Blog Rolling

Over in the sidebar I've been collecting links to blogs by or about women in science and engineering. Finally the list got so long Blogger was choking every time I added (or tried to add) a new blog to the list. I figured the solution was to divide the blogs into categories. There were a few different ways they could be divided, but in the end I went with a division by blog topic/background of the blogger. The categories are broad: Life Sciences & Scientists, Physical Sciences & Scientists, Mathematics & Computer Science, and Engineering. In a number of cases the blogs either had a broad range of content or the background of the blogger was unclear, so those blogs ended up in the General & Miscellaneous category.

I'm hoping to get some reader feedback on the list:

• Are my categories too general or confusing or stupid? Instead of splitting them by field, I could divide them into Academia, Non-academia and Science Writing, for example, or split Physical sciences into physics, chemistry and "other." The blogs that are about personal experiences could be separated from the blogs that focus on the science. I'm open to suggestion.
  
• Have I miscategorized any of the blogs? I gave them all the once over as I split them up, but I almost certainly missed something.
• Do you know of any blogs that should be on the list? I am mostly interested in the life sciences and the blog role is lopsided in that category. The list of mathematics, computer science, and engineering blogs is particularly weak. The criteria I'm using for listing:
  - the blogger is female
  - most of the posts are about science or engineering-related topics, either about the science or about being a scientist
  - the blog is fairly regularly updated
  - I'd like to include a wide range of voices, both inside and outside academia

The next time someone whines "but girls/women/chicks aren't interested in science," I'd like to be able to point to the many female science and engineering bloggers.

Scientiae Carnival #4

The fourth Scientiae Carnival of Women in Science, Engineering, Technology and Math is up at See Jane Compute. There are lots of thought provoking posts there, so go check it out.

Tags: Scientiae

March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology: Janet Rossant and Anne McLaren

This year's March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology was won by two female scientists: Janet Rossant, chief of research in development and stem cell biology at the University of Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, and Anne McLaren at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute in Cambridge.

Janet Rossant's lab studies early mouse embryogenesis and human stem cell lines. According to her science.ca profile:

Dr. Rossant is internationally recognized for her pioneering research in mouse genetics; she says that the study of mice helps researchers to learn more about human genetics. She genetically manipulates the mouse genome – the total genes carried by a cell – to address problems that may arise during development. Because these mouse cells represent the early cells that form the placenta in humans, it becomes possible to predict what can go wrong in early pregnancy.

Rossant was interviewed about stem cell research on CBC radio's Sunday Edition in February (listen).

Anne McLaren was the first to grow a mouse embryo in a test tube then implant it into a "mother" for natural birth. Her lab currently studies the development of mouse "Primordial Germ Cells". In 2001 the International Journal of Developmental Biology published a touching tribute from her research students of the 1960s and 1970s:

The quality of Anne as a scientist and as a person is reflected in her role as a supervisor of research students. this story of what she did, and still does for them is a measure of her many talents. In Terri Hargrave's words "she was our role model: scientist, mentor, friend, mother and now grandmother!" Her students from the Edinburgh days, wish to record our very warm affection and heartfelt thanks.

Note: I didn't find any information about Rossant and McLaren winning the award on the March of Dimes web site. My source of information on the prize is the March 23, 2007 issue of Science.

Tags: March of Dimes Prize, Janet Rossant, Anne McLaren

Women, Science and Fiction

OK, my last catch-up post is on women scientists writing and featured in fiction.

Skepchick starts a list of books written by female scientists (Sandra Hrdy, Marlene Zuk, and May Berenbaum) and science fiction writers (Connie Willis, Tanya Huff) and asks for additional recommendations. Be sure to read the comments for additional suggestions!

Pat at FairerScience points out that there is a special category at the IMDB for movies and TV shows with "babe scientists". Some of these have what I would consider positive portrayals of female scientists, such as Scully on X-Files and Carter on Stargate, SG-1, while others, not so much (although it's possible that Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death falls into the "so bad it's good" category).

She's Such a Geek writes about Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and mystery novelists Camille Minichino and Ann Parker. Minichino's mysteries have a retired female physicist detective and an elemental theme: The Hydrogen Murder, The Lithium Murder, The Helium Murder, etc. They sound like fun.

