facilitate crystallization and structure determination. In the years around 1980 it was therefore unclear whether crystals of the ribosome diffracting to high resolution (~3Å or less) could ever be found and, granted the existence of such crystals, whether the phase problem could be overcome and structures obtained. In this context, the report on three-dimensional crystals of the ribosomal 50S subunit from the thermophile bacterium Geobacillus (G.) stearothermophilus (previously called Bacillus stearothermophilus) in 1980 by Ada Yonath and colleagues (Yonath et al., 1980) was therefore a significant step forward. </span></blockquote>
Determining the detailed structure of ribosomes has been important in understanding the basic function of living cells. And it also has <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/press.html">important clinical significance</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">This knowledge can be put to a practical and immediate use; many of today's antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes. Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics.</span> <span style="font-size: 85%;">This year's three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ada E. Yonath</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-VF3MZmzbHUM953JeEcgEcbe_S2WkiKC-Sv_6ES-h5faIqAKgbJ3Edea23xYZ72D_YnGk5JqSIOpR76qFxRhKhn6hD2iTrdJ0nkPkYDNvI08fAQW0zLeX_A4_KUBevWzc5BqAOQ/s1600-h/yonath_crystallization_photo.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390016762456165538" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-VF3MZmzbHUM953JeEcgEcbe_S2WkiKC-Sv_6ES-h5faIqAKgbJ3Edea23xYZ72D_YnGk5JqSIOpR76qFxRhKhn6hD2iTrdJ0nkPkYDNvI08fAQW0zLeX_A4_KUBevWzc5BqAOQ/s320/yonath_crystallization_photo.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 213px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>Ada Yonath was born in 1939 to a poor Jewish family in Jerusalem. She was fascinated by science from an early age, and her family supported and encouraged her studies. <a href="http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00003&direct3=00008/00003/00001&direct4=00008/00003/00001/00010&direct5=Yonath">As she recalled in 2008</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">My father died when I was 11 years old and left my mother with me and my sister but no income, so I was needed at home. Nevertheless, my mother realized my lust for science and provided me with massive emotional support. She did not object to my academic studies, although at the time this was not so common for females. When I became a scientist, my mother, sister, and later on my daughter and granddaughter always supported my scientific activities, in my presence as well as in my frequent absences.</span></blockquote>
She also received <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Israel+beyond+politics/Israeli+professor+receives+Life+Work+Prize+for+women+in+science+28-Jul-2008.htm">encouragement in school from an early age:</a><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">Her elementary school math teacher Zvi Vinitzky introduced her to the principal of the elite Tel Aviv high school, Tichon Hahadash, Tony Halle. Impressed by the young girl's abilities, Halle admitted her to the school although she was not able to pay for the tuition. In repayment, Yonath tutored young Bulgarian immigrants in math. </span></blockquote>
After receiving her bachelor's degree in chemistry and master's degree in biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she entered the laboratory of <a href="http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chem/idcards/WolfieTraub9689.html">Wolfie Traub</a> at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She earned her Ph.D. for X-ray crystallographic studies of collagen in 1968. After brief postdocs at Carnegie Mellon and MIT, she returned to the Weizmann Institute to establish the country's first protein crystallography laboratory in Israel.<br />
<br />
Despite her expertise in X-ray crystallography,<a href="http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00003&direct3=00008/00003/00001&direct4=00008/00003/00001/00010&direct5=Yonath"> many scientists were skeptical that the technique could be used to determine ribosome structure</a>, only they apparently didn't express it quite so tactfully.<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">[...] she was able to count on the support of "a few individuals, including several distinguished scientists and my own group of young and highly motivated students. They encouraged me even when my project met with rigorous skepticism from most prominent scientists all over the world, even when I was called 'a dreamer,' 'crazy' or the 'Village Fool.'"</span></blockquote>
Even her initial successes <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;285/5436/2048">weren't immediately recognized by her colleagues</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">[...] with the techniques then available, it took Yonath months of trying different solutions and crystallization procedures to get tiny crystals of the larger, or 50<em>S</em>, subunit of the ribosome from a <em>Bacillus</em> bacterium, and more than a year to get the first very fuzzy x-ray crystallographic images. But when she showed colleagues her results at an August 1980 meeting, "everyone laughed at me," Yonath recalls. </span></blockquote>
She eventually figured out that she needed to cryocool - freeze - the ribosomes to stabilize the crystals long enough clear data, a technique that is still in use today.<br />
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Since then Yonath has continued her research on ribosomal structure, both at the Weizmann Instute and at her parallal post as visiting professor and later the Head of a Max-Planck Research Unit in Hamburg, Germany. Her laboratory currently focuses on the interaction between ribosomes and antibiotics.<br />
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Yonath is also an <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gu6V0NQYe6Acfw1DUmgOGlzL7IiA">advocate of encouraging other women to pursue careers in science</a>: <br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 85%;">"Women make up half the population," she says. "I think the population is losing half of the human brain power by not encouraging women to go into the sciences. Women can do great things if they are encouraged to do so."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;">"I would like women to have the opportunity to do what is interesting to them, to go after their curiosity. And I would like the world to be open to that. I know in many places there is opposition to that."<sup>2</sup></span></blockquote>
A few key publications:<br />
<ul>
<li>Yonath A. et al. "<a href="http://www3.weizmann.ac.il/Yonath//Yonath-1980BI.pdf">Crystallization of the large ribosomal subunit from B. stearothermophilus</a>", Biochem Int, 1, 428-35 (1980) (pdf)</li>
<li>Hope H et al. "Cryocrystallography of Ribosomal Particles" Acta Cryst. B45:190-199 (1989) <span style="font-size: 85%;"><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1107/S0108768188013710" title="Open URL link">doi:10.1107/S0108768188013710</a></span> (first page free)</li>
</ul>
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Additional links about Ada Yonath<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/yonath-interview.html">Telephone interview with Ada E. Yonath</a>, immediately after the award announcement</li>
<li><a href="http://www3.weizmann.ac.il/Yonath//home.html">Official Yonath Lab web site</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/site/en/weizman.asp?pi=371&doc_id=6029">Weizmann Institute of Science Press Relase</a> (in English)</li>
<li>Pennisi E. "<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;285/5436/2048">Structural Biology: The Race to the Ribosome Structure</a>" <span style="font-style: italic;">Science</span> 285:2048-2051 (1999) doi:10.1126/science.285.5436.2048 (subscription required)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00003&direct3=00008/00003/00001&direct4=00008/00003/00001/00010&direct5=Yonath">2008 L'Oreal For Women in Science Interview</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wolffund.org.il/full.asp?id=153">2006/7 Wolf Foundation Prize in Chemistry</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.iucr.org/news/newsletter/volume-8/number-2/eca-prize">First European Crystallography Prize</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.academy.ac.il/english/asp/members/members_in.asp?person_id=39">Israel Academy of Sciences</a></li>
</ul>
1. That isn't quite accurate, because RNA can be reverse transcribed into DNA, DNA is duplicated when cells divide, and there are other ways that information flows within the cell. The key point is that the nucleic acid sequence can be converted into protein, but the sequence of amino acids in a protein can not be converted by the cell into a nucleic acid sequence. See <a href="http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/01/central-dogma-of-molecular-biology.html">Larry Moran's post on the Central Dogma</a> for more.<br />
2. It makes me a bit sad that that even needs to be said.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 85%;">Bottom Image: </span><span class="copy" style="font-size: 85%;">Micheline Pelletier/Corbis. </span><span style="font-size: 85%;">Check out <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/yonath-photo.html">more photos at the Nobel web site Photo Gallery</a><br />Top Image: "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:10_small_subunit.gif">Animation of the small subunit of the Thermus thermophilus ribosome. RNA shown in orange, protein in blue</a>." Taken from <a class="external text" href="http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/explore.do?structureId=1FKA" rel="nofollow">PDB 1FKA</a> and animated by David S. Goodsell.<br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/nobel+prize" rel="tag">Nobel Prize</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Ada+Yonath" rel="tag">Ada Yonath</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-46934997648075521522009-10-06T23:41:00.000-07:002009-10-07T13:47:58.032-07:00Scientiae Carnival @ Mad Chemist Chick<a href="http://madchemistchick.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-scientiae-<br />carnival-road-not.html">Mad Chemist Chick has posted the October Scientiae blog carnival.<br /></a> The theme was "The Road Not Taken":<br /><blockquote>This month's Carnival has contributions from bloggers who just begun their journeys while others have made the hard choices and are happy with their chosen paths. Still other bloggers are struggling with impending choices that could alter their paths forever.</blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://madchemistchick.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-scientiae-carnival-road-not.html"> Go read!</a>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-82367537579756537882009-10-05T18:00:00.000-07:002009-10-07T22:34:17.464-07:00Blackburn and Greider win the Nobel for Medicine: the first time two women share the prizeToday it was announced that <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/">Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak would share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine</a> "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase". The award shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the modern biological sciences, since their work was indeed groundbreaking. It wasn't a matter of "if" they would win, but "when".<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomeres">Telomeres</a> are stretches of repetitive DNA that protect the ends of chromosomes during cell division - Blackburn has compared them to the tips on the ends of shoelaces<sup>1</sup> that keep them from unraveling. As cells divide the telomere sequences get shorter and shorter, which limits cells to a fixed number of divisions. Telomere shorting is thought to be responsible for aging on a cellular level. Cancer cells, which divide indefinitely, carry mutations that allow the maintenance of telomere length.<br /><br />You can find out more about the science by exploring the <a href="http://www.laskerfoundation.org/2006videoawards/qt_high/basic/index.htm">history of telomere research on the Lasker Awards</a> site and by watching <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUQEG4BSK4">Blackburn's 2008 Women@GoogleTalk</a> about telomeres and aging.<br /><br />Some of the other awards won jointly by Blackburn and Greider:<br /><ul><li>In 1998 Blackburn and Greider were recipients of the C<a href="http://www.gairdner.org/awards/awardees2/20071998">anada Gairdner International Award</a>.</li><li>In 1999 Blackburn and Greider were recipients of the <a href="http://www.rose.brandeis.edu/Center/rose_award.html">Lewis S. Rosentiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science</a> and the <a href="http://passanofoundation.org/#/past-recipients/4513087930">Passano Foundation Award</a><br /></li><li>Blackburn, Greider and Szostak received the <a href="http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/2006_b_description.htm">Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2006</a>. This award is often called the "American Nobel"<br /></li><li>Blackburn, Grider and Joseph G. Gall shared the<a href="http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/"> 2007 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize</a> for "outstanding basic research in the fields of biology or biochemistry."<br /></li></ul><a style="font-weight: bold;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 162px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfYEOHtmkClAylijvSFc3Vei5Iha-ACXrnqilBFQGbzrbTPaeFVJc76ZLDuv46If4-YoINYGzG5yKDb-eiLE1VMVOgwnmHmUuLQ0y5ceeIyEHPvx0rlbwHuDpyZtSTMekpIdd4jA/s400/blackburn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389212324529344338" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Elizabeth Blackburn </span><br /><br />Elizabeth Blackburn is a native of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, the daughter of two physicians, a fact that <a href="http://jcb.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/180/6/1056?etoc">Blackburn has noted helped shape her view of pursuing a career as a woman:</a><br /><p> </p><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">The main influence my parents' careers had on me was that it<sup> </sup>gave me the idea that women and men were equivalent in careers.<sup> </sup>They were both physicians, they grew up at the same time, and<sup> </sup>they trained at the same time. Probably, the other influence it had was showing me that motherhood<sup> </sup>and career can go together. My mother worked part-time much<sup> </sup>of the time, as I was one of seven children!</span></blockquote><sup> </sup><p></p> After receiving her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Melbourne, she moved to the UK, where she earned her doctorate from the University of Cambridge in the laboratory of biochemist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Sanger">Frederick Sanger</a>, who pioneered methods of nucleic acid sequencing. She moved to the United States in 1975 for postdoctoral work in the lab of <a href="http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/2006_s_description.htm">Joseph G. Gall</a><sup>2</sup> at Yale.<br /><br />It was in Gall's laboratory that Blackburn analyzed the structure of the chromosomes of the fresh water protozoan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahymena"><span style="font-style: italic;">Tetrahymena</span></a>, discovering that the DNA sequence ends of chromosomes consisted of simple repeated DNA sequences. As <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rp8YfLX15gsC&q=Liz+was+extremely+good#v=onepage&q=Liz%20was%20extremely%20good&f=false">Gall has recalled,</a><sup>3</sup> they didn't fully appreciate the revolutionary nature of the discovery at that time.