BiWeekly Roundup: April 15th

By Melissa Bendayan

We know everyone is busy and there is a ton of information around the web that you may have missed. Luckily for you, we are here to the rescue! Every two weeks, we will be diligently combing through all the noise out there and highlighting stories about women and STEM from the web that we think you should know about.

#WomenInSTEM
 
RIP Zaha Hadid.
The groundbreaking architect who was known for winning the Nobel Prize in Architecture has died this month. In the past, she has described how her work combines both art and science, and how math inspired her architecture.
 
Sexism in Silicon Valley
Tracy Chou, an engineer at Pinterest, writes of how even though she grew up around tech in Silicon Valley, she couldn’t imagine a career for herself because of the sexist culture.
 
Where are the women?
Nathalie Christmann-Cooper, the founder of SheCodes, argues that thelack of role models in STEM can be too discouraging for women to enter the field.
 
Growing potatoes in space?
Three middle-school girls after seeing The Martian movie wondered if you could actually grow potatoes in space. So they developed an experiment that is going to be tested by astronauts on the International Space Station. Not bad for a grade school science project!
 
How Tech is Empowering Women
3D printing in Africa, virtual reality films, and drones: these are some of the new technology that have emerged to improve women’s lives worldwide.
 
The New Normal
Representation in STEM is so important, because when women knows that others can do it, they feel they can also.
 
A Tampon of the Future
Soon tampons may be able to monitor fertility and test for STDs. Check out this interesting article that discusses how Ridhi Tariyal is developing the tampon, the challenges she is facing and the unexplored possibilities in women’s health technology.
 
STEM Solutions
 
We know that there is a lack of women in STEM fields, but how do we fix it? This article argues by cultivating early interest in the field, sustaining girls’ interests and other ideas.
 
Another solution to this problem? Having men be part of the answer. If men do more to address the gender gap by enacting policies, women joining the field won’t have to adapt to an exclusionary culture.  
For The Love of STEM
 
Public View of Research
The Wellcome Trust, a biomedical research charity in the U.K., recently published an article about how the public views medical research. Did you know that even though 56% of people said they had a good understanding of what antibiotic resistance is, 79% got the definition wrong? You can check out more of the report here.
 
Making Science Cool
A lot of science communicators have turned to YouTube to explain and teach science in awesome ways, like Dr. Shini Somara for Crash Course Physics.
 
Hustle Hard
Some tips for women breaking into tech: network, find a mentor, and get a side hustle!
 
When Networking Doesn’t Work
This article argues that networking is not enough, and that developing early interest in science is key.
 
 
Want more links - Check these out:

• 13 women leading the life sciences movement in Silicon Valley
• 10 Black Women Changing the World via Science and Technology
• Glamour 2016 College Women of the Year: Kaya Thomas, Ruchi Shah, and Sara Volz

 
Bonus Item!!  
 
Listen to this clip from NPR about the Rocket Girls, a team of mathematicians and scientists that help NASA reach space by working as ‘human computers’!
 

About the Author
Melissa Bendayan is a masters student in Experimental Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is studying the effect of muscle mass on the pharmacokinetics of antocoagulants in frail older adults. She has a bachelor's degree in Physiology, also from McGill. She enjoys muay thai, reading books before they become movies, watching a lot of bad tv and is addicted to coffee. 

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