Inspiration at all levels

Today the Science Academy elected its new fellows, and we were delighted to see two women physicists afforded the honour.  You can learn more about Professor Maria Forsyth and Professor Christine Charles in the videos the Academy have produced about them and their work.

  
Elsewhere, some of you may have see reference to the #girlswithtoys hashtag, a response to an offhand comment by a senior US Astronomer that astronomy was just 'boys with toys'. Cue thousands of women scientists saying 'hang on a moment, we're here too!'  The outcry got quite a bit of media exposure - and resulted in some lovely images - we've picked a few below.  Perhaps you have more to add? 

Nope! Not even at Nat'l Labs: Science isn't just for 'boys with toys' http://t.co/D9Nq1dK20x @mashable #GirlsWithToys pic.twitter.com/WlU81upz5c

— LosAlamosNationalLab (@LosAlamosNatLab) May 18, 2015

Maria Goeppert Mayer, 1963 #NobelPrize in Physics for discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure #GirlsWithToys pic.twitter.com/e8U3iP63j3

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) May 18, 2015

Katharine Blodgett, 1st woman to earn a physics PhD @Cambridge_Uni, with a Langmuir-Blodgett trough: #girlswithtoys pic.twitter.com/sP8rovBUib

— Dr Paul Coxon (@paulcoxon) May 17, 2015

I'm afraid Margaret Hamilton just won #GirlsWithToys “@stevemilan: Still blown away by this photo. pic.twitter.com/9KsiKCAKRh”

— Elizabeth Tasker (@girlandkat) May 17, 2015

Articles of interest 17/03/15

Canada’s Perimeter institute recently had a feature on the ‘Pioneering women of Physics’ - including a former AIP Women in Physics Lecturer Jocelyn Bell Burnell. A great list, with some ‘usual’ and non usual suspects. In particular I loved the inclusion of Ursula Franklin who spoke at the International Women in Physics conference in Waterloo in 2014. What do you think of the list, who’s been missed out? Perhaps we should look to developing one with an Australian slant?

On a sadder note is The Conversation article on the fact that teachers will marks boys in maths more favorably than girls. It explains the results of a long-term study that it is thought reflects the societal expectation that ‘girls can’t do maths’. The article itself has prompted some debate in the comments. This issue has been hot in the press of late, with the Guardian running a story on the fact that girls ‘lack self-confidence’ in maths. This was prompted by research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which again pinned the blame on expectations of parents and teachers. It’s a nebulous problem, but what approaches should we (as a society who don’t lack confidence in maths) look to take?