I'm 14 weeks pregnant. Expecting my first child at the end of January. We're very excited."...many news and opinion writers linked our study with another bit of polar research published that month, in Science, showing that part of Antarctica's ice sheet had been thickening and erroneously concluded that the earth was not warming at all. "Scientific findings run counter to theory of global warming,"” said a headline on an editorial in The San Diego Union-Tribune. ...
"In a rebuttal... the lead author of the Science paper and I explained that our studies offered no evidence that the earth was cooling. But the misinterpretation had already become legend, and in the four and half years since, it has only grown.
"Our results have been misused as "evidence" against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel "State of Fear" and by Ann Coulter in her latest book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism."” Search my name on the Web, and you will find pages of links to everything from climate discussion groups to Senate policy committee documents - all citing my 2002 study as reason to doubt that the earth is warming. ...
Our study did find that 58 percent of Antarctica cooled from 1966 to 2000. But during that period, the rest of the continent was warming. And climate models created since our paper was published have suggested a link between the lack of significant warming in Antarctica and the ozone hole over that continent. These models, conspicuously missing from the warming-skeptic literature, suggest that as the ozone hole heals - thanks to worldwide bans on ozone-destroying chemicals -— all of Antarctica is likely to warm with the rest of the planet. An inconvenient truth?...
In the meantime, I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming. I know my coauthors would as well." [bold emphasis added]
This seems like a good example of the challenges that scientists face in communicating their results to the public. Journalists may take a particular result and pull it out of context of the rest of the paper and the rest of our accumulated knowledge on the subject. Commentators (opinionators) may distort the findings even further. And what's a scientist to do when this happens? Write a New York Times editorial, I guess. But somehow I doubt that those who misrepresented (unintentionally or deliberately) Doran's original findings, will pay much attention now.
Rice University's ADVANCE program is offering a workshop on "Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position." For more information, see Zuska's page. The ADVANCE workshops have a repuation for being really great and quite hard to get into (I've been rejected for UMBC's twice.) Maybe this will be my lucky try. My ideal faculty position...now that's a fantasy.Two other good posts from Zuska to take a look at: Geek Gorgeous versus Sexy Science and Women should boycott Fermilab. I particularly got a smile out of Zuska's (all caps) declaration: "No woman should have to go to work and find jock straps in her mailbox." One possible exception: a female coach of a male athletic team?Not really women in science, but there is a recent editorial in the Washington Post about being a grad student and a single mom and how graduate education is out of reach of people from low income backgrounds. (Hat tip to Bitch, Ph.D. on this one.) See also the discussion over at Janet's (sometimes I think I should just put a permanent forward over to her page). Now for some science, but not women. Miss Prism argues that few scientists are bad communicators, we're just incredibly hampered by the constraints put on us by journals. Miss Prism, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one. I've seen some really atrocious writing both pre-submission and published that has nothing to do with the conventions of science...it's just bad. (Writer Chica, what do you think?) Female science professor relays how she and her husband managed the two body problem. If you don't know, the two body problem is the conundrum of a dual-academic couples, sometimes in the same field, sometimes not, that both want to have TT jobs. Continuing on the personal confessional front, Janet has spent the week relaying the saga of her back-to-back PhDs, telling her advisor she was pregnant, having her elder offspring while dissertating, and looking for jobs with two children in tow. She finishes out the series by musing on the meaning of "a life" (outside of academia). Outside of the blog world, Australian Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) has 800 members working to promote awareness of women in IT, and to encourage more women into the field and more girls to continue their maths studies. Finally, I thought I could profile one female science blogger each issue of the update: This week's profilee: Nuthatch at Bootstrap Analysis. Nuthatch is an urban ecologist and birder in the Detroit area. She's blogged about urban prairies, where whole blocks of houses disappear and grasses return. She also has an (ir)regular Sunday times feature, where she highlights recent scientific findings and gives her readers some extra context. Other regular topics include birds, indoor cats, gardening organically, and an occasional book review or meme. First up, Yami over at Green Gabbro has put out a call for women of STEMM to be interviewed for a new book."Written in accessible language rather than scholarly jargon, Where the Girls Aren’t will present a real picture of women in STEMM. The author will combine information gathered from research studies with actual women’s experiences. Interviewees will include both women who have become frustrated and left STEMM, as well as women who have made significant contributions to it. The author will also interview students of all ages, from elementary to graduate school, to learn what inspires and encourages them in STEMM–or why they would rather do anything else."Head over to the excellent, earth science/feminist Green Gabbro for full details.
From a WSJ article (as reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Dr. Shirley Tilghman, molecular biologist, Princeton president and single mother of 2...
This is a lady I'd like to meet. There are some other good quotes in the article too. I don't read the WSJ on a regular basis, and maybe they are just following convention, but I'd like to see Tilghman titled as Dr. rather than Ms."WSJ: You once wrote that, "Tenure is no friend to women?" Why?
Ms. Tilghman: It comes at exactly the time when women who have gone through Ph.D. programs are most likely to be having children. So we extend the tenure clock a year for every child that you have while you're an assistant professor. (Princeton typically gives junior faculty six years to win a slot as a professor with lifetime job security.)We do this in a gender-blind way. We think fathers should be taking time with small children, just as we believe mothers should be taking time with small children. We recently adapted that policy because we discovered that people were not taking advantage of the policy partly for fear that they would be perceived as asking for a benefit. So now we automatically extend the tenure clock. You don't ask for it. You get it."
For those interested in encouraging the next generation of women scientists, read about summer camps for girls in this profile from the University of St. Thomas."Our foundation supports programs like STEPS to influence young women and minorities to pursue career opportunities in manufacturing, science, engineering and technology. Studies show that young people make their scholastic career decisions around sixth or seventh grade and the camps give them an opportunity to explore their interests,” Aslin said. “The ultimate goal is to increase the number of students choosing these careers."In the program at St. Thomas, 160 girls are building RC model airplanes.
Finally, for those of you who cannot get enough of this stuff. I've got a few blogs to recommend, as the writers regularly talk about issues related to women and science. These are people who are not just talking about personal experiences, but trying to put them in a broader context. This list is arbitrary and I'm trying to keep it small, but feel free to add others in the comments.
I've got a great picture of our husbands leaning over the Chicas' old little tiny grill. From that same evening, there's a picture of me with a beer and wildly unkempt hair (I think we were in the process of moving). Good times have been had by the grill.
And now business man's shift is almost done, so I better finish the figure I am working on so that I can pack up and go home. 
The inside of my freezer. Yes, we really like ice cream. Plus it was buy one get one free.
Here's where I intend to spend more of my summer days sitting and relaxing. We just bought the furniture last weekend.
For astroprof, who also requested pet pictures. Here's the Princess Pup the way I see her when we are out for a walk. Bonus: BusinessMan's legs.
For angry grad who requested a picture of a sample or my lab. I kind of modified the request since I couldn't figure out a way to take a picture of samples or lab without revealing what my -ology is, but I have previously mentioned that I do field work. So I posted a picture taken in the vicinity of my field area. Aren't you all jealous?