<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262026228?ie=UTF8&tag=womeninscience-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0262026228"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH9SPYfh_P2aV_Q7yWHOTQmcLSd__-bGtcmNhF1ZatXkHyUgpAHRuUAFYRO4SjTo40I-JKXCcA8d7CbT8tG8Tn20kvAg95jA0rCHQD1yGkypR6LKgbspusgDcKY0or4GX0so4X2Q/s400/51xjgOdSfDL._SL160_.jpg" align="right" border="0" /></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=womeninscience-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0262026228" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">The work Liz was doing in my lab was technically advanced, because she was using techniques learend in Sanger's lab, and virtually no one else in the world was doing that kind of work. We were interested in sequencing partly because it was something you could do and we knew there were unusual features about these molecules. At the time, we didn't say, Eureka, we found what the ends of chromosomes are like. She had made a discovery whose significance we didn't yet appreciate completely. I knew Liz was extremely good, but I didn't know she as a superstar until she started doing her own independent work.</span></blockquote>After completing her postdoc, Blackburn joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1978, where she continued her study of telomere biochemistry. There she and one of her graduate students, Carol Greider, discovered telomerase, the enzyme that adds telomere DNA sequences to the ends of chromosomes (read more about that below). In 1990 Blackburn moved her lab to the University of California at San Francisco, where she continues to study telomere function and biochemistry.<br /><br />Blackburn has also been involved in the political side of science. In 2001 she was appointed by the Bush administration as a scientist member of the President's Council on Bioethics. Blackburn and fellow panelist Janet Rowley were <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020116"> very critical of the scientific content of the Council's reports</a> on stem cell research and aging. Her removal from the panel in 2004 <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-03-19-fired-bioethicist_x.htm">drew criticism</a> from scientists who believed she was removed because of her advocacy for human embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning.<br /><br />A few key publications:<br /><ul><li>Blackburn EH and Gall JG. "A tanemly repeated sequence at the termini of the extrachromosomal genes in Tetrahymena." J. Mol. Biol. 120(1): 33-53 (1978) <img src="http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/clear.gif" alt="" border="0" height="10" width="1" /><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-2836%2878%2990294-2">doi:10.1016/0022-2836(78)90294-2</a> (note: free abstract only)</li><li>Shampay J, Szostak JW, Blackburn EH."<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v310/n5973/abs/310154a0.html">DNA sequences of telomeres maintained in yeast</a>." Nature 310:154-157 (1984) <span style=";font-family:times,times new roman,serif;font-size:85%;" > doi:10.1038/310154a0</span> (note: free abstract only)<br /></li><li>Greider CW and Blackburn EH. "<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WSN-4C899SK-5D&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d02b487d39e3a069c8b64e4a00cc89b8">Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts</a>." Cell 43:405-13 (1985) <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674%2885%2990170-9">doi:10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9</a> [note: free abstract]<br /></li><li>Greider CW and Blackburn EH "<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v337/n6205/pdf/337331a0.pdf">A telomeric sequence in the RNA of Tetrahymena telomerase required for telomere repeat synthesis</a>" Nature 337:331-7 (1989) <a href="http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/337331a0">doi:10.1038/337331a0</a> [note: free pdf]</li><li>Blackburn E and Rowley E "<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020116">Reason as Our Guide</a>" PLoS Biol 2(4):e116 (2004). doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020116 [note: free full text]<br /></li></ul> Additional information about Elizabeth Blackburn:<ul><li><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/blackburn-interview.html">Telephone interview with Elizabeth Blackburn immediately after the prize was announced</a></li><li><a href="http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/labs/blackburn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=3">Official Blackburn Lab web page at UCSF </a>(with links to videos and articles)</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Elizabeth Blackburn and the story of telomeres: deciphering the ends of DNA</span> by Catherine Brady: <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rp8YfLX15gsC">Google Books</a> (limited preview), <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262026228?ie=UTF8&tag=womeninscience-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0262026228">Amazon.com</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=womeninsciencefiction-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0262026228" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> (limited preview), <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04R1X0t1XRw&feature=player_embedded">Authors@Google talk by Catherine Brad</a>y<br /></li><li>Video: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUQEG4BSK4">Women@GoogleTalk, 2008</a><br /></li><li>Video:<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6pbt5_portrait-delizabeth-blackburn-biolo_creation"> L'Oreal Portrait d'Elizabeth Blackburn, biologiste </a>(subtitled in French)</li><li>Audio Interview: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/rn/inconversation/stories/2007/1864195.htm">InConversation on ABC Radio National</a>, 2007</li><li>Transcript of interview on NBC Nightly News: "<a href="http://icue.nbcunifiles.com/icue/files/icue/site/pdf/5607.pdf">Microbiologist Elizabeth Blackburn: Role Model for Women in Science</a>", 2006 (pdf)</li><li>Williams R "<a href="http://jcb.rupress.org/cgi/content/full/180/6/1056?etoc">Elizabeth Blackburn: Because science is worth it</a>", J. Cell Biol 180(6):1056-1057 (2008) doi:10.1083/jcb.1806pi (note: free full text)<br /></li><li><a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1595329_1616029,00.html">The <span style="font-style: italic;">TIME</span> 100 People Who Shape Our World: Elizabeth Blackburn</a>, 2007<br /></li><li> <a href="http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/fwis/file/en_Palmares2008.pdf">2008 L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for North America</a> (pdf). She talks about her experience as a woman in science. (You can also read it on the <a href="http://www.loreal.com/_en/_ww/index.aspx?direct1=00008&direct2=00008/00001">official L'Oreal For Women in Science site</a> which is Flash-heavy and noisy)</li><li><a href="http://www.gruberprizes.org/GruberPrizes/Genetics_LaureateOverview.php?awardid=4">2006 Gruber Genetics Prize</a><br /></li><li>1998 Australia Prize: <a href="https://grants.innovation.gov.au/SciencePrize/Pages/Doc.aspx?name=previous_winners/Aust1998Blackburn.htm">Professor Elizabeth Blackburn</a></li><li>Lasker Reading Room:<a href="http://www.laskerfoundation.org/reading/lau_rec_blackburn.htm"> Recommended Books from Elizabeth Blackburn </a>(popular science books that influenced her )</li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Blackburn">Elizabeth Blackburn at Wikipedia</a>, which lists her numerous awards<br /></li></ul><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 162px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuXBS42e0uyLR2dYHK7h1-u3kauWXcTuDF7ds3-TVAbeS-obHql8lnoHg6Q6l35DWUxvaT0Jhs5CkSlXPx6vG7Tz47hO0083JGD_cOQEJCXNmoaCnbOuadhPbsEyDe-OYe8HEF0g/s400/greider.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389212739590648690" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Carol W. Greider</span><br /><br />Carol Greider grew up in Davis, California, the <a href="http://www.ascb.org/files/profiles/carol_greider.pdf">daughter of two scientists</a>: her mother was a biologist, who died when Greider was six and her father was a physicist at UC Davis.<br /><br />Greider got her first taste of hands-on research when she was a freshman at the University of California at Santa Barbara under the mentorship of <a href="http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb4p30063r&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00063&toc.depth=1&toc.id=">Bea Sweeney</a>, and ended up working in several labs before <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/102/23/8077.full">deciding that she wanted to pursue biochemistry</a>. She applied to a number of graduate programs, but <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/102/23/8077.full">ran into a problem</a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">“I had great research experience, great letters of recommendation, and outstanding grades, but I had poor GREs.” Although she did not know it growing up, Greider suffers from dyslexia, which affected her scores on standardized tests. Only two schools—the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) and the University of California, Berkeley— offered her an interview. When she met with cell biologist Elizabeth Blackburn in Berkeley, things clicked again. “I really liked my conversations with Liz, and there were a number of other people in the department that would be potentially fun to work with, so I went there,” says Greider.</span></blockquote>It was while working in Blackburn's lab in 1984 that Greider discovered telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomere sequences. The account of her discovery in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/102/23/8077.full">biography published upon her election to the National Academy of Sciences</a> explains the skill and hard work that went into that achievement:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">"If you were easily intimidated, you wouldn't take on that kind of project," Blackburn says. "We had to be both rigorous and enterprising, and those are exactly the characteristics that Carol has. the combination is a great strength." For her part, Greider worked 12-hour days and supplemented her existing biochemistry knowledge with DNA cloning techniques and other skills needed for the project.<br /><br />Nine months after she began the project, and after much trial and error finding the right substrate and assay, Greider identified the first signs of her enzyme. On Christmas Day in 1984, she developed one of her gels and saw a ladder of the characteristic Tetrahymena 6-base telomeric repeats - exactly the pattern that would be expected from a telomere-synthesizing enzyme. </span></blockquote>Of course that was just the beginning. Greider and Blackburn had to rule out the possibility that the results were an artifact. It wasn't until June of 1985 that they were completely convinced that they had isolated the correct enzyme. Greider and Blackburn seem to have had a very good working relationship, which likely contributed to her success.<br /><br />After receiving her PhD, Greider continued research on the biochemistry of telomerase and the biological function of telomeres at Cold Spring Harbor, first as an independent fellow and then as an Investigator. She moved her lab to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1997 where she is continues her research today.<br /><br />A few key publications:<br /><ul><li>Greider CW and Blackburn EH. "<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WSN-4C899SK-5D&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d02b487d39e3a069c8b64e4a00cc89b8">Identification of a specific telomere terminal transferase activity in Tetrahymena extracts</a>." Cell 43:405-13 (1985) <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674%2885%2990170-9">doi:10.1016/0092-8674(85)90170-9</a> [note: free abstract]<br /></li><li>Greider CW and Blackburn EH "<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v337/n6205/pdf/337331a0.pdf">A telomeric sequence in the RNA of Tetrahymena telomerase required for telomere repeat synthesis</a>" Nature 337:331-7 (1989) <a href="http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/337331a0">doi:10.1038/337331a0</a> [note: free pdf]</li><li>Harley CB, Futcher AB, Greider CW "<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v345/n6274/pdf/345458a0.pdf">Telomeres shorten during ageing of human fibroblasts</a>" Nature 345(6274):458-460 (1990). <a href="http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/345458a0">doi:10.1038/345458a0</a> [note: free abstract]</li><li>Counter CM et al. "<a href="http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=1582420">Telomere shortening associated with chromosome instability is arrested in immortal cells which express telomerase activity</a>" EMBO J. 11(5):1921-1929 (1992) [note: free full text]<br /></li></ul>Additional information about Carol Greider:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2009/greider-interview.html">Telephone interview with Greider immediately after the prize was announced</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pharmacology/research/greider.html">Official Greider page at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine </a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Research/awards/nobel/nobel_prize_greider.html">Official Johns Hopkins University</a> press release and article with slide show </li><li>2005 <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/102/23/8077.full">Biography of Carl W. Greider</a> upon her election to the National Academy of Sciences (Proc Natl Acad Sci 102:23, 8077-8079 (2005); <span class="slug-metadata-note ahead-of-print">doi: <span title="10.1073/pnas.0503019102" class="slug-doi">10.1073/pnas.0503019102</span></span>)</li><li>1999 <a href="http://www.ascb.org/files/profiles/carol_greider.pdf">American Society for Cell Biology profile</a>.<br /></li><li><a href="http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/horwitz/bio_greider_carol.html">2007 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize biography</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_lounsbery">2003 Richard Lounsbery Award</a>, presented by the National Academy of Sciences for "extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine"<br /></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_W._Greider">Carol W. Greider at Wikipedia</a><br /></li></ul>Of course <a href="http://genetics.mgh.harvard.edu/szostakweb/">Jack Szostak</a> also made important contributions to the understanding of telomere function (among other achievements), and you can read about his work in some of the other posts in the blogsphere about the award:<br /><ul><li>DNA From the Beginning "<a href="http://blogs.dnalc.org/dnaftb/2009/10/05/blackburn-greider-and-szostak-share-nobel-for-telomeres/">Blackburn, Greider and Szostak share Nobel for Telomeres"</a></li><li>The <a href="http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/2009/10/05/first-week-of-october-nobel-ink-flood-is-on-nobel-in-physiology-to-2-americans-and-one-yank-from-oz/">Knight Science Journalism Tracker has an excellent roundup of articles</a> in the MSM<br /></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;">1. Aglets, as any regular crossword puzzle worker knows.<br />2. <a href="http://www.ciwemb.edu/labs/gall/index.php">Joseph Gall</a> was (and is) well known for providing a supportive environment for women scientists in his lab. Many successful women scientists have been <a href="http://www.ciwemb.edu/labs/gall/spa.html">members of his lab</a>, including Blackburn, <a href="http://web.mit.edu/biology/www/facultyareas/facresearch/pardue.html">Mary-Lou Pardue</a>,<a href="http://biomed.brown.edu/Faculty/G/GerbiS.html"> Susan Gerbi</a>, <a href="http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/steitzja_bio.html">Joan Steitz</a> and <a href="http://www.molbio1.princeton.edu/labs/zakian/">Virginia Zakian</a>.<br />3. Quoted in <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rp8YfLX15gsC&q=Liz+was+extremely+good#v=onepage&q=Liz%20was%20extremely%20good&f=false"><span style="font-style: italic;">Elizabeth Blackburn and the story of telomeres; deciphering the ends of DNA</span></a> by Catherine Brady.