Do women have an equal chance in science?

economics winners

Two female winners of this year’s Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine have called for more flexibility in working practices to allow women to play a greater role in science.

Elizabeth Blackburn (pictured left) and Carol Greider (pictured right) told the Associated Press that men and women start their science careers in roughly equal numbers, but women often find themselves unable to advance as far. They believe this has nothing to do with inherent abilities, but rather the result of science institutions being unwilling to offer flexible career paths to women who have children.

The two suggest that institutions could rectify this by allowing more room for new mothers to work on projects part time, noting that such work is not “second-rate quality science”. They also believe there needs to be active measures taken to address the imbalance, which means women are under-represented in decision-making positions and on influential committees.

Just 15 women have won science-based Nobel prizes, with this year marking a record as Blackburn and Greider are joined by chemistry winner Ada Yonath. This year’s award ceremony, taking place on Thursday, will also mark an overall record of five female winners with Herta Muller taking the literature prize and Elinor Ostrom sharing an economics prize.

The latter award has proved controversial with some critics claiming Orstrom’s work — which considers whether the general population is better placed to regulate environmental issues than government — is more social science than strict economics.

In other Nobel news, the Nobel Foundation has revealed it may have to cut the $1.5 million prize for each category for the first time next year. In line with Alfred Nobel’s instructions, the Foundation’s funds are invested in “safe” securities to produce the prize money. The financial crisis of last year left those funds reduced by almost 20 percent, with the Foundation’s executive director Michael Sohlman saying “We have sailed the storm, but have taken on some water.”



Gift Guide #2: Gifts for the Geek Fan

In our next gift guide, we take you to a recipient who might not be quite as hard to shop for – as long as you know where to look.  After all, if you’re shopping for someone who just can’t get enough Star Trek, or Doctor Who, or Battlestar Galactica, at least you already know what they like!  The key is to just get a little creative, so here are some ideas…

The Vermont Teddy Bear Company has bears for every occasion, and for every kind of recipient… including the Star Trek fan. Spock in teddy bear form? Illogical!

T-shirts are one of the best ways to show your fannish loyalties, of course – and there’s so many to choose from. Shirt.Woot is an excellent place to find the whole spectrum – I especially recommend this one. When fandoms collide – literally! Glarkware is another great place to look – especially if someone is sad they didn’t get one of the real Cylon toasters at Comic Con. And last but not least, you can check one of our old articles listing 25 incredibly geeky t-shirts.

From the vast array of Lego sets out there – just pick one! Star Wars is obviously a logical choice. Or you can just give them a big bucket of generic blocks and have them set about creating a to-scale model of Hogwarts from scratch.

And speaking of Hogwarts, Alivan’s is the maker of fine wands for the discerning Harry Potter fan.  Picking the right wand for someone can be a real labor of love. Do they need holly or maple or mahogany (or even yew!) to make their magic sing? These wands might not have unicorn hair or dragon heartstring, but they still look pretty authentic.

Besides breeding like cute little asexual bunnies, Tribbles have the side effect of being incredibly calming (for most humanoids). These interactive tribbles will soothe the Star Trek fan in your life – well, unless they happen to be a Klingon, that is.

So Joel Watson at HijiNKS Ensue made a comic, and it featured a certain shirt, and of course said shirt was so awesome that Battlestar fans everywhere wanted one (or maybe just anti-fans of Twilight). So now you can buy it! And then when fourteen-year-old girls look at you quizzically, you can just proudly say, “The other Edward.”

Remember ThinkGeek’s sleeping gag from April Fool’s? Because the Tauntaun sleeping bag was far too awesome to just be a joke, it is now available for purchase. It even has a “printed intestine pattern” inside the bag, and is apparently perfect for playing “Save Luke from the Wampa” games.

Has someone in your life become enthralled by the geek-friendly celebrities on their Twitter feeds? For those breathlessly awaiting the next 140-character update, perhaps hanging that person around their neck is in order. These Twitter necklaces from Survival of the Hippest can be customized to read whatever you like: @NathanFillion, @ElizaDushku, @BrentSpiner, @FeliciaDay, @geeksaresexy…

Happy holidays, everyone!  ‘Tis the season for sharing, so spread the fandom love: if you’re a fan, perhaps the best gift you can give is a DVD set of your favorite show.



The Infinity Mirror: A great new way to get rid of your trash permanently!

The principle behind infinity mirrors is simple. Hold a small hand mirror in front of another mirror. Each mirror will reflect each other infinitely.

Blogging makes child writers happier, more confident

childrencomputer

Modern communications technology is often blamed for supposed declining standards in literacy. But a British study finds children who make regular use of social networking tools are more likely to be confident about their written communication.

The study by the National Literacy Trust found some seemingly obvious patterns, such as the fact that children who wrote on blogs were more likely to say they enjoyed writing. However, the study may give a clearer insight into exactly why that is: blog writers were considerably more likely to back the view that writing is more fun when you can choose your own topic.

The results also showed that children who write blogs or participate on social networks are notably more likely to rate their own writing skills highly. Perhaps surprisingly, one in four children blog regularly, while one in six maintain their own website.

Of course, there’s no guarantee how any cause and effect works in this situation. It’s possible that children who are already confident about communication are more likely to be drawn to social networking.

The study also found that mobile phone ownership makes little discernible difference to a child’s attitude to writing or how often they write. That may simply be down to mobile use being so widespread among children that mobile users are too big a group to have any distinct characteristics.

One result which will make some easily shocked traditionalists gasp is that more children reported writing a text message in the past month (81.9 percent) than writing homework (77 percent). The next three most popular forms of writing were all tech-related: instant messaging, e-mails and post on a social networking site.

It’s also worth noting that the study was based on an online survey (albeit one carried out at schools), meaning children with little or no internet access at school will have been underrepresented.

[Picture source: Flickr user Whiteafrican (CC)]

2 Fans, 1 Paper Airplane

“Thrust is the force that is the opposite of drag. Thrust is the push that moves something forward. For an aircraft to keep moving forward, it must have more thrust than drag. A small airplane might get its thrust from a propeller. A larger airplane might get its thrust from jet engines. A glider does not have thrust. It can only fly until the drag causes it to slow down and land.” Source: NASA.

[Via Neatorama | Unique Daily]

The Evolution of the Cylon: From Kitchen Appliance to Caprica Six

Evolution of the Cylon

An ad for SyFy shows just how far Cylons have come, from their humble beginnings as toasters to the most modern version.

[via Buzzfeed]

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