Beatrix Potter, Naturalist

Chet Raymo (Science Musings) has an interesting post about Beatrix Potter's work as a naturalist.

Potter was the first person in Britain, and one of the first in the world, to recognize that lichens were composed of two organisms, a fungus and an alga. Her microscopic study of lichens led her to the conclusion that the two organisms lived in a mutually advantageous relationship: symbiosis. The alga took care of photosynthesis for the pair, converting sunlight to useful nourishment, she believed; the fungus gave the alga a safe haven, stored water, and drew minerals necessary for photosynthesis from the anchoring rock or tree trunk.

Her work was generally ignored by the scientific establishment.

At last, through the helpful influence of her uncle, a chemist, she managed to have a scientific paper presented at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London: "On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae," by Helen B. Potter. Of course, she was not allowed to read it herself; only men were allowed to attend the meetings.

She eventually turned away from science, and focused on illustrated books for children. While it would be a less colorful world without Peter Rabbit, it's hard to know what was lost by excluding women like Potter from the scientific community.

WITI

WITI, or Women in Technology International, was founded in 1989 as a professional organization for women "working in all sectors of technology".

WITI Hall of Fame is a web site designed to "recognize, honor, and promote the outstanding contribution women make to the scientific and technological communities that improve and evolve our society." The 2006 inductees were:

• Maria Azua, Vice President of Technology and Innovation for the IBM Corporation
• Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Institut Pasteur
• Kim Jones, Vice President of Global Education and Research, Sun Microsystems
• Nor Rae Spohn, Vice President, Business Imaging and Printing, Hewlett Packard
• Been-Jon Woo, Director, Technology Integration, Intel
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If you know a woman who fits the bill, you can download the nomination form here (pdf).

Gender, Math, and Stereotype

Alpha Psy has an interesting article on the study by Ilan Dar-Nimrod and Steven Hein titled "Exposure to Scientific Theories Affects Women's Math Performance.

Dar-Nimrod and Heine used a clever trick to prime participants with different 'facts' related to the alleged gender gap in math skills. The has their participant complete a GRE like task that had three parts: the first and the third were mathematical problems, and the second was reading comprehension. The essay of the second part was used as the prime: in one case it said that there were no gender differences in math skills; in another case, it simply primed gender, without alluding to the gender gap (as in a classic stereotype threat experiment). The last two cases are the most interesting: both mentioned the gender gap, but they offered different explanations for it. One explanation was in terms of genetic differences, and the other in terms of personal experience.

The authors hypothesized that women who read the essay mentioning genetics as a cause for the gender gap would perform less well (as the women primed with gender) but that the essay explaining the gender gap by differences in experience would give similar results to the essay saying that there were no differences whatsoever. And this is exactly the result they obtained (both in this experiment and in a replication).

This shows two interesting facts: first, explaining differences in terms of genetics can have a self-fulfilling effect. Women who think that they are less good in math because of genetic differences will be less good. Second, an explanation in terms of experience can negate the stereotype threat effect.

Further reading:
• Sex Differences in Cognition: A Primer @ Alpha Psy
• Gender, math, Stereotype Threat and Testosterone @ Mixing Memory
• Learning about stereotypes reduces their impact @ Cognitive Daily
• The negative impact of positive stereotypes @ Cognitive Daily

Stereotypes and Science Kits

Janet Stemwedel (Adventures in Science and Ethics) is dismayed by the science kits marketed to girls: "Spa Science", "Perfumary Kit", "The Beauty of Science", "Creative Cosmetics"

Honestly, I can't think of a better way to make a girl in grade school question whether she'll have any interest in or aptitude for science than to present her with a "science for girls" kit. The message seems to be, "Look, there's a bit of science that will interest even you. (And go put on some lipstick!)" Heaven knows, we couldn't even get girls interested in building Rube Goldberg machines, or launching water-rockets, or studying the growth of plants or the behaviors of animals, or blowing stuff up.

Check out her post for sites with experiments for both girls and boys interested in chemistry.

New Blog

I keep coming across interesting information about women in science - both today and in history - so I thought I'd start a blog. Comments are welcome.