<br /><br />Photos: Left is Eliabeth Blackburn, right is Carol W. Greider. Both taken by <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Gerbil">Wikipedia Author Gerbil</a> in March 2009. Licensed by Attribution Share Alike 3.0<span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Nobel+Prize" rel="tag">Nobel Prize</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Elizabeth+Blackburn" rel="tag">Elizabeth Blackburn</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Carol+Greider" rel="tag">Carol Greider</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-71642144282305416692009-10-01T18:41:00.000-07:002009-10-01T18:41:00.524-07:00I Am a Technical WomanOK, I'm not really that technical - but the women in this nifty video that's currently making the rounds definitely are:<br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/O293-kmyUj0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/O293-kmyUj0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />The video was shot at the 2008 Grace Hopper Celebration and compiled by the <a href="http://www.anitaborg.org/">Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology</a>.<br /><br />The Anita Borg Institute has also posted <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=879E5215179979AF">biographical videos of their 2009 award winners</a> and conference speakers:<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/p/879E5215179979AF&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/p/879E5215179979AF&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br />Related links:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://gracehopper.org/2009/">2009 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing</a>, taking place right now in Tucson, Arizona.<br /></li><li><a href="http://anitaborg.org/about/who-we-are/ekaterina-fedotova/">Anita Borg Institute 2009 Social Impact Award: Ekaterina Fedotova,</a> director for Information Dissemination and Equal Access project for PH International.</li><li><a href="http://anitaborg.org/about/who-we-are/nadya-mason/">Anita Borg Institute 2009 Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award: Nadya Mason</a>, assistant professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</li><li>Anita Borg Institute 2009 Change Agent Awards went to three women in Nigeria: <a href="http://anitaborg.org/about/who-we-are/oreoluwa-somolu/">Oreoluwa Somolu</a>, Executive Director of the Women's Technology Empowerment Centre; <a href="http://anitaborg.org/about/who-we-are/anne-ikiara/">Anne Ikiara</a>, General Manager of Nairobits Trust; and <a href="http://anitaborg.org/about/who-we-are/halima-ibrahim/">Halima Ibrahim</a>, Director of Mu'assassatul Mar'aatus Saliha Women's Skill Acquisition Centre.<br /></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />(Video via the <a href="http://geekfeminism.org/2009/10/01/quick-hit-i-am-a-technical-woman/">Geek Feminism Blog</a>)<br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+computer+science" rel="tag">women in computer science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+technology" rel="tag">women in technology</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Anita+Borg+Institute" rel="tag">Anita Borg Institute</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-15137851373117037292009-09-30T17:56:00.000-07:002009-09-30T17:56:00.183-07:00Handicapping the Nobel PrizesThis year's <a href="http://nobelprize.org/">Nobel Prizes</a> will be announced beginning next Monday. There is no way to know for certain who is in the running, but that doesn't stop the speculation. <a href="http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2009/09/29/nobel_season_2009.php">Derek Lowe points to</a> plausible lists of potential winners at the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358170813148330.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Wall Street Journal</span></a>, which bases its predictions partially on who has received other prestigious awards, and <a href="http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/sci/484640">Thomson Reuters</a>, which lists "Citation Laureates" based on its ISI Web of Knowledge data.<br /><br />Who are the women who made the prediction list?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Physiology or Medicine</span><br /><br />Both the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358170813148330.html">WSJ</a> and <a href="http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/sci/484640">Thomson Reuters</a> listed <a href="http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/labs/blackburn/">Elizabeth H. Blackburn</a>, professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UC San Francisco and <a href="http://www.mbg.jhmi.edu/people/profile.asp?PersonID=367">Carol W. Greider</a> of Johns Hopkins University for "their roles in the discovery and and pioneering research on telomeres and telomerases."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Chemistry</span><br /><br /><a href="http://thomsonreuters.com/content/press_room/sci/484640">Thomson Reuters</a> listed <a href="http://www.its.caltech.edu/%7Ejkbgrp/">Jacqueline K. Barton</a>, Professor of Chemistry at CalTech (along with Bernd Giese and Gary B Schuster) for "pioneering research of electron charge transfer in DNA"<br /><br /><br />Personally, I think a Nobel prize for telomeres will happen at some point, if not this year then in the near future. <br /><br />Barton, on the other hand, seems to be a less likely winner. <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>There's more discussion <a href="http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2009/09/29/nobel_season_2009.php">at In the Pipeline</a>.<br /><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/nobel+prize" rel="tag">Nobel Prize</a>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-86095820536744506942009-09-29T21:14:00.000-07:002009-09-30T00:58:58.712-07:002009 MacArthur Fellows: Lin He and Beth Shapiro<a href="http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5410503/k.11CB/Meet_the_2009_Fellows.htm">Recipients of the 2009 MacArthur Fellowship</a> - sometimes referred to as the MacArthur "genius grant" - are an interesting mix of writers, artists, journalists, scientists, attorneys, entrepeneurs and physicians who have one thing in common: they have demonstrated "exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future". The 24 fellows will receive a $500,000 stipend over the course of five years, no strings attached.<br /><br />This year's winners include two young women scientists:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5458015/k.BE85/Lin_He.htm"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1JdyqCaTBTKtjzRQVkLc-ikk2ij6OwZdZ7kD3f-rivhUEZ_T8yAe6jVyM-isKwUPKeu6XVTrlCcL_gkDlI4QrEgR1gaKuTnHD4-_K-BNVy1zAwAXHtLOF2X-gkKdLcC0wXPYhew/s400/LIN_HE_01.300.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387159315287421042" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lin He</span> is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the <a href="http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/09/21_genius.shtml">role of microRNAs in the development of cancer</a>:<blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Lin He's research involves a class of small ribonucleic acid, or RNA, that are not transcribed into protein like messenger RNA. Instead, these microRNAs or miRNAs bind to messenger RNA to regulate the amount of protein produced. This entirely new level of dosage regulation in mammals was not realized until 2000, even though miRNAs were first discovered in 1993. Now, miRNAs have been shown to be involved in many aspects of development and diseases, He said.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"MicroRNAs are a mechanism to fine-tune gene expression si</span><span style="font-size:85%;">multaneously in many different pathways, achieving a homeostasis very much needed for many biological processes," He said. "In the case of cancer, where some microRNAs behave abnormally, detrimental effects will occur due to the loss of proper gene regulation by microRNAs."</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">He has shown that miRNAs play a role in a broad range of cancers, in particular those such as lung cancer that involve mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene. She is also investigating the role of miRNA in the development of B cell lymphomas.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">"In an area that has generated intense effort among many leading researchers, Lin He has established early in her career the capacity to make significant advances with direct implications for the development of future cancer treatment strategies," the MacArthur Foundation noted.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>More information about Lin He:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5458015/k.BE85/Lin_He.htm">MacArthur Fellow Profile</a></li><li><a href="http://mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/he/">Official Web Site</a></li><li><a href="http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/09/21_genius.shtml">UC Berkeley Press Release</a></li></ul><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAkPTIpv7oA2flyungGhZ3q2IkMLSNDN2l26QlPzNNUUVnhLYDDb6HHRA10aoreKSvDDiYB3LrhcEizGEDCHHDPoy6ImatvdbJZWkGRLTdLYaWWStnj2qNQwLzsdOE6pP5bfxVKQ/s1600-h/BETH_SHAPIRO_16.150.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAkPTIpv7oA2flyungGhZ3q2IkMLSNDN2l26QlPzNNUUVnhLYDDb6HHRA10aoreKSvDDiYB3LrhcEizGEDCHHDPoy6ImatvdbJZWkGRLTdLYaWWStnj2qNQwLzsdOE6pP5bfxVKQ/s400/BETH_SHAPIRO_16.150.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387164474481385970" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Beth Shapiro</span> is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Pennsylvania State University. She is "an evolutionary biologist who integrates molecular phylogenetics with advanced computational biostatistics to reconstruct the influences on population dynamics in a wide variety of organisms." She is using the methods she and her colleagues developed to study the population history of recently extinct (like the dodo) or currently threatened species to assess the effects of environmental change on polar bear populations, an approach that will help in shaping conservation efforts. She also has been studying the evolution of RNA viruses in individual patients, an approach that may help in understanding the development of virulence in human pathogens.<br /><br />Prior to joining Penn State in 2007, Shapiro was director of the Ancient Biomolcules Centre at Oxford University. She was also named one one "<a href="http://images.smithsonianmag.com/content/innovators/">America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences</a>" by Smithsonian Magazine.<br /><br />Here Shapiro explains "How to Clone a Mammoth":<br /><object height="315" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/cXbpT8e1PVU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/cXbpT8e1PVU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="315" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br />More information about Beth Shapiro:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.5458039/k.8CB8/Beth_Shapiro.htm">MacArthur Fellow Profile</a></li><li><a href="http://www.bio.psu.edu/people/faculty/bshapiro/">Official Web Site</a></li><li>America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences: <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/innovators/shapiro.html">"How to Make a Dodo"</a></li><li><a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/41679">Penn State Press release</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Shapiro">Wikipedia article</a><br /></li></ul>Also included among this year's recipients are two women physicians:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.macfound.org/fellows/2009/seaman">Jill Seaman</a>, Infectious Disease Physician in Old Fangak, Sudan<br /></li><li><a href="http://www.macfound.org/fellows/2009/tinetti">Mary Tinetti</a>, Geriatric Physician at the Yale School of Medicine<br /></li></ul><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Photos courtesy of the MacArthur Foundation<br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/MacArthur+Fellows" rel="tag">MacArthur Fellows</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Lin+He" rel="tag">Lin He</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Beth+Shapiro" rel="tag">Beth Shapiro</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-88636250012452982162009-09-27T18:47:00.000-07:002009-09-27T19:30:55.449-07:00The Sultana's Dream<blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"> 'Our good Queen liked science very much. She circulated an order that all the women in her country should be educated. Accordingly a number of girls' schools were founded and supported by the government. Education was spread far and wide among women. And early marriage also was stopped. No woman was to be allowed to marry before she was twenty-one. I must tell you that, before this change we had been kept in strict <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdah">purdah</a>.'</span><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'How the tables are turned,' I interposed with a laugh.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'But the seclusion is the same,' she said. 'In a few years we had separate universities, where no men were admitted.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'In the capital, where our Queen lives, there are two universities. One of these invented a wonderful balloon, to which they attached a number of pipes. By means of this captive balloon which they managed to keep afloat above the cloud-land, they could draw as much water<br />from the atmosphere as they pleased. As the water was incessantly being drawn by the university people no cloud gathered and the ingenious Lady Principal stopped rain and storms thereby.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Really! Now I understand why there is no mud here!' said I. But I could not understand how it was possible to accumulate water in the pipes. She explained to me how it was done, but I was unable to understand her, as my scientific knowledge was very limited. However, she went on, 'When the other university came to know of this, they became exceedingly jealous and tried to do something more extraordinary still. They invented an instrument by which they could<br />collect as much sun-heat as they wanted. And they kept the heat stored up to be distributed among others as required.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'While the women were engaged in scientific research, the men of this country were busy increasing their military power. When they came to know that the female universities were able to draw water from the atmosphere and collect heat from the sun, they only laughed at the<br />members of the universities and called the whole thing "a sentimental nightmare"!'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Your achievements are very wonderful indeed! But tell me, how you managed to put the men of your country into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenana">zenana</a>. Did you entrap them first?'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'No.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'It is not likely that they would surrender their free and open air life of their own accord and confine themselves within the four walls of the zenana! They must have been overpowered.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Yes, they have been!'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'By whom? By some lady-warriors, I suppose?'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'No, not by arms.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Yes, it cannot be so. Men's arms are stronger than women's. Then?'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'By brain.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Even their brains are bigger and heavier than women's. Are they not?'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Yes, but what of that? An elephant also has got a bigger and heavier brain than a man has. Yet man can enchain elephants and employ them, according to their own wishes.