How do students figure out whom to trust in a scientific controversy?
Scientific literacy is a difficult idea to pin down.[i] To some people it means having a basic level of scientific understanding, though nobody fully agrees on how much understanding is needed or even...
View ArticleAdventures in Science, Creativity and Research Openness
Many times during talks about social media in science, I’ve argued that there is a lot of room for researchers to be more open about the research process. Following along with Rosie Redfield as she...
View ArticlePlease don’t blindly follow PopSci’s lead and get rid of comment spaces
A tiny explosion happened in the online science communication world yesterday. Popular Science.com announced that they will be closing off opportunities to post comments on their news stories: no more...
View ArticleCall for papers: Personal stories from women in science
Diving headlong into motherhood this year has meant less blogging (obvious to anyone who subscribes here…), but it has also made me think a lot more about the scientific life that I would hope for my...
View ArticleBe careful saying “The Myth about Women in Science” is solved
When a CNN article titled “The Myth about Women in Science” came crawling across my feed, I have to admit that I wasn’t optimistic. I wondered what could possibly count as “THE Myth about Women in...
View ArticleYou can’t win ’em all: My (unpublished) letter to PNAS re Hiring Bias Study
A few months ago I wrote a blog post in response to Williams and Ceci’s paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: National hiring experiments reveal 2: 1 faculty preference for women...
View ArticleThe Seven Wonderers of Beakerhead: Telling stories about science
The Seven Wonderers of Beakerhead (Photo courtesy of Raj Bhardwaj @RajBhardwajMD, used with permission) In the warm glow of vintage stage lights, with a full house packed into worn leather and velour...
View Article*Two stories, same scientist: Gender and coverage of the Herzberg medal
[Correction: The title of this post has been changed. The title had been “Why do we always have to say she’s a good mom too?” I had meant that title to reflect the historical trend in reporting on...
View ArticleHerzberg medal coverage follow up
On February 18, I wrote about two pieces of national coverage of the Herzberg medal, won this year by Victoria Kaspi. She is the first woman to do so, and the two pieces approached this element of the...
View ArticleBeing a part of public science culture – speaking at The March for Science,...
Scientific knowledge is public knowledge Speaking at Science March YYC. (Photo by Miwa Takeuchi) That’s how I opened my speech at the Calgary March for Science. I was honoured to be invited, but for...
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