I have really enjoyed watching the new Cosmos series with my three-year-old (click here to watch the full episodes; they are available for 90 days after they air). I love science. I also love English, and I love working and moving in the interdisciplinary space between them.
There are many ways to do this. I love the work of Andrea Barrett, for example, a fiction writer who teaches about historical science and scientists through her fiction while maintaining the human connection—it's not just about the facts, it's about the difficulties and joys of the people who discovered those facts and the complex set of life circumstances that allowed those facts to emerge and be refined. I also love reading non-fiction science essays and books for the general public (Oliver Sacks, Bill Bryson, Michael Shermer, and Leonard Susskind are the ones that I've read recently), and I would love to write them myself—there's not too many women who do. Please leave a comment or email me if you know of these kinds of publications by women.
I currently work for Atomium Culture where I collaborate with researchers from 26 universities to create good articles for lay audiences, and then we publish those articles in 17 major newspapers across Europe. Europe is cool like that.
Last week I had a digital conference with Xavier Luri Carrascoso, an astrophysicist at the University of Barcelona and one of the authors of the GAIA mission proposal. He is in charge of the GAIA archives as they seek to create an accurate 3D representation of the universe. After discussing his upcoming article, he mentioned the Comisión Mujer y Astronomía, an initiative by the La Sociedad Española de Astronomía (SEA) to support women in astronomy and the sciences.
Eventually, I believe, the goal should be that these types of commissions are unnecessary because women's voices will be taken as seriously as men's voices in the sciences. In the meantime, they are helpful support systems to encourage passion. Astronomy is doing better than other fields; about 30% women and 70% men, Carrascoso said.
I love Neil deGrasse Tyson's passion; such a passion deserves encouragement, whatever gender someone may be, but women and minorities have an uphill battle against cultural expectations. Tyson's response to the rather sexist question "What's up with chicks and science?" during a panel discussion was phenomenal. (Question is at 1:01 of the clip, about three minutes long.)
The gist: "Before we start talking about genetic differences, you gotta come up with a system where there's equal opportunity; then we can have that conversation."
I currently work for Atomium Culture where I collaborate with researchers from 26 universities to create good articles for lay audiences, and then we publish those articles in 17 major newspapers across Europe. Europe is cool like that.
Last week I had a digital conference with Xavier Luri Carrascoso, an astrophysicist at the University of Barcelona and one of the authors of the GAIA mission proposal. He is in charge of the GAIA archives as they seek to create an accurate 3D representation of the universe. After discussing his upcoming article, he mentioned the Comisión Mujer y Astronomía, an initiative by the La Sociedad Española de Astronomía (SEA) to support women in astronomy and the sciences.
Eventually, I believe, the goal should be that these types of commissions are unnecessary because women's voices will be taken as seriously as men's voices in the sciences. In the meantime, they are helpful support systems to encourage passion. Astronomy is doing better than other fields; about 30% women and 70% men, Carrascoso said.
I love Neil deGrasse Tyson's passion; such a passion deserves encouragement, whatever gender someone may be, but women and minorities have an uphill battle against cultural expectations. Tyson's response to the rather sexist question "What's up with chicks and science?" during a panel discussion was phenomenal. (Question is at 1:01 of the clip, about three minutes long.)
The gist: "Before we start talking about genetic differences, you gotta come up with a system where there's equal opportunity; then we can have that conversation."
But in case you were curious about the original genetic question, Cordelia Fine answers it in her book Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference. I highly encourage people to read Fine's book. It blasts Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus into sparkling galactic shards of bad science.
Fine's book, drawing on science for the evidence (or lack thereof) and English to communicate it, changed my worldview significantly. I'm grateful to Andrea Barrett and Cordelia Fine for being superb examples of bridges between these two disciplines. The space in between science and English is a powerful one indeed. It is a game changer. A world shaker. It is the space where we become aware of the surrounding universe and our place in it.
Which, spoiler alert, is not the center of the galaxy nor at its edges, but somewhere in between.
Fine's book, drawing on science for the evidence (or lack thereof) and English to communicate it, changed my worldview significantly. I'm grateful to Andrea Barrett and Cordelia Fine for being superb examples of bridges between these two disciplines. The space in between science and English is a powerful one indeed. It is a game changer. A world shaker. It is the space where we become aware of the surrounding universe and our place in it.
Which, spoiler alert, is not the center of the galaxy nor at its edges, but somewhere in between.
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