Science for the People: Women in STEM

sftp-square-fistonly-whitebgThis week, Science for the People is celebrating Women in Science by looking at the victories and challenges of women working in science, technology, engineering and math. Join us for a panel discussion with postdoctoral research associate and science communicator Raychelle “Dr. Rubidium” Burks, Colgate University Professor of Psychology Jessica Cundiff, Ph.D., Physics Professor Dr. Shohini Ghose, Director of the Wilfrid Laurier University Centre for Women in Science, and Catherine Hill, Ph.D, vice president for research at the American Association of University Women. We also speak to Brianna Wu, Head of Development at videogame company Giant Spacekat, about feminism, gaming industry culture, and her experience as an outspoken critic of #GamerGate.

*Josh provides research & social media help to Science for the People and is, therefore, completely biased.

Art of Science: Dance, Opera and Particle Physics Combine on Film

symmovie

Dance, opera, digital art and particle physics unite in an intriguing new film, Symmetry, which was filmed partly inside CERN, the home of the Large Hadron Collider. The film, directed by Ruben van Leer, tells the story of CERN researcher Lukas (played by dancer and choreographer Lukas Timulak), who “is thrown off balance while working on the theory of everything and the smallest particle. Through Claron’s singing he rediscovers love.”  In the “endless landscape” of Bolivia’s salt flats, Claron (played by soprano Claron McFadden) takes Lukas back “to the moment before the big bang, when time didn’t exist.”

The film will debut at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam on March 14 as part of the Cinedans film festival and at the NewScientist CERN festival later that same week.

There’s much more information and a teaser for the film at The Creators Project and on the Symmetry website.

Superpurrsition

Diesel Sweeties by Richard Stevens 3 (CC BY-NC 2.5)
Diesel Sweeties by Richard Stevens 3 (CC BY-NC 2.5)

There are comics that are card-carrying “science comics” that teach science (eg, Boxplot by Maki Naro) and express truths about the experience of being a scientist (eg, Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham). There are those that are super-nerdy all the time, like xkcd by Randall Munroe.

Then there are the comics that occasionally brush up against the scientific world – dropping a punchline that hints at larger concepts, drawing in those who understand and inviting inquiry from those who don’t. This strip from Diesel Sweeties by Richard Stevens 3 is part of that tradition.

The Dress

I was not particularly interested in “The Dress” for I had long ago accepted the fickle nature of both human and technological perception. That, however, does not mean one should dismiss* “The Dress” as trivial, a distraction, or a waste of time. Andrew David Thaler expresses the key point of this social phenomenon extremely well:

Screen Shot 2015-03-06 at 11.34.35 AM

*One should probably dismiss all the cheap marketing attempts to capitalize on “The Dress”, as well as Time naming the original poster as one of the 30 Most Influential People on the Internet.

Science Caturday: Self-Cleaning

selfcleaning

A team of scientists from University College London report that they have developed a tough new self-cleaning paint. In a paper published in this week’s issue of Science, the researchers say the paint, made from coated titanium dioxide nanoparticles, is not only extremely repellent to water, but won’t get ruined even if it’s scratched or exposed to oil. Because it is so hard-wearing, it could be used for a wide range of applications, from clothing to cars. Reached for comment, our Caturday correspondent Professor Kibble said, “Big deal. I haz been self-cleaning since I was a itty-bitty kitty. I iz also extreemly rezistant to water (see Fig. 1 above).”