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Well said, but tell me please, how it all actually happened. I am dying to know it!'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">'Women's brains are somewhat quicker than men's. Ten years ago, when the military officers called our scientific discoveries "a sentimental nightmare," some of the young ladies wanted to say something in reply to those remarks. But both the Lady Principals restrained them and said, they should reply not by word, but by deed, if ever they got the opportunity. And they had not long to wait for that opportunity.'<br />~ from "<a href="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html">Sultana's Dream</a>" by Rokeya Sakhawat, 1905<br /></span></p></blockquote><p><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rokeya_Sakhawat_Hussain">Rokeya Sakhawat</a> (also known as Roquia Sakhawat Hussain) was an early 20th century Muslim feminist writer and social worker from what is present-day Bangladesh. She was a "<a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/gender-bagchi011003.htm">crusader for girls' education</a>", and founded Sakhawat Memorial Girls' High School - the first school primarily aimed at Muslim girls. Her 1905 science-fiction short story, "<a href="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html">Sultana's Dream</a>", is set in a utopian future where women rule and the men are locked away at home, very much like the Muslim practice of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purdah">purdah</a> that kept most women in the home in Sakhawat's time (and yes, today too).<br /></p><p>I find the story particularly enjoyable because of the way in which the women took over: they studied science and developed useful inventions while the men scoffed. It was their brains, rather than brawn, that created their peaceful country. And while I don't believe that women are "smarter" than men, or that the world would be necessarily a much better place if women ruled by locking up the men, I do think that increasing the number of women scientists would indeed improve the world if only because excluding a significant portion of the population from scientific research is a huge waste of brainpower.</p><p>And even though women in Bangladesh face many obstacles - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh">poverty is widespread</a> and <a href="http://www.indexmundi.com/bangladesh/literacy.html">only 32% of women are literate</a> - there are indeed a number Bangladeshi women scientists making a difference today:</p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.icddrb.org/activity/index.jsp?activityObjectID=2918"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgpko4W35B98_CgNheJwhAL3hVy3nnOiBL5rky4lg9GL7HFxZvbxcDKji70sy0t2ysiqTEj-tYfH8OwTvBnqsRqjk_j55d8SE3GM9URDB3KPB0Y7uGdaTPoZZo4FPKAhEWZSmNpA/s200/Shamima_2007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5386335421874449346" border="0" /></a><ul><li><a href="http://www.icddrb.org/activity/index.jsp?activityObjectID=2917">Interview with Dr. Tasnim Azim</a>, head of the HIV/AIDS Programme and Virology Laboratory Sciences Division at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)</li><li><a href="http://www.icddrb.org/activity/index.jsp?activityObjectID=2919">Interview with Dr. Ruchira Tabassum Naved</a>, Gender & Reproductive Health Specialist in the Public Health Sciences Division at ICDDR,B</li><li><a href="http://www.icddrb.org/activity/index.jsp?activityObjectID=2918">Interview with Dr. Shamima Akhter</a>, Research Investigator, Health Systems and Infectious Diseases division of ICDDR,B.</li><li>"<a href="http://www.agora.forwomeninscience.com/for_women_in_science_commitment_charter/2008/07/more_women_scientists_in_bangl.php">More Women Scientists in Bangladesh</a>" and "<a href="http://www.agora.forwomeninscience.com/for_women_in_science_commitment_charter_part_2/2008/11/what_bangladesh_needs.php">What Banladesh Needs</a>" by Hasina Akhter, UNESCO-L'OREAL for Women in Science International Fellow, 200<br /></li></ul><p><span style="font-size:85%;">("<a href="http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html">Sultana's Dream</a>" via <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/30/arab-world-science-fiction">Nesrine Malik in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Guardian</span>'s Comment is free</a>)</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Image: <a href="http://www.icddrb.org/activity/index.jsp?activityObjectID=2918">Dr. Shamima Akhter</a>, Research Investigator, Health Systems and Infectious Diseases Division, ICDDR, B</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Bangladesh" rel="tag">Bangladesh</a></span></p>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-15512201769487311192009-08-10T23:30:00.000-07:002009-08-11T01:37:31.860-07:00Simone Peterson Hruda: Reflections on Black Women in EngineeringThis past March Rutgers University hosted the <a href="http://www.blackwomenintheivorytower.com/">Black Women Academics in the Ivory Tower Conference</a>. Dr. <a href="http://www.eng.fsu.edu/%7Epeterson/">Simone Peterson Hruda</a>, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Florida A&M and Florida State gave a lecture on "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5dPNAiFHrc">Reflections on black women in engineering</a>":<br /><object height="315" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/n5dPNAiFHrc&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/n5dPNAiFHrc&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="315" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Some of the issues Hruda talks about:<br /><ul><li>Of 65,000 bachelors degrees awarded in engineering, 3000 are to black students, and only 1000 or 1.6% go to black women students. Only 0.4% of engineering PhDs are awarded to black women.<br /></li><li>She points out that she is only one of about 350 black women who have gotten PhDs in engineering in the US, which is fewer than the number of engineering schools.<br /></li><li>When she was a graduate student, the white women students were upset that there weren't more women role models on the faculty. She didn't have the same expectation to find black women role models or mentors because she went in knowing there wouldn't be any.<br /></li><li>She has found that there are graduate students who prefer not to work for black women professors.</li></ul>And there's a lot more about mentoring and teaching and how engineering is for anyone who is curious about how things work.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40QD8hyv-NQ">Q & A session after the lecture:</a><br /><br /><object height="315" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/40QD8hyv-NQ&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/40QD8hyv-NQ&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="315" width="500"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=712D2AB0931332AD">video of all the presentations and panel discussions on YouTube</a>.<br /><br />(via <a href="http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html#5723158539348783373">Prometheus 6</a>)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+engineering" rel="tag">women in engineering</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/black+women+in+engineering" rel="tag">black women in engineering</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Simone+Peterson+Hruda" rel="tag">Simone Peterson Hruda</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-64208718324245150852009-08-06T00:55:00.000-07:002009-08-06T01:44:47.305-07:00On Being Inspired by Women ScientistsI was reading an <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/08/star-trek-convention-las-vegas.html">interview with Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry</a>, son of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barret, and his description of cool woman astrophysicist who inspired him in high school made me smile:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Well, believe it or not, I was inspired in high school, by my astronomy class, to become an astrophysicist, which I kind of laugh at now. I knew an astrophysicist. And learned -- remember, this is the mind of a teenager -- I knew a lady who worked at Mt. Wilson [Observatory]. She was an astrophysicist. And while she was taking readings at night looking through a telescope, during the day she would chop hot rods and rebuild them and she had this amazing gun collection and flame throwers and she would go to festivals and stuff. I put the two together and thought, “You can be smart AND cool.” And so I figured I could do both. So I thought being an astrophysicist would be cool. Unfortunately, three years into calculus and physics, I realized that it might not be my forte. So I had had a backup, which was photography, and I had been pursuing that in an amateurish fashion ever since.</span></blockquote>Amazingly, women don't always have to be <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/thusspakezuska/2009/08/whats_with_the_makeovers.php">wearing cheerleader outfits</a> to interest dudes in science. Even though Roddenberry didn't pursue a career in astrophysics, he has collaborated with NASA, The Kennedy Space Center and other groups to <a href="http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/index.php/about-astronomers-without-borders/about-awb-people/41?task=view">promote space travel and astronomy</a>.<br /><br />Roddenberry doesn't name the astrophysicist, but she is almost certainly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Baliunas">Sallie Baliunas</a>, who indeed <a href="http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/solarweek/SCIENTISTS/baliunas.html">has fixed up cars into hot rods</a> and was a <a href="http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/4654.html">friend of Majel Barrett Roddenberry</a>. She also has been <a href="http://www.projectrho.com/vulsun.htm">involved in some <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek</span>-related geekery</a>.<br /><br />Baliunas is a former Deputy Director of Mt. Wilson Observatory and is currently <a href="http://www.harvardscience.harvard.edu/directory/researchers/sallie-baliunas">affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics</a>. She has gained recent notoriety for her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Baliunas#Global_warming_and_solar_variability">strong skepticism of human causes for global warming</a>.<br /><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/astrophysics" rel="tag">astrophysics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Rod+Roddenberry" rel="tag">Rod Roddenberry</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Sallie+Baliunas" rel="tag">Sallie Baliunas</a>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-15364343050709691482009-08-05T22:50:00.000-07:002009-08-06T00:54:59.158-07:00New Scientiae Carnival @ Terra SigillataAbel Pharmboy has <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2009/08/august_2009_scientiae_carnival.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss">posted the August Scientiae Carnival at Terra Sigillata</a>. This month's theme:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>Summer days, driftin' away. . .</strong></span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Consider how you balance the demands and pleasures of this season. Have you found ways to make progress on your must-dos while also taking time for your family, friends - and yourself - and being in the moment of this time of year? Or are July and August just another month for you?</span></p></blockquote> <p>He found that for most of the contributors this isn't just holiday time:</p><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Well, sadly, the vast majority of contributors were in various states of juggling catch-up and preparation for the academic year, many putting work well ahead of themselves and their loved ones at what is supposed to be the time of relaxation and renewal in the Northern Hemisphere. But they are not all tales of woe and frustration. Even those pushed to their limit still wrote about little things they remembered about why they loved summer so much at one time.</span></blockquote><p></p>Go<a href="http://scienceblogs.com/terrasig/2009/08/august_2009_scientiae_carnival.php?utm_source=combinedfeed&utm_medium=rss"> read more about what women scientists are doing this summer</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/scientiae-carnival" rel="tag">scientiae carnival</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-57404652209140055252009-08-03T22:14:00.000-07:002009-08-05T03:55:29.668-07:00Women of the Apollo Program<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880599791?ie=UTF8&tag=womeninscience-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880599791"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKEZJ2oAC7pkyvW8FQKLLXciBZmZfnTE_g-xyaclPUE89fLzD8_zfUTHpDHJC86tJHA8Jwzs-RE-sPVEv-r0iExU1UG0GqF9o2krbpn5iZcjj50QVp-w4luC7l7ZgJWtBrJy7OA/s320/51zzBlfoxXL._SL160_.jpg" align="right" border="0" /></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=womeninscience-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1880599791" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />Last month was the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXxGE4tBBEA">40th anniversary of Apollo 11's historic moon landing</a>. Watching the footage of of the landing makes it look like the Apollo program was men-only. But it was more complicated than that.<br /><br /><a href="http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html#8456804834109506877">As Echidne points out</a>:<br /><span class="rss:item"></span><blockquote><span class="rss:item">But the absence of women astronauts in the program has a much more concrete reason: <span style="font-weight: bold;">They were excluded from it</span>. Books have been written about that: Margaret A. Weitekamp's <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=vV-9GPfng0wC&dq=Right+Stuff,+Wrong+Sex+by+Margaret+A.+Weitekamp&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=fOFnSpxvy5C2B67PqLAL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4">Right Stuff, Wrong Sex</a></span> and Stephanie Nolen's <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.stephanienolen.com/moon.htm">Promised The Moon</a></span>.<br /><br />And there<span style="font-style: italic;"> were</span> women involved with the project itself as described by Robyn C. Friend in <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Women-of-Apollo/Robyn-C-Friend/e/9781880599792">The Women of Apollo</a></span>. You can hear one of the original engineers, Ann Dixon[sic], speak about her experiences <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyRiNJJ6cmo">here</a>:</span></blockquote><object height="285" width="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/WyRiNJJ6cmo&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/WyRiNJJ6cmo&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="285" width="340"></embed></object><br />Ann Dickson says she was "convinced that someday she was going to be an astronaut." Unfortunately that didn't happen, in part because <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JuvBH7GhZw">she didn't have 600 hours of flying time</a>.*<br /><br />Ann Dixon wasn't alone in the Apollo program as <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pCwVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JPgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4681,2855758&dq=poppy+northcutt"> this 1969 AP article explains</a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Frances "Poppy" Northcutt, for example, is a 25-year-old Dayton, Tex., native who is a member of the flight dynamics support staff in mission control at the Manned Spacecraft Center. The tall, blonde mathematician is one of the first women to serve in an operational support role in mission control.<br />"There's less discrimination against women here than in any of the professional areas," she said.