Finally, there was an excellent comment thread on feminist science fiction at "I Blame the Patriarchy". Several the recommended authors also have science backgrounds, including James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon (who had a doctorate in experimental psychology) and Joan Slonczewski (who is a biologist at Kenyon college).

Tags: women in science, science fiction

Women in science around the blogs

Miscellaneous posts from around the blogs that I've been collecting the past few weeks (yes, I'm a lazy blogger).

Rosa at Fairer Science points to an old post by SciMom about Speaking Up and Speaking Out.

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Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz of She's Such a Geek were interviewed on the bat segundo show.

Subjects Discussed: The gender divide in science and technology, whether empirical accounts can raise public awareness, present historical perceptions of gender in relation to past perceptions, female stereotypes, positive cultural portrayals of women, Trinity from The Matrix, Scarlett Thomas, the at we call "empirical evidence".

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Abel Pharmboy writes about the two high school students, Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo, whose science project resulted in a big fine for GlaxoSmithKline.

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Pat at Fairer Science writes about a Discovery Channel job posting looking for an engineer to host a new series, ideally under-50 and male (along with the Discovery Channel's response).

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Biologist Megha Satyanarayana writes in Inkling Magazine about her battle with math anxiety.

Math anxiety definitely stayed with me well past the era of exams. In my later years of graduate school, I had to extract DNA from small numbers of cells. Extraction yielded a minuscule amount of DNA that I needed to use for several experiments. Because I had so little starting material, my palms would sweat when I had to figure out how much to use in even the most basic experiment. I would do the equation five or six times, until I kept getting the same answer over and over. I knew I could do it, but I couldn’t believe I could do it.

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Andrea at the Official Shrub blog has "Geek Girl" Stereotype Bingo.

Basically the rules are that when you see a media article, blog post, or anything else talking about women in relation to a geeky hobby (gaming, technology, science, etc) you pull out this scorecard and mark down which points the article touches on. If you get three in a row (diagonal counts), you win! If you get blackout, you win even more!

Unfortunately, it's an easy game to win.

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Annalee at She's Such a Geek remembers pioneering computer science professor Karen Spärck Jones, who died April 4th.

Jones is famous for saying that computer science is too important to be left to men.

Annalee points out that it isn't particularly surprising that the official death announcement included a paragraph about the career of Jones' husband.

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Finally, a Natural Scientist has excellent advice on choosing a lab to do graduate work in.
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I'll try to do better keeping up with my posting!

Tags: women in science, stereotypes, computer science, engineering, math, biology

Joy of Science: Week 3

Zuska has posted Week 3 of her thought-provoking Feminist Theory and Joy of Science course:

• Joy of Science Week 3 Reading Summaries
  
• Emasculating Men: Women's Access to Science
• Passionate Reason and Pseudo-Passion
• Experiences of International Women

Tags: Joy of Science, women in science

Interview with Jane Goodall

The latest issue of Discover magazine has an interview with primatologist Jane Goodall. She reminisces about her decades-long study of chimpanzee behavior which started with a passion for studying animals.

When you arrived in Africa, did you imagine you’d be spending 47 years involved with chimpanzees?

No [laughs]. How could I have back then? One year there seemed enormous at the time. I was only 23. I was invited to Africa by a school friend whose parents had moved to Kenya. One of their friends said, “If you’re interested in animals, you should meet Dr. Louis Leakey.” So I went to see him at the Coryndon Museum [where Leakey was director], and he ended up offering me a job as his secretary. During the time I worked for him, I had the opportunity to go out on the Serengeti with him. He knew I didn’t care about clothes and hair, dresses and parties, and that I really, really, really wanted to live with animals in the bush. And that I didn’t care about a degree—I just wanted to learn.

She also talks about her work to preserve the chimp habitat in Tanzania's Gombe National park.

You can learn more about the Goodall Institute's current chimpanzee research on the Gombe Chimpanzee blog, which cleverly integrates observations of chimp behavior with Google Earth locations.

Tags: Jane Goodall

Scientiae Carnival #3 @ Lab Cat

Lab Cat has done a great job compiling the third Scientiae Carnival of women in science, technology and engineerina (no foolin').

The next Carnival will be held at See Jane Compute. It's easy to submit a post: you can email a link to scientiaecarnival[@]gmail[dot]com, or follow the directions for submitting with a Technorati tag.

Tags: scientiae, women in science