Daily Science Dose

And why not, ladies?

Computers are so hard. I might get wrinkles.

I ran across an interesting article in the New York Times today (the article is from the 15th). It is one of those essays that explore an issue, but never offers a full answer, only leaving me with more questions that before I read it. Anyhoo, it seems that women and computers do not go hand in hand. Sure, there are a gazillion female web designers, but nary a girl to be found in collegiate level computer science classes.

From the article:

What’s particularly puzzling is that the explanations for under-representation of women that were assembled back in 1991 applied to all technical fields. Yet women have achieved broad parity with men in almost every other technical pursuit. When all science and engineering fields are considered, the percentage of bachelor’s degree recipients who are women has improved to 51 percent in 2004-5 from 39 percent in 1984-85, according to National Science Foundation surveys.

When one looks at computer science in particular, however, the proportion of women has been falling. In 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate degrees in computer science went to women. By 2004-5, the number had declined to only 22 percent. Data collected by the Computing Research Association showed even fewer women at research universities like M.I.T.: women accounted for only 12 percent of undergraduate degrees in computer science and engineering in the United States and Canada granted in 2006-7 by Ph.D.-granting institutions, down from 19 percent in 2001-2. Many computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates.

The article goes on to blame the gaming community for being so dude-centric. And all the games that are developed don’t appeal to girls. I can agree with first part of that, but not necessarily the second.

Anyone hear of the Sims? How about Tomb Raider? Sure, you could argue that TR is a male-fantasy in the badassness of Lara Croft, but it is a bit of a girl-fantasy, too. What little girl doesn’t want to find ancient artifacts in the jungles of Peru, while totally looking hot, and blasting away the bad guys with your twin 9mm’s?

The gaming community is male-dominated, for sure, but I don’t think that the gender-inequality is really to blame. Think about the caliber of men in the gaming community. They send shivers down my spine, and I am a gamer that can barely tolerate being in Gamestop for more than ten minutes, lest the dorks rub off on me (ahem). What girl would choose to spend every working day, be it in school or on the job, with those guys? Sorry to generalize, gents, but come on, you know what I am talking about.

In a previous life, I worked in the media industry, i.e. television, and let me tell you, those guys are weird, and I mean weird. The first few jobs were okay, because they were short-term projects, but after ten months of working with quasi-virgins and totally socially-awkward male editors, I quit and vowed to change careers. It is really difficult to work with such men, that have cloistered their entire lives in their parent’s basement, graduating from Sega to the Playstation to the Xbox, all the while missing out on crucial social interaction time to become well-rounded and non-creepy chronic self-pleasurers.

Sorry to rant. Back on topic…

Ms. Cassell [director of Northwestern University’s Center for Technology & Social Behavior] identifies another explanation for the drop in interest, which is linked to the pejorative figure of the “nerd” or “geek.” She said that this school of thought was: “Girls and young women don’t want to be that person.”

I spoke with Ms. Spertus last week about her thoughts about the declining percentage of undergraduate women majoring in the field. “Women choosing not to go into computer science is fine,” she said, “if there aren’t artificial barriers keeping them out.” She lamented the recent decision of one of her outstanding computer science students who chose to major in nursing because of what the student perceived as better prospects for finding employment.

Yeah, again, not so much that a girl doesn’t want to be a nerd, we just don’t like hanging out with geeks. Even geek-chic isn’t going to help some of those guys.

Not a very scientific post today, but some days we need to have a little fun around here.

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The other day, I brought up the topic of politics and science and their somewhat tenuous relationship with each other.

Seems like I am not the only one thinking about the political structure and in particular, how a president can influence good policy by using, nay relying on good science.

The New York Times blog, Dot Earth, reported today that 178 scientific, academic, and business-related organizations have sent letters to both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama urging them to not only appoint a science adviser as soon as they are inaugurated, but also to elevate that position to a Cabinet-level position.

I couldn’t agree more. George Bush has been a cautionary example of when a President uses his faith rather than science to write and implement policy. Without getting into a discussion regarding Bush’s “faith-based initiatives” to solve all of society’s ills, with the next President (cough, Obama, cough), we need more “science-based inititatives.”