<br /></span></blockquote>The article goes on to mention Larue Burbank, designer of the <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19760024152_1976024152.pdf">visual displays used for real-time monitoring of spacecraft</a>, and Dorothy Lee, an engineer who worked on the re-entry heat shields.<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/LeeDB/DBL_11-10-99.pdf">a 1999 interview</a>, Lee recalled being recruited by NASA (pdf):<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">... math was very easy for me just happened to be the easiest subject, and that's the reason I majored in math. Then when we were recruited - I say "we." There were several girls - I was from Randlph-Macon [Woman’s College, Lynchburg, Virginia]—who went to work for NACA at Langley [Research Center, Hampton, Virginia], and again I was put in the best division there. It was called PARD, Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. We had the exciting opportunities to launch vehicles, to test different configurations, and how those configurations would [ultimately design] spacecraft by virtue of the shape of the nose. We went from cones to blunt bodies. You see today your different vehicles are all blunt bodies. So I was right there and enjoyed it. It was fun.<br />[. . .]<br />Of course, today, NASA recruits all over the country, but back in 1948, which is when I graduated from college, and there were not many gals, we were hired as "computers." Computers didn't exist, you understand. We had calculators. They gave us civil service exams, and I was fortunate enough to pass the exam at a couple of grades higher than I was hired in, so I got raises.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">But the thing that I would like to tell has something to do with Dr. [Maxime A.] Faget. Working as a computer, [later] we were classified as mathematicians. One day my project was to solve a triple integral for an engineer, so it didn't require using my calculator. I could just do it at my desk. Max's secretary was going to get married, and so I was asked to be his secretary for two weeks while she was on her honeymoon. [. . .] I would answer the phone, distribute the mail, and work my triple integral. I did this for two weeks. [. . .]<br />This Friday, the end of my two weeks, Max said, "Dottie, how would you like to work for me all the time?"<br />I thought he was being funny, because I don't type, and I knew that this was the last day and Shirley was returning Monday. I said, "Sure," in a very flip way. He gets up, goes downstairs to talk to the division chief, and he returns and he says, "Dottie, you start working for me Monday."<br />Well, I looked at him like, "All right," you know. So they found me a desk, and I was put with some engineers who were beautiful and taught me how to be an engineer. I learned on the job.</span></blockquote>But not surprisingly, it was tall blonde Poppy Northcutt** who got attention in the press, particularly when she turned out to be <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?%20nid=1298&dat=19700428&id=2uEPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YYoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7296,6562645">the only woman working at Mission Control during the Apollo 13 emergency</a>. And also, not too surprisingly, <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?%20nid=1298&dat=19700428&id=2uEPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YYoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7296,6562645">the article</a> uses almost as many column inches asking her social life as it does talking about her work with the Apollo computer systems .<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4308/ch4.htm"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEiDLtTdmJX_K9G7QD-jteb7C96Dg2lgY6q93ZOC1Y20goqmDo6mE8Fa6onnBp4x0UZZwNzitPJhGq1bxJkW4q8E_YqlVpjoD0cpq9a2GR-ytWDA8JcJLgaabgJOAHtyAjU_Ckw/s320/p105b.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366431068462390530" border="0" /></a>So yes, there were indeed a number of women mathematicians and engineers who played important roles in the Apollo program, even if they weren't astronauts.<br /><br />That doesn't mean that they earned everyone's respect, of course. See, for example, this <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HOMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76&dq=mission+control+nasa+women&lr=&client=firefox-a">1987 article in <span style="font-style: italic;">Popular Mechanics</span></a> about the Space Shuttle program in the aftermath of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster">Challenger disaster</a> in which retired Mercury and Apollo 7 astronaut <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Schirra">Wally Schirra</a> complains about women scientists and non-test pilots in the program (who he seems to equate with engineers):<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">To get ready for a serious relaunch, NASA will have to go back to using qualified test pilots only for the foreseeable future. It is ludicrous at this early stage of space exploration to allow a virtual passenger on the Shuttle to become known as an "astronaut." Such people have little to offer at an engineering skull session. I was appalled to see young women scientists in mission control acting as liaison with the Shuttle mission commander. This is not a job for a "show-and-tell" celebrity.</span></blockquote>After that gratuitous swipe at women scientists (gratuitous because it's unlikely that the men scientists in mission control were pilots either), Shirra goes on to explain how Sally Ride is totally NOT an "engineering test pilot", so she should totally stop talking about "flying" the Space Shuttle.<br /><br />But now, 40 years after Apollo 11, there are indeed women test pilot-astronauts, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Collins">Eileen Collins</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Melroy">Pamela Melroy</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Still_Kilrain">Susan Still Kilrain</a>, along with many scientist and engineer-mission specialists like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidemarie_Stefanyshyn-Piper">Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_L._Nyberg">Karen Nyberg</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Megan_McArthur">Megan McArthur</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Payette">Julie Payette</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Wilson">Stephanie Wilson</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Higginbotham">Joan Higginbotham</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpana_Chawla">Kalpana Chawla</a> (killed on Columbia), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Magnus">Sandra Magus</a>, and many many others.<br /><br />Now if only we'd finally return to the Moon, or head out to Mars . . .<br /><br />Further reading and watching :<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=dakatz&view=videos&query=apollo">Watch more <span style="font-style: italic;">Women of Apollo</span>-related videos</a></li><li><a href="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/LeeDB/DBL_11-10-99.pdf">NASA Oral History: Dorothy B. Lee</a>, engineer (pdf)</li><li><a href="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/CrewsJL/CrewsJL_Bio.pdf">NASA Oral History: Jeanne L. Crews</a>, aeronautical engineer (pdf)</li><li><a href="http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=55">Society of Women Engineers Oral History: Ivy Hooks</a>, aerospace engineer</li><li><a href="http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/oral-history/frances-northcutt.php">Houston Public Library Oral History: Francis Miriam "Poppy" Northcutt,</a> "computeress"<br /></li><li>Official Site: <a href="http://www.cascadepass.com/apollo/index.html">The Women of Apollo</a></li><li>Historiann "<a href="http://www.historiann.com/2009/07/25/feminism-and-whig-history-why-are-we-always-fooled-again/">Feminism and whig history</a>" (via <a href="http://k8grrl.blogspot.com/2009/07/erasing-women-from-history.html">Academic Ecology</a>)</li><li>Paul Campos "<a href="http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/07/and-stars-look-very-different-today.html">And the stars look very different today</a>" (be sure to read the comments)</li></ul><p>* In looking for info about women in aviation I learned that <a href="http://www.museumofwomenpilots.com/hwp_woman_pilots.html">in 1979 (10 years after Apollo 11) only 110 of 45,000 airline pilots were women</a>. Even women who might otherwise be qualified for the astronaut program would likely have a hard time getting enough hours in the air to qualify.</p><p>** And cutely they <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=iOam8DY0oE8C&pg=PA365&lpg=PA365&dq=poppy+northcutt&source=bl&ots=oVTJXIeJwl&sig=hhVUUmzlA3inPCOyzHZSoBXXngM&hl=en&ei=XLhrSoqdCY_UtgPawJX3CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9#v=onepage&q=poppy%20northcutt&f=false">named "Crater Poppy"</a> on the moon after her. Later Northcutt entered politics, helping organize the <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/photos/IWY1977.html">1977 National Women's Conference</a> in Houston (<a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/55118/independent-lens-sisters-of-77">watch the excellent Sisters of '77 documentary</a> to get a sense of the historical importance of that event), and got her law degree.</p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Photo: "</span><span style=";font-family:Geneva;font-size:85%;" >In 1959, Langley [R</span><span style=";font-family:Geneva;font-size:85%;" >esearch Center]</span><span style=";font-family:Geneva;font-size:85%;" > employed six women who were classified by NASA as "scientists." During the Apollo era, women made up 3 to 5 percent of the professional work force agency-wide. The percentage of African American professionals was significantly smaller, from 1.5 to 3 percent. These percentages rose slowly for both groups as the decade proceeded".</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> <a href="http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4308/ch4.htm">Source: NASA</a><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+of+apollo" rel="tag">Women of Apollo</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+astronauts" rel="tag">women astronauts</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+engineering" rel="tag">women in engineering</a></span></p>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-69745204518306771342009-07-22T21:18:00.000-07:002009-07-23T02:26:37.219-07:00Encouraging the Participation of Female Students in STEM fields - the Congressional Hearings<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2541"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghz6xDQRltQRJilP4pPRRtdfEDHSj25IC5gtMrdVRTo5rQsSQg1nrBgMlSdr9eYbKXk8G0ICc8I5GflWXawhcZyB-OIirXHpCyHdYHjqKVLedlE6KwWIpAqY6r9thMK6S-KTJByA/s400/2009_7_21+058.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361583575269281986" border="0" /></a>Yesterday the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education held <a href="http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=2565">hearings on encouraging the interest of girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)</a> in primary and secondary schools. The <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/OpeningStatement.aspx?OSID=2747">subcommittee Chairman Daniel Lipinski noted</a> that skilled scientists and engineers play an important role in keeping the United States competitive for the 21st century:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">We have heard time and time again that, as a nation, we are not producing enough scientists and engineers for the increasing number of technical jobs of the future. We need to make sure that we have the scientific and technical workforce we need if we are to remain a leader in the global economy, and it is not possible to do this without developing and encouraging all the talent in our nation. We must have women engineers, computer scientists, and physicists. By broadening the STEM pipeline to include more women and other under-represented groups, we can strengthen our workforce.</span></blockquote>Some of the testimony highlights:<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.aaas.org/ScienceTalk/leshner.shtml">Dr. Alan Leshner</a>, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/Testimony.aspx?TID=15177">testified</a> that K-12 science education standards are too low for all students and expectations are low for students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields. He also pointed out that the is a wide difference in percentage of women participating in different fields of science and engineering, and notes that the participation of women drops significantly at the faculty level.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Although the story of women in STEM fields is one of tremendous gains over the past 40 years, it is a bittersweet story that is coupled with uneven progress and sometimes loss of ground—a discipline-specific program here, a department there, but seldom an institution-wide effort</span></blockquote>But he didn't just point out the problems - he discussed a number of AAAS programs and made some suggestions for what the federal could do:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Many researchers and program managers believe that STEM fields are not being “marketed” appropriately to girls and young women. While President Obama has articulated specific challenges where science and engineering must play a role, it is also important to provide materials (and opportunities for engagement) that demonstrate how STEM connects to addressing the real world problems we face as a nation and as a world. Consider, for example, the areas of engineering where the distribution of bachelor’s degrees in environmental and biomedical engineering awarded to women approaches that of men.<br /><br />Many believe that a new call to serve for both young men and young women needs to link the critical role of education in STEM fields with the opportunity to address global concerns such as food security, clean water, climate change, clean sources of energy, and infectious diseases and other health issues. Students need examples of people who are doing this work today as well as access to opportunities for experiential learning. It is important in such efforts to prominently include women as well as men. </span></blockquote>The "marketing" of science can be a controversial issue*, since it conjures up images of tricky advertising tactics that value "sales" more than accuracy. It's not clear to me that the gendered assumption that girls and women would be more interested in science if they understood it's role in taking care of people and the planet is an accurate one. It certainly doesn't explain why women who are interested enough in science to obtain their Ph.D.s seem to be dropping out of academia.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /></div>Next up was <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/leaders_entry.php?id=49">Dr. Marcia Brumit Kropf</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">,</span> COO of <a href="http://www.girlsinc.org/index.html">Girls Incorporated</a>**. <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/Testimony.aspx?TID=15172">In her testimony, Kropf points out</a> that the gap between girls and boys in math and physical sciences has closed significantly over the past 30 years. Her suggestion (and the approach of Girls Incorporated) is informal science education:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Girls Inc. Eureka! is a four-week summer STEM and sports camp program for girls 12-15 held on a college campus. In Alameda County, CA, girls in Eureka!, who were predominantly urban, minority girls, increased their math course-taking plans, while control group girls’ plans to take math decreased. Second-year Eureka! girls’ math and science course‐taking plans almost doubled. Their interest in science careers increased, and the percentage of girls whose wish for the following school year was “to do well/be on the honor roll,” increased from 38 percent to 66 percent.