"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." - Friedrick Nietzsche
Atheist, scientist, secular Buddhist, rat lover, etc.
Originally from Iowa,I am a biology graduate student at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Ex-Princeton pupil’s letter tells women to ‘find a husband on campus before you graduate’
Ugh. There were plenty of women who used undergrad to get their Mrs. degree, and I suppose that is their own choice to make, but it always rubbed me the wrong way. Seriously, put yourself (or likely your parents) into thousands of dollars of debt so you can marry-off? But I guess my priorities in life have always been different. The fact that such a highly esteemed university would publish that as “advice” is baffling - unless of course they were just doing it to get higher web traffic. And the way that woman responded to the backlash - that Princeton (or supposedly any highly educated women) were “pricing themselves out of the market” - seriously, are we freakin’ cattle up for auction or something?
As a woman in science - molecular biology/microbiology, no less - some people have insinuated that I might make myself “too smart” or whatever to marry off and breed. Newsflash: not all women (or men) have the desire to marry off or have children. Also, any potential sexual/life partner who can’t deal with the fact that I am probably smarter than him simply because my reproductive organs are internal, well, he just isn’t a potential partner. Period. Spell-checked. Sent to the editor for review.
Kepler Mission Discovers its First Rocky Planet
“All of Kepler’s best capabilities have converged to yield the first solid evidence of a rocky planet orbiting a star other than our sun,” said Natalie Batalha, Kepler’s deputy science team lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and primary author of a paper on the discovery accepted by the Astrophysical Journal. “The Kepler team made a commitment in 2010 about finding the telltale signatures of small planets in the data, and it’s beginning to pay off.”
Image: http://bareck.deviantart.com/art/Planet-Stock-5-44044252
My side blog, Women in science, is starting to take off. Check it out!
And feel free to submit posts to it!
Porn stars and the naked truth: Women in the industry are healthy rather than exploited, claims new study
“Adult entertainers were found to have higher self-esteem, a better quality of life and body image, and to be more positive, with greater levels of spirituality. They also had higher levels of sexual satisfaction and, perhaps unsurprisingly, many more partners than other women.”
The results of this research challenge the commonly held idea that people women in the sex industry feel worthless or exploited. The study also found that, contrary to the commonly believed stereotype, women in the porn industry are not more likely to have been sexually abused as children. Sorry society, the “damaged goods” hypothesis may in fact be very incorrect.
Nettie Maria Stevens (1861 - 1912) was an early American geneticist. She and Edmund Beecher Wilson were the first researchers to describe the chromosomal basis of sex.
An outstanding student, Nettie Stevens completed in two years the four-year course at Westfield Normal School (now Westfield State University) in Massachusetts. She graduated at the top of her class. At Stanford, she received her B.A. in 1899 and her M.A. in 1900, having returned to college after an initial career as a school teacher. Stevens continued her studies in cytology at Bryn Mawr, where she was influenced by the work of the previous head of the Biology Department, Edmund Beecher Wilson, and by that of his successor, T. H. Morgan.
Stevens was one of the first American women to be recognized for her contribution to science. At Bryn Mawr College, she discovered that in some species chromosomes are different among the sexes, by observations of insect chromosomes. The discovery was the first time that observable differences of chromosomes could be linked to an observable difference in physical attributes (such as if an individual is a male or a female. This work was done in 1905. The experiments done to determine this used a range of insects, she identified the Y chromosome in the mealworm Tenebrio. She deduced the chromosomal basis of sex depended on the presence or absence of the Y chromosome. Also Nettie Stevens was the first to recognize that females have two large sex chromosomes. She did not start her research until her thirties and completed her PhD in 1903. She successfully expanded the fields of embryology and cytogenetics. She died on May 4, 1912 of breast cancer, before she was able to fully take up a new faculty position.
Whew! Just added some material to my other blog, Women in Science. You should check it out! And submit!
Most of the stuff is just re-blogs; my main goal with this project is to get women scientists/aspiring scientists to submit text/images. So, you know, if you fit the criteria, do that.
The academic jungle: ecosystem modelling reveals why women are driven out of research
A paper by Katherine O’Brien and Karen Hopgood explaining why, even though women are entering into the science and technology field in markedly increased numbers, they still perform worse than average in job retention and promotion. The reason: having children and caring for families.
“Getting female students in the doors of university is the easy part. A real measure of success of female participation in engineering and science is their position in the workforce one, two and three decades later, which ultimately must account for women’s role as primary care givers in most families.”
This paper provides several recommendations for how women who are working part-time in the sciences can survive.
Good thing I’m not the mothering type! And men (or other partners): step up and take on more of the responsibility of family-rearing! We need our women scientists to be able to be active in the research community.
My terrible pictures can't be the only thing on here. Submit to Women in Science!
This is my side blog dedicated to Tumblr’s women in the sciences. Feel free to submit photos, videos, or whatnots related to your work/interest in the sciences!
Do it. Because science.
An idea. Input appreciated.
So, I was thinking about starting a little side tumblr dedicated to women in the sciences. Basically people could just submit photos of themselves doing science or what not and give a little blurb about their research or studies or future studies. I thought something like this would have already existed, but when I looked I came up with nil. Good idea, bad idea? Suggestions?
