I want to commend to you a pair of posts that strike me as calls to action. Both relate to the oft-discussed “pipeline problem” in the sciences. And, I take it that both authors are interested in making science (and especially academic science) a less hostile environment not just for women, but for others who love science but, frankly, may not have much patience for current institutional or societal barriers to entry to the tribe of science.
Category Archives: Blogospheric science
A hail of random bullets until I find time for a real post.
I actually have a longish post I’m working on (about whistleblowing), plus a bazillion submissions for the upcoming Skeptics’ Circle to sort through, but between teaching and grading and coaching and making lunches, well, there are a bunch of important tidbits that will fall through the cracks unless I give you a random bullets post:
Viral information outburst: cool things are more fun when you share them.
David at The World’s Fair has posed another, “Ask a ScienceBlogger, Sort Of” question:
Essentially, as scientific types who tend to analyse, over-analyse, supra-analyse things, and who like to categorize and follow empirical trends, I’m interesting in hearing what you think it is that sparks these viral outbursts of information outreach? This question (and apologies for its convolution) also relates directly to your role as a blogger, where the assumption is that you revel in increased traffic, and are kind of looking for these tricks anyway. I guess, I’m just interested in hearing a scientist’s opinion on this, as oppose to the usual IT expert/academic.
Shorter David: Why do some pieces of information take off and spread like head lice at a preschool? My guess: The pieces of knowledge (or culture or what have you) that really grab us are grabbing us as information it would be important or fun to share with others. Information rattling around in our own heads doesn’t seem as valuable to us as information that has also been transmitted to the heads of others.
What’s that smell?
Well, I can’t smell it from here on the Left Coast, but those of you in nose-shot of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden may soon get to partake of the wonder that is the Amorphophallus titanum, aka “corpse flower”.
Online chemistry resources from the Journal of Chemical Education.
Another dispatch from the BCCE:
The Journal of Chemical Education (or J Chem Ed, as we call it in the biz), is, in fact, targeted to an audience of chemical educators. Its website has the online version of the journal, plus some resources for teachers of chemistry at the <a href="http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/HS/index.htmlhigh school and college levels.
But, it also has a passel of goodies that anyone with even a passing interest in chemistry can love.
My dinner with Julie and Geeky Mom.
It’s hard to know the best way to blog a dinner (especially when you have agreed, with your dinner companions, that each of you should blog it to discover whether the result is a Rashoman-like situation wherein each description might as well have been of a different event). Also, I was up late packing and up early catching my airport shuttle. So this may be somewhat stream of (un)consciousness.
Women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine — get interviewed.
Yami at Green Gabbro puts out a call for interviewees for a book project on women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM).
While the status of women in STEMM has improved in the past few decades, it has been a slow process with many ups and downs. Programs aimed at girls interested in science and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in universities, have helped increase the number of STEMM degrees awarded to women. But the number of women is still shockingly low in some disciplines, such as physics and computer science, and at the highest ranks in all fields. Where the Girls Aren’t explores the many factors contributing to this, including subtle and not-so-subtle gender bias that begins in childhood and continues throughout a STEMM career; the isolation of women in fields full of men; and the challenges of balancing marriage and a family with a career in STEMM. The book also looks at what the studies of gender and intelligence really say about possible genetic influences on scientific and mathematical ability.
Go check out the post at Green Gabbro to read more about the project and see if you fit into one of the categories of interviewees sought. If you do and you’re interested in being interviewed, Yami will put you in touch with the author.
The effect of science fiction on one’s world view.
How is our vision of the world affected by the possibilities we see explored in science fiction? Meme Therapy asked a bunch of science fiction writers (and some philosopher of science), and got some interesting answers about reading and writing, grappling with conflicting messages, questioning authority, and being worried. Go read it.
Watch what you say about my university!
The problem with having eyes and ears everywhere is that sometimes they deliver sensory data that make you want to rip them out of your head or stuff them with cotton, respectively.
An eagle-eyed reader pointed me toward some eyebrow-raising comments on another blog, which would not be of much interest except they purport to transmit information obtained from one of the fine science departments at my university. So, to uphold the honor of my university, I have to wade into this.
First, a representative sampling of the comments from the poster in question. He writes:
I will leave this site with a comment a chemistry professor made. It is simple but for this site it will speak volumes. Can 2 parrots mate and have a crow.
This is the premise of evolution, like it or not. This is it.
Overzealous spam filter gobbles legitimate comments, posts.
So, because of assorted commenting issues across the ScienceBlogs galaxy, our tech gurus installed a new spam filter. And apparently, it’s quite the enthusiastic little spam filter. Word is that it has swallowed a number of legitimate comments (known with some certainty to be legitimate because they were composed by the blog owners). And blog posts (which I would have thought, as an outsider to the wonderful world of software architecture, were presumptively not spam).
Possibly, particular words are triggering the activation of the spam filter’s voracious jaws. I can’t type them here (because then this post goes POOF!), but for the Pig Latin scholars in the audience, the suspected triggers are ostitution-pray and ambling-gay. Grab a thesaurus and find good synonyms if you need them.
In any case, should you attempt to post a comment here that seems not ever to appear, send me an email to let me know and I’ll try to extract it from the spam filter’s jaws. (On the other blogs, emailing the blogger about missing comments is probably fine.)