<br /><br />Alarmingly, however, this study also seemed to indicate that being away from school had a positive impact on girls—both Eureka! and control girls—in terms of wanting to do math and science. For most, being back in school tended to decrease that interest.</span></blockquote>Part of the problem is, not surprisingly, sexism:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Girls Inc. sponsors eight FIRST Robotics Lego League teams, with support from Motorola. The Girls Inc. teams often find themselves the only all-girl teams in the competitions (except of course when there are teams sponsored by the Girl Scouts). But on the co-ed teams, staff observed that it was always the boys who were operating the robots. In fact, on one occasion when I had the pleasure of speaking with some members of <a href="http://www.robotchicksunion.org/">Robot Chicks Union</a>, a group of female FIRST Robotics competitors, they complained that on co-ed teams they were actually assigned roles such as marketing and bringing the snacks for their team. This phenomenon plays out in classrooms as well, where girls are too often relegated to supporting roles, such as recording notes, as they watch boys perform the experiments and work with equipment. </span></blockquote>I don't think it's surprising that girls with such experiences wouldn't end up being particularly interested in pursuing science as a career.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /></div><br />The testimony continued with <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://lifecycle.cua.edu/faculty/hanson.cfm">Dr. Sandra Hanson</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">,</span> Professor of Sociology at The Catholic University of America whose most recent book is <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592136214?ie=UTF8&tag=womeninscience-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1592136214">Swimming Against the Tide: African American Girls and Science Education</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=womeninscience-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1592136214" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" />. <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/Testimony.aspx?TID=15171">She testified that</a> her research has shown that girls start out with similar interest and abilities in science as boys, but as they get older - especially during the high school years - enrollment of girls in STEM classes drops and their attitude towards science becomes more negative. Girls do better in single-sex classrooms, it turns out, and she agreed with Dr. Kropf as to the value of out-of-school informal science learning experiences. She recommended the use of the National Center for Education Research's practice guide "<a href="http://ies.ed.gov/ncer/pubs/practiceguides/20072003.asp">Encouraging Girls in Math and Science</a>" in developing classroom programs.<br /><br />Hanson also pointed out that STEM isn't just a male culture, but a predominantly white male culture, and that girls and women of different races and ethnic backgrounds can have very different experiences pursuing science and mathematics.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /></div><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://experts.psu.edu/faculty.php?id=171">Barbara Bogue</a> is director of the <a href="http://www.engr.psu.edu/wep/">Penn State Women in Engineering Program</a> and co-founder and co-director of the <a href="http://www.engr.psu.edu/AWE/misc/about.aspx">Society of Women Engineers' Assessing Women and Men in Engineering Project</a> (SWE-AWE). She <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/Testimony.aspx?TID=15170">pointed out in her testimony</a> that science and engineering have different challenges. There is also a lot of variation in the representation of women in engineering from field to field.<br /><blockquote> <span style="font-size:85%;">For example, 2006 National Science Foundation (NSF) statistics show that women received almost 50 percent of science and engineering bachelor’s degrees in 2005- 06.<br /><br />Taken on face value, these statistics make it look like there is no problem. If we break out engineering, however, the percentage of women receiving degrees is a very low 18 percent. And even within engineering, there are great variations. Environmental, bio and chemical engineering—all fields related to biological sciences—have high percentages of women at 40 percent, 37 percent and 34 percent respectively. Unfortunately, these are relatively small disciplines in terms of numbers enrolled. Mechanical and electrical engineering, on the other hand, are disciplines that traditionally have the largest populations of students, but have very low percentages of women at 11 percent and 12 percent respectively. Computer engineering, another field critical to national competitiveness, has only 11 percent.</span></blockquote>She notes that differences between fields need to be taken into account when developing programs to attract women to those fields.<br /><br />One of the findings of the SWE AWE is that women do not pursue engineering because they are turned off by the culture of engineering education, not because they lack interest or talent.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Much research shares common findings that women who are equally prepared academically as men when they enter engineering leave engineering or science with higher GPAs than their male counterparts who leave, having found less of a sense of community and citing that they have encountered poor teaching. Surveys of students leaving engineering or science, including surveys developed and implemented by SWE AWE, find that students who leave are less involved in discipline-related activities and fail to develop a sense of community.<br /><br />AWE results and other findings belie the postulation that women do not pursue engineering because they are just not interested or don’t have the talent. Rather, they indicate that women who have the talent and interest are being turned off by how the discipline is presented. Women’s high school preparation and GPAs once in college are comparable to men’s. In fact, in our recent research females show significantly higher intentions to persist in engineering than their male counterparts. These results show that we don’t need to fix the women; we need to fix environments in which they fail to thrive. </span></blockquote>Increasing the participation of women in engineering fields will require changes in the education system to make it more welcoming - or at least less off-putting.<br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /></div><br />Finally, <a href="http://www.marquette.edu/about/leadership/thomas.shtml">Cherryl T. Thomas</a>, president and founder of engineering consulting firm <a href="http://www.ardmoreassociates.com/">Ardmore Associates</a>, <a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/Testimony.aspx?TID=15173">spoke about her own path to a career in science and engineering.</a> Unlike most of the other witnesses, she hasn't studied women in STEM, rather she based her suggestions on her own experiences starting out as one of the few women working for the City of Chicago's Department of Water and Sewers in the early 1970s.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">---<br /></div><br /><a href="http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?NewsID=2541">Read all the hearing witness statements</a>, which have attached statistics and citations to support their discussions.<br /><br /><a href="http://science.edgeboss.net/real/science/scitech09/072109.smi">Watch the hearings </a>(requires <a href="http://www.house.gov/htbin/leave_site?ln_url=http://www.real.com/products/player/downloadrealplayer.html?wp=dl0199&src=dlbutton_all,chwpop3&lang=en&ln_desc=The+RealPlayer+download+website">Real Player</a>)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* see, for example, the <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2009/07/book_review_unscientific_ameri.php">discussion</a> of the <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2009/07/unscientific_america_on_jobs_i.php">proposed</a> <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2009/07/unscientific_america_when_bein.php">selling</a> of science to the public in <a href="http://www.unscientificamerica.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Unscientific America</span></a> (which <a href="http://sciencefictionbiology.blogspot.com/2009/07/hollywood-science-and-unscientific.html">I blogged about elsewhere</a>)<br /><br />** Girls Incorporated has published fact sheets on "<a href="http://www.girlsinc.org/downloads/GirlsandSME.pdf">Girls and Science, Math, and Engineering</a>" (pdf) and "<a href="http://www.girlsinc.org/downloads/GirlsandIT.pdf">Girls and Information Technology</a>" (pdf), among <a href="http://www.girlsinc.org/resources/fact-sheets.html">other topics</a>.<br /><br />(via <a href="http://www.fairerscience.org/fs-blogs/2009/07/encouraging_the_participation.html">Fairer Scienc</a>e)<br /><br />Image (left to right): Alan Leshner, Marcia Brumit Kropf, Sandra Hanson, Barbara Bogue, Cherryl Thomas.<br /><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+engineering" rel="tag">women in engineering</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a></span><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag"></a>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-18652619349648870552009-07-14T22:29:00.000-07:002009-07-15T02:22:35.598-07:00Ada Lovelace, Calculating and Fighting Crime<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 172px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHmEuL2mNO1Z2iFpOJDxwRfJbFxvmHn9leXbqRNnt-FQ_GxxJHhdidLXQ1sUofwaDqlbPbPhvX9h_WUgqpoQCLMwhfoCR5rfSVLMI3Cv5UVP0p5cXaEpM2ZK4tPmxvZ7vQTTrfAg/s200/lovelacepg5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358606627436281842" border="0" /></a>It's summer, so here's some light entertainment:<br /><br />In honor of <a href="http://findingada.com/">Ada Lovelace Day</a> last March, Artist Sydney Padua <a href="http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/">created a comic</a> featuring the mostly-true-except-for-the-inaccurate-bits story of Ada Lovelace's childhood, education, and her fateful meeting with Charles Babbage which ultimately lead to their crime-fighting partnership (I mentioned the inaccurate bits, right?). It's steampunk, it's geeky, and it's got copious explanatory notes - what more does a comic need?<br /><br />Check out <a href="http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/">Ada Lovelace - The Origin</a>. Then read the continuing adventures of Lovelace and Babbage:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/category/lovelace-and-babbage-economic-model/">Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Economy</a></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/metaphysical-speculation-into-the-nature-of-this-comic-or-lovelace-and-babbage-vs-the-salamander-people/" title="Metaphysical Speculation Into The Nature of This Comic, or: Lovelace and Babbage vs The Salamander People">Metaphysical Speculation Into The Nature of This Comic, or: Lovelace and Babbage vs The Salamander People</a></span></li><li><a href="http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/babbage-and-lovelace-vs-the-client/">Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Client</a> (currently in progress).<br /></li></ul>The <a href="http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html">real Ada Lovelace</a> began her life-long friendship Cambridge mathematics professor Charles Babbage when she was just 17 years old. The two corresponded on mathematics, logic and other topics, and, in the process of writing a description of Babbage's proposed "Analytical Engine" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#Charles_Babbage">created the very first computer program</a>. Ada married William King at the age of 19, had three children, and sadly died of cancer in 1852 at the age of 37. As far as we know, she and Babbage had no crime-fighting adventures , but it's fun to consider what could have been.<br /><br />(via <a href="http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/011416.html#011416">Making Light</a>)<br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Ada+Lovelace" rel="tag">Ada Lovelace</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Charles+Babbage" rel="tag">Charles Babbage</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/comics" rel="tag">comics</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-69140010887519694152009-07-09T22:48:00.000-07:002009-07-10T02:05:14.125-07:00Sylvia Earle: Marine Biologist and Aquanaut<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDkv9dV7bP4KuIBJSbjS7TdsXZRfWZYLs7lKtMJpJ6cLmzweMxFU7lzRrGPCFkQ_ZHMYa59hIGisaoJwSJ6NxjXhZWp-A7HTdd31Q-cINhq63LwyZU_PTlPbnuePVTUPbJsXVMQ/s1600-h/SylviaEmmasubfilming_100.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDkv9dV7bP4KuIBJSbjS7TdsXZRfWZYLs7lKtMJpJ6cLmzweMxFU7lzRrGPCFkQ_ZHMYa59hIGisaoJwSJ6NxjXhZWp-A7HTdd31Q-cINhq63LwyZU_PTlPbnuePVTUPbJsXVMQ/s200/SylviaEmmasubfilming_100.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356754019398626978" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">A few days ago the KQED public television program </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/profile-sylvia-earle">QUEST profiled pioneering marine biologist and explorer Sylvia Earle</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, which has given me the kick in the rear I needed to finish this post that's been sitting as a draft for several months.</span><br /><br /> In 1970 Sylvia Earle lead an all-female team of "Aquanauts" that lived for two weeks in an underwater habitat - <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=QwEAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA142&dq=sylvia%20earle%20aquanaut&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=MAGAZINES&pg=PA54">Tektite II -</a> off the Virgin Islands. The project was partially funded by NASA, which was interested in how teams would work in an isolated closed environment. Others on her team were Renata True of Tulane (<a href="http://www.com.edu/teams/science/bio_rtrue.cfm">now at College of the Mainland</a> in Texas), Scripps graduate students Ann Hartline and Alina Szmant (now at <a href="http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta/szmant.htm">University of North Carolina, Wilmington</a>), and engineer Margaret Ann Lucas.<br /><br />Their mission wasn't just focused on learning to work together as a team and studying the local flora and fauna. They were also testing newly developed diving equipment. Astronaut Scott Carpenter noted that when he visited Tektite II and <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=QwEAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA142&dq=sylvia%20earle%20aquanaut&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=MAGAZINES&pg=PA54">wrote about it for <span style="font-style: italic;">Popular Science</span></a>: <blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Their professional skill impressed me, and so did their self-reliance. With no male help wanted, they toted their own tanks and other heavy gear. [...] On a swim the day before, I saw the team prepare equipment for another ecology study by Ann Hartline and Alina Szmant. Peggy Lucas, the team's engineer, went along on another occasion, when all five girls were in the water at once.<br /><br />That was a rare and somewhat eerie sight. Five girls clad in bright-orange wetsuits, with stark white backpacks, working on their projects in brilliant blue-green water, [...] a splash of color I'll remember [...]. An unusual part of the spectacle was the absence of bubbles.<br /><br />The team was building up experience with closed-circuit, mixed-scuba - an innovation that their Tektite II mission would be the first to put to use. Instead of exhausting a diver's exhaled breath to the sea, as an open-circuit scuba does, it absorbs carbon dioxide and recovers unused oxygen, to supplement the mixture entering the inhalation bag from the tanks.</span></blockquote>If you can overlook the patronizing tone (I hate when adult women are called "girls"), it's an interesting look at the development of new technology.