Courtesy of The Onion

I am going to go one step further, and suggest that our next POTUS will also focus on science education. This nation is losing ground not only because our politicians deem science as suspicious, but also because we are not educating the next generation of scientists to help our future presidents and by extensions our nation, and by another extension, the world.

I took a national science policy course in 2003, and it was frightening how many ph.D’s in science are awarded to foreign students that do not stay in the US, but rather take that education back to their home country. Not that there is anything wrong with educating any and all students that seek the training and knowledge, but it really underscored the fact that science is just not a priority in this nation.

We need not only a president that values science, but also a nation that values science. It is more of a cultural shift that is needed, and perhaps by elevating that next science adviser to a Cabinet-level position will be a step in the right direction.

science, politics, policy, President, POTUS, McCain, Obama, education, scientists, organizations, academic, academia, business, New York Times, Dot Earth, George Bush, cabinet, cabinet-level, science adviser, ph.Ds, United States

Anyone can tell you, mathematics and science go hand in hand. Even when you don’t think that math is going to come into play, it is math that often times allows even social or “soft” scientists to quantify data and in turn interpret results. I remember my chemistry and physics classes, and math was crucial to those classes. So a new study coming out that details how mathematics is slipping among students in the United States is all that much disturbing for its implications in terms of science.

From the New York Times today:

The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they are rarely identified in the United States. A major reason, according to the study, is that American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, for that matter — from excelling in the field. The study will be published Friday in Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

“We’re living in a culture that is telling girls you can’t do math — that’s telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,” said the study’s lead author, Janet E. Mertz, an oncology professor at the University of Wisconsin, whose son is a winner of what is viewed as the world’s most-demanding math competitions. “Kids in high school, where social interactions are really important, think, ‘If I’m not an Asian or a nerd, I’d better not be on the math team.’ Kids are self selecting. For social reasons they’re not even trying.”

I saw plenty of this during my school days. I was great at math, on a math team, and also on the science olympiad team. I was also in the top-tier of the math “sections” within my grade, but I bring this up not to brag, but simply to give you some background on where I am coming from, the inside, as it were. I never felt nerdy for being good at math, but then I was never one to really care much for what anyone would think about me, in so much as to call me a nerd. I loved doing math problems. I thought they were fun.

However, I also remember sixth grade being the grade that suddenly all the girls in my grade became really bad at math. Hmm, what else happens in sixth grade? Right around age 11 or 12? Hmm, could it be puberty? Those same girls that had always been in my math sections were more interested in boys than math. And a girl cannot be smarter than a boy in math!!!! So many girls kind of self-lobotomized in order to get a boyfriend. They never came back to my math classes…

This is also from the NY Times article.

Dr. Mertz asserts that the new study is the first to examine data from the most difficult math competitions for young people, including the USA and International Mathematical Olympiads for high school students, and the Putnam Mathematical Competition for college undergraduates. For winners of these competitions, the Michael Phelpses and Kobe Bryants of math, getting an 800 on the math SAT is routine. The study found that many students from the United States in these competitions are immigrants or children of immigrants from countries where education in mathematics is prized and mathematical talent is thought to be widely distributed and able to be cultivated through hard work and persistence.

Ironically, another article in the NYT talked of the class war vis a vis Sarah Palin and her “sixpack” of mental skills. I found this to be appropriate, as it is all kit and kaboodle of what is going on in the US lately.

We think it is cool to be stupid.

How frightening for the US. There is nothing wrong with being smart and being good at math. Trust me, girls, I have never had a hard time getting a date by showing some intelligence. The cool guys are actually attracted to the smart girls, not the dumb ones. But then that argument only serves to underscore the fact that most girls are more worried about getting a date than an A on that algebra test.

This issue goes deeper than class-bias or even gender. Despite the fact that the United States has a bad case of the “exceptional”, our students in general do not want to stand out or strive for achievement in school other than school sports. This is a fundamental problem in the American culture, as the aforementioned study suggests.

mathematics, science, education, students, school, math, New York Times, United States