Tuesday Science

Mad Scientist by gamera1985 on deviantART
I considered boring you all with the history, uses, and side-effects of my antibiotics today, but you were saved that "amazing" episode of thrown-up research by a few gems that I found while going through my e-mail today.  So if you want to thank someone, please be sure to include John, The Mary Sue, and TED Talks for today's more awesome science discussion.

You may be wondering why I have a picture of a woman scientist at the beginning of this post, and that has a lot to do with this article I read today about how many people really don't know about the contributions of female scientists in our history.  Not only did the poll done by YouGov and ScienceGrrl discover that 12% of their participants picked a male scientist when asked to name a female one, but they also found that people thought that Marie Curie was  a still-living, famous scientist.

So why is that a big deal?

It's a big deal because we spend a lot of time and money touting the major accomplishments of male scientists, and very little on those of women.  And if you think that there aren't many women contributors to science, check out this Wikipedia page.

It's important that women realize that they can be just as important to our growing society and have their accomplishments recognized by it as readily and notably as men do.  Instead of mentioning only Einstein and Newton, we should be mentioning Ada Lovelace and Alice Evans, Hypatia and Empress Thoedora.  If these are names you've never heard, then I urge you to check them out.

Being able to read and hear about women excelling in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math at school is a necessity that shouldn't be neglected, as it encourages young girls and young women to choose those paths that have been predominantly chosen by men.  It allows them to see that these kinds of jobs can be theirs and gives them role models to help them along the way.  And for some people that last can be very important--seeing that someone has done it before and realizing that it can be done.

While Women's History month has passed, I hope you'll still make an effort to remember them--and perhaps to pass along your wisdom to future generations.

This next article came to me via John this morning in an e-mail.  Apparently the Weather Channel has a neat, new series called Virus Hunters.  Rather than give too much away, I figure I'll leave you with a video that can explain this far better than I can.  And make sure to watch the Weather Channel for more!

Virus Hunters with David Quammen: HIV from Weather Films on Vimeo.
And last, but not least, a TED talk from Allan Adams about the Big Bang and the recent evidence that was found about inflation.  It's pretty exciting, and this is definitely geared for those of us who are not scientists; so, please take a moment to watch.  The conclusions that this evidence supports are amazing.