<br /><br />When they emerged from their habitat they were instant celebrities, and were treated to a ticker-tape parade in Chicago and invited to lunch at the Whitehouse. Not surprisingly the press focused on the novelty of women scientists. For example <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-ywVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P_gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5294,1247768">this Associated Press article published in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Spokane Daily Chronicle</span></a> gives us the important details about the Aquanauts' average height, weight and preferred hair styles (petite with pony tails, if you must know). However, it also included this great quote:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">"Sometimes people find it hard to take us seriously," says Dr. Sylvia Early[sic] Mead, 34, of Los Angeles, the team leader. But she adds, "Most of the problems are in the minds of the men."</span></blockquote> Since 1970 Earle has never let up on her exploration of the oceans - she set several diving records, walked on the ocean floor 1250 feet below the surface, and became the first female chief scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. She has also lead the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/seas/"> Sustainable Sea Expeditions</a>, a project to research and promote the US National Marine Sanctuaries, and her work as an advocate for oceans and its denizens <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989255,00.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Time</span> magazine named her a "hero for the planet".</a><br /><br />She acknowledges that her devotion to her work may have strained her first marriage. However, <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ear0int-2">she was able to figure out how to combine career and family, despite her frequent field trips</a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">It is a problem trying to combine having family and being as enthusiastic about a specialty as I have always been. I have managed it in part through ingenious rearranging of a life, I suppose. Having a laboratory set up at home. I always had a microscope -- not a big, fancy, sophisticated microscope, but something that would make it possible for me to work at home. And I have a professional library that I have accumulated all my life. The big professional libraries do provide the necessary access to a world of information, but I have managed to gather a nucleus of books at home that are like an extension of my mind. My favorite wall paper is books. I can't possibly keep everything in my brain, but if I have access to it, and know where to get it off the shelf, that's like having an extension -- a bigger brain. That's certainly true with computers now.</span></blockquote>Earle's husband and parents helped take care of the kids while she was traveling, and her <a href="http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/an-early-start-in-science/?pagemode=print">they were also occasionally taken out of school to "dive with the whales in Hawaii" or travel "to the Bahamas and dive with a friendly dolphin"</a> (how cool is that?). Earle's children learned to love the oceans too:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Ms. Earle said her son works for California Fish and Game, catching the “bad guys who take more abalone than they should.” Her older daughter, whom she described as hating math since the 6th grade because of a discouraging teacher, now runs the company Ms. Earle started, Deep Ocean Engineering. And her younger daughter now does deep sea diving in submarines.</span></blockquote>Watch the QUEST segment on Sylvia Earle either below or <a href="http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/profile-sylvia-earle">at KQED.com</a>.<br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=7,0,19,0" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" name="player" bgcolor="#3f3f3f" id="" height="202" width="320"> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"> <param name="wmode" value="window"> <param name="swliveconnect" value="false"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> <param value="http://www.kqed.org/quest/flash/KQEDMediaPlayer.swf" name="movie"> <param name="flashVars" value="poster=http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/poster_frame_file/176/311a_silviaearle640.jpg&link_url=http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/profile-sylvia-earle&id=1539&source=http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/quest/311a_sylviaearle_e.flv&"> <param value="high" name="quality"> <embed wmode="window" allowfullscreen="true" swliveconnect="true" allowscriptaccess="always" name="" bgcolor="#000000" id="player" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" src="http://www.kqed.org/quest/flash/KQEDMediaPlayer.swf" flashvars="poster=http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/poster_frame_file/176/311a_silviaearle640.jpg&link_url=http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/profile-sylvia-earle&id=1539&source=http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/quest/311a_sylviaearle_e.flv&" height="202" width="320"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/profile-sylvia-earle">QUEST</a> on <a href="http://www.kqed.org/">KQED</a> Public Media.<br /><br />More about Sylvia Earle:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_wish_to_protect_our_oceans.html">Sylvia Earle's TED Prize wish to protect our oceans </a>(video) - watch this!<br /></li><li><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=m0FZFRNj9IYC&lpg=PA71&dq=sylvia%20earle%20aquanaut&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&as_pt=MAGAZINES&pg=PA67">Read "Queen of the Deep</a>" by Dawn Stover, <span style="font-style: italic;">Popular Science, </span>April 1995</li><li><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989255,00.html">Read "Call of the Sea" </a>by Roger Rosenblatt, <span style="font-style: italic;">Time</span>, 5 Oct 1998</li><li><a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ear0pro-1">Academy of Achievement: Sylvia Earle Profile (with an extensive interview)<br /></a></li><li><a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/sylvia-earle.html">Sylvia Earle: National Geographic Explorer in Residence</a></li><li><a href="http://www.the-aps.org/education/k12curric/pdf/earle.pdf">American Physical Society series on Women Life Scientists for K-12 students: Sylvia Earle </a>(pdf)<br /></li><li><a href="http://www.kqed.org/quest/blog/2009/07/07/producers-notes-profile-sylvia-earle">Read the QUEST producer's enthusiastic notes on Profile: Sylvia Earle</a>.</li><li><a href="http://web.me.com/kipevans/Deep_Search/Blog/Blog.html">The Deep Search Foundation Blog</a><br /></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;">Image: <a href="http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/pgallery/pgflower/sse/sse_10.html">"</a></span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/pgallery/pgflower/sse/sse_10.html">During the National Geographic/Sea Stories filming, Dr. Earle explains to Emma, the uses and benefits of deploying the DeepWorkers in the Sanctuary system."</a> (from sanctuaries.noaa.gov) </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Sylvia+Earle" rel="tag">Sylvia Earle</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/marine+biology" rel="tag">marine biology</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/oceanography" rel="tag">oceanography</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-56239246269531223132009-07-08T19:09:00.000-07:002009-07-08T19:09:00.975-07:00Caroline Moore: 14-year old AstronomerOne of the things that I find very cool about astronomy is that it is one of the few fields of science in which amateurs can make important discoveries. One such amateur astronomer is <a href="http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2009/pr200914.html">Caroline Moore, who, at age 14, was the youngest person to ever discover a supernova</a>.<br /><br />Here she is featured on the "Moment of Geek" segment of the Rachel Maddow show:<br /><br /><object height="285" width="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/SMzfJ3uRNmQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/SMzfJ3uRNmQ&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="285" width="340"></embed></object> <br />She's great to watch because she's so enthusiastic and does a good job explaining her part of the project. She hasn't decided whether to become a scientist or study medicine or sing or pursue some other career. That's the beauty of being a teenager - her whole life is in front of her.<br /><br />(I also am amused that they posed her with a small pink telescope, which she explains is <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> what she used to make the discovery.)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/woemn+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/astronomy" rel="tag">astronomy</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Caroline+Moore" rel="tag">Caroline Moore</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-35402857253932757592009-07-07T23:40:00.001-07:002009-07-07T23:45:13.164-07:00Scientiae Carnival @ My Middle YearsThe summer is flying by and, once again, it's time for a new Scientiae Carnival. T<a href="http://mymiddleyears.blogspot.com/2009/07/mirror-mirror-on-wall.html">his month's edition is at My Middle Years</a> with many reflective posts - as you'd expect with the theme of mirrors . . . <br /><br />Go read!<br /><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/scientiae+carnival" rel="tag">scientiae carnival</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-37182083545382619032009-06-07T19:12:00.000-07:002009-06-08T01:21:49.431-07:00June Scientiae CarnivalAlice and ScienceWoman at Sciencewomen has posted the June Scientiae blog carnival has a great roundup of posts from women scientists and engineers about moving forward - either in the past or how they plan to in the future. There are lots of great posts, so go read!<br /><br />Read <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2009/06/june_scientiae.php">part 1 </a>and <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2009/06/june_scientiae_-_the_journey_c.php">part 2</a>.<br /><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/scientiate-carnival" rel="tag">scientiae carnival</a>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-87612080773670340892009-06-01T23:19:00.000-07:002009-06-02T02:55:05.300-07:00Eugenie Scott: Battling for Science Education<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Scott"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4WKWRFG3I7bZiahZybNBAoAx9kGuk-0xZjDC5YeTtPrdW9hQrpbNNR-F8KoJQnhuW-2xl5E7dy_MowVuZpuqLvxxGmZ65Dz7rtskQJBIhF0yibafnlt7XdWpLuonoQ6PW9fRvWg/s200/speakers-scott.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342662352299233282" border="0" /></a>Sometimes I get tired. I have a bunch of half-finished posts that all seem like variations on the same negative themes: women are falling behind, left behind, and dropping out. It's the same reports and same arguments over and over again. I just haven't been that inspired. But I realized that what I needed was something positive to write about. Fortunately, Eugenie Scott has provided me an inspiring subject.<br /><br />Eugenie Scott can <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/inspired/article/1903/">remember well when she first became interested in anthropology</a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">I must have been around nine or 10 years old when my older sister brought home a college-level textbook in anthropology. I was something of a compulsive reader even then, and I casually picked up one of my sister’s books and flipped through the pages. </span> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In the middle of the book was a set of plates showing primitive-looking people with big brows, prow-like noses and receding chins. They were kind of like her boyfriend of the time actually, an observation that was not appreciated. But I was gobsmacked by the reconstructions of these early fossil humans – Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals, Peking Man and the like. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">This is where we started. These were the great-great-great-umpty-ump-great grandfathers of us all. It was stunning to a 10-year-old. The title of the book was <i>Anthropology</i>. I decided then that I wanted to be an anthropologist when I grew up. </span></p></blockquote><p></p>She wasn't actually taught anything about evolution in her science classes until she got to college, but she never lost interest in anthropology. After getting her bachelor and masters degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee she headed to graduate school at the University of Missouri.<br /><br />It was as a graduate student in physical anthropology that Scott <a href="http://ncseweb.org/rncse/23/1/my-favorite-pseudoscience">first became aware of oxymoronically-named "creation science" in 1971</a>. It may not have seemed significant at the time, but that started her on a path towards her current position as the Executive Director of the Oakland, California-based <a href="http://ncseweb.org/about">National Center for Science Education</a> (NCSE), which works to keep evolution in public school science education. Over the years Scott <a href="http://ncseweb.org/rncse/23/1/my-favorite-pseudoscience">collected creationist literature</a>, at first as a mostly academic curiosity. It was while teaching at the University of Kentucky that <a href="http://ncseweb.org/rncse/23/1/my-favorite-pseudoscience">she became involved in a fight </a>to keep creationism out of the Lexington public schools. From that effort the NCSE was formed in 1981, and Scott was made Executive Director of the organization in 1987.<br /><br />While she has accumulated a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Scott#Academic_recognition">number of awards and honors over the years</a>, it's not too surprising that her efforts have come under fire. As <a href="http://www.scienceprogress.org/2009/05/great-scott/">Chris Mooney has pointed out</a>, she has has to fend off criticism from both creationists and science advocates:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">As this evidence suggests, Scott is regularly under fire from the culture war combatants on both sides. Not only does NCSE have to monitor the endless permutations of the creationists, who are constantly coming up with new ploys for attacking evolution. It also has to deal with the pugilistic evolutionists who want to make this battle about the truth or falsehood of religious belief, rather than the truth or falsehood of what science discovers about the world. In this gauntlet, Scott has remained an eloquent defender of the view that people of science and people of religion can and must work together to solve conflicts—and indeed, this is the best and only way forward.</span></blockquote>Her position seems reasonable to me, and the NCSE's efforts seem to have <a href="http://ncseweb.org/creationism/legal/intelligent-design-trial-kitzmiller-v-dover">been effective</a>. I'm thankful that Scott has devoted so much of her career to fighting this fight. Quality science education from elementary through high school is necessary to cultivate the upcoming generations of American scientists.<br /><br />More information about Eugenie Scott:<br /><ul><li>Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Scott">Eugenie Scott</a><br /></li><li>1999: <a href="http://www.ascb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140&Itemid=35">Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education</a> from the American Society for Cell Biology</li><li>2001-2003:<a href="http://physanth.org/pastpres.html"> President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists</a><br /></li><li>2002: <a href="http://www.aibs.org/aibs-news/aibs_news_2002_04.html">Outstanding Service Award</a> from the American Institute of Biological Sciences<br /></li><li>2006:<a href="http://www.aaanet.org/about/Prizes-Awards/Anthropology-in-Media-Award.cfm"> Anthropology in the Media Award</a> from the American Anthropological Association<br /></li><li><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientific-american-10&page=3">2009 Scientific American 10: Guiding Science for Humanity</a><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Eugenie Scott has emerged as one of the most prominent advocates for keeping evolution an integral part of the curriculum in public schools in her role as head of the nonprofit National Center for Science Education (NCSE).</span></blockquote></li><li>2009: awarded the very first S<a href="http://www.evolutionsociety.org/awards.asp#gouldprize">tephen J. Gould Prize bu the Society for the Study of Evolution</a>.</li><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Dr. Scott is a gifted communicator and public intellectual. She is a frequent guest on radio and television shows, and an eloquent spokeswoman for science. Her writings have illuminated the process of science to thousands, and her books have exposed the efforts of many groups in our society to hobble and undermine the teaching of science to our younger generation. The organization she helped create far transcends the considerable reach of her own voice, vastly amplifying her impact on public understanding.</span></blockquote></ul>(If you are interested in helping defend the teaching of evolution, download "<a href="http://ncseweb.org/voices">Voices for Evolution</a>" and check out the<a href="http://ncseweb.org/taking-action"> NCSE's resource page</a>.)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Eugenie+Scott" rel="tag">Eugenie Scott</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/NCSE" rel="tag">NCSE</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-65474485502986428392009-05-26T19:40:00.000-07:002009-05-27T10:56:34.676-07:00Women and European Research FundingThe European Union recently released a report about <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/%20document_library/pdf_06/the-gender-challenge-%20in-research-funding-report_en.pdf">gender and research funding</a> in Europe with interesting results. Not surprisingly, they found a lot of variation from country to country and field to field:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">No very systematic patterns appear in the data obtained. No clear relation could be observed between the proportion of women in a field and their chances of success in obtaining funding. For instance, in some funding schemes and organisations women had higher success rates than men in engineering and technology or in natural sciences, the most male-dominated fields across Europe, and in others lower. Nor was any large and universal imbalance observed in favour of men. However, some cases of imbalance can be observed, with various degrees of statistical significance. In a number of cases, on the contrary, women have significantly higher success rates than men. An example is the Dutch NWO, where, because of low representation of women in research, particular attention is paid to the quality of evaluation, and where promotion of women in research is an important policy goal.</span></blockquote><br />But the funding story is more complicated than just whether there is bias against women applicants in evaluating grant proposals. It turns out that women generally ask for less funding. As the report sums it up:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">The gendered patterns in application behaviour are a very serious problem: women are less likely to apply for funding than men and they request smaller amounts of money.</span> </blockquote>And<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Women apply or re-apply less, apply to less prestigious sources, requesting less funding, and for shorter duration.</span><br /></blockquote>There are a number of possible reasons for that difference: a higher fraction of women are fixed-term or part-time positions where they are ineligible to apply for many grants, women may be less integrated into scientific networks, and may have less social support. In that light, it seems particularly unfair that women who do get grant funding may find themselves burdened with non-research tasks that reduce their productivity. As the report explains:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">A new finding however was that receiving funding can have deleterious effects: according to the authors, ‘women may suffer an ‘inverse <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect">Matthew Effect</a>’ where their initial success leads to demands on their time as high profile members of an under-represented group which make it harder to sustain previous levels of research activity.’</span></blockquote>And why does it matter? Well, for one, there is the loss of potential women colleagues who find themselves unfunded or underfunded. And the report noted that when looking at prestigious awards there is a significant difference between men and women:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">Very strong gender imbalances were noted among the awardees of highly prestigious grants, positions or prizes in many countries.</span></blockquote>So what can be done? The report's recommendations include:<br /><ul><li>Monitor and encourage research on gender equality, especially with regards to funding statistics.<br /></li><li>Increase the number of applications from women researchers by encouraging and training women to apply for more funding and offering measures to improve work-life balance.<br /></li><li>Improve the gender balance among the "gatekeepers of research funding"<br /></li></ul>While I think the suggestions are reasonable, I don't think it's an easy task. In particular, the application rate of women for research grants seems to be affected by a number of issues of varying complexity. I don't think there's necessarily an easy way, for example, to improve the involvement of women in informal science networks heavily dominated by men, particularly those that combine social and professional interactions. If a woman doesn't feel comfortable (or is excluded from) heading to the pub with her lab mates she may very well be missing out on advice and inside knowledge that gets bandied about in those situations. There's no way to create rules to change such social interactions, although social networks for women scientists may help. Putting measures into place now meant to improve the situation is a step in the right direction.<br /><br />(via an <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v459/n7245/full/459299a.html">editorial in <span style="font-style: italic;">Nature</span> about the report</a> )<br /><br />Download the European Commission report: <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/the-gender-challenge-in-research-funding-report_en.pdf">The Gender Challenge in Research Funding: Assessing the European national scenes</a> (pdf)<br /><br />Download the related European Commission report: <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/wist2_sustainable-careers-report_en.pdf">Women in science and technology: Creating sustainable careers</a> (pdf)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/gender+gap" rel="tag">gender gap</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/grant+funding" rel="tag">grant funding</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-32269122988026079062009-05-22T23:02:00.000-07:002009-05-23T02:48:43.756-07:00L'Oreal-UNESCO USA Fellowships AwardedThe five postdoctoral researchers who were awarded 2009 L'Oreal USA Fellowships for Women in Science were <a href="http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-21-2009/0005030711&EDATE=">honored at a special ceremony at the American Museum of Natural History on Thursday</a>. Each of the winners will receive a $60,000 grant for scientific research and career development. The awardees:<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Dr. Beena Kalisky</span>: Kalisky is a postdoc in the <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/group/moler/index.html">lab of Kathyrn A. Moler</a> in the Department of Applied Stanford University. According to the press release, she is "developing a new system for detection and characterization of individual nanomagnets. The instrument designed will scan over a large number of particles and individually measure their magnetic properties. This will help in the gathering of pertinent information for the exploration of the nanomagnets' possible applications."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Dr. Aster Kammrath</span>: Kammrath is a postdoc in the <a href="http://atmos.chem.wisc.edu/index.html">lab of Frank Keutsch</a> in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. According to the press release her research focuses on "the pathways by which molecules emitted by human activity or natural sources are involved in climate change and pollution problems. This work aims to help set appropriate emissions controls to minimize the production of carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases and aerosol, which could help reduce respiratory problems."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.napsnet.com/articles/61458.html">Kammrath has said </a>that it was her mother who helped her discover science:<br /><blockquote>"She instilled in me a passion for solving problems and understanding the real-world application of the scientific method," she says.</blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dr. Nozomi Nishimura</span>: Nishimura is a <a href="http://courses2.cit.cornell.edu/schafferlab/people/nozomi-nishimura">postdoc in the lab of Chris B. Schaffer</a> in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. Her research involves "testing the role that blood vessel dysfunction plays in triggering Alzheimer's disease. This research will look at how clots or bleeds in the smallest blood vessels in the brain could seed the accumulation of A-beta proteins, an indication of plaque in the brain which often occurs in Alzheimer's patients."<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Dr. Tiffany Santos</span>: Santos is a <a href="http://nano.anl.gov/people/electronic_magnetic.html">postdoc in the Electronic & Magnetic Materials & Devices division of the Center for Nanoscale Materials</a> at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Her research involves "a class of materials called transition metal oxides, with a wide array of properties, that have numerous potential applications. This research aims to uncover new materials, which could potentially help reduce power consumption and increase the energy efficiency of information technologies, such as data storage devices and memory chips."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dr. Erika Sudderth</span>: Sudderth is a <a href="http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/ackerly/research/eas/">postdoc in the lab of David Ackerly</a> in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley (the press release says Brown University, so she may have recently moved). Her research is focused on understanding "the constraints, thresholds and limits of ecological responses to precipitation, which is arguably the most important controller of ecosystem processes. This research aims to understand the mechanisms driving ecosystem responses to climate change."<br /><br />(I plan to update the post as the various institutions release additional information)<br /><br />For more information about the awards, see:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.lorealusa.com/forwomeninscience">L'Oréal-USA For Women in Science Official Web Site </a>(requires Flash)</li><li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/LOreal-USA-For-Women-in-Science/169912350366">L'Oréal USA For Women in Science on Facebook</a></li></ul><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/women+in+science" rel="tag">women in science</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/loreal+unesco+fellowships" rel="tag">L'Oreal-UNESCO Fellowships</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-49603387982034790752009-05-14T23:12:00.000-07:002009-05-15T00:09:28.244-07:00Why Girls Don't Like MathA recent episode of Your Voice ("helping parents help their children succeed in school") on Ontario Public Television station TVO took a look at "Why Girls Don't Like Math". The program featured a discussion between <a href="http://www.fairerscience.org/fs-blogs/2009/05/taking_my_own_advice.html">Patricia Campbell of Fairer Science</a>, <a href="http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/people.html">Fiona Dunbar</a>, Lecturer in Math at the University of Waterloo, chair of the university's Women in Mathematics Committee and founder of the Canadian Women in Math Association; and Grade 8 teacher Lukrica Prugo, who has taught an all-girls class for two years. Host <a href="http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/tvoparents/index.cfm?page_id=221&action=blog&subaction=viewPost&post_id=10249&blog_id=321">Cheryl Johnson set out the background</a>:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;">According to the experts we spoke with on <a href="http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/tvoparents/index.cfm?page_id=483&event_id=2445&sitefolder=tvoparents" title="Your Voice">Your Voice</a>, eight out of ten future jobs will require math skills. This does not bode well for girls, since most girls leave math in the dust after high school, if not before. It's not that girls are not good at math. The most recent EQAO scores from the <a href="http://www.eqao.com/" title="EQAO">Education Quality Accountability Office</a> in Ontario show that girls and boys in Grades 3 and 6 achieve at the same levels in math. However, when asked in the EQAO survey about math, far fewer girls say they like math, fewer say they find math relevant, and many more say they need help with math. So.....girls are good at math, but they think they're not.</span></blockquote>It's an interesting discussion - well worth watching if you are interested in math education.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/tvoparents/index.cfm?page_id=483&event_id=2445&sitefolder=tvoparents">Watch "Why Girls Don't Like Math"</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mathematics" rel="tag">mathematics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/education" rel="tag">education</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/girls" rel="tag">girls</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36206486.post-24054901993206332922009-05-12T23:00:00.000-07:002009-05-13T01:06:55.231-07:00June Scientiae Call For Posts: Moving ForwardAlice and ScienceWoman will be <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/sciencewoman/2009/05/call_for_posts_for_the_june_sc.php">hosting the June Scientiae Carnival at the Sciencewomen blog</a>. This month's theme is "Moving Forward":<br /><em></em><blockquote><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>How are you moving forward in life? </em>Are you close to your degree, tenure, sabbatical, or summer holiday? Is that paper almost ready to go out the door? Is your baby almost potty trained or are you training for a marathon? <em>What keeps you moving forward in your science, work, and life? </em>Is it the drive to cure a disease, make the world a more sustainable piece, or discover something that no one else knows? Is it the promise of exciting data at the end of a long assay? Is it the thought of people calling you Dr.? Is it your daughter's smile when she wakes up in the morning, or the enthusiastic tail wagging of your dog? When things get tough, how do you motivate yourself to move forward?</span></blockquote>Check out their post for some inspiring quotes to "help inspire the creative juices." <br /><br />Entries are due by midnight UTC on May 30th. <a href="http://scientiae-carnival.blogspot.com/2007/02/contributing-to-carnival.html">Follow the submission instructions here</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/scientiae-carnival" rel="tag">scientiae carnival</a></span>Peggy Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18360669414917755737noreply@blogger.com0