"Hard" Sciences: A "Boy Thing?"

[longship]

5. But look at what women have done, and continue to do.

I suggest that everybody here view the 2007 TED talk by Carolyn Porco, one of the prominent scientists involved in the Cassini mission to Saturn. Just go to Ted.com and find it. You will see what women are doing in science. TED has many women scientists in their archive. Look around and see what they are doing.

The demographics for women are promising. In biological sciences and medicine, women are blowing guys away. Even in theoretical physics, a long time man's club, there are women in prominent academic positions, like Lisa Randall, at Harvard.

The first person to win two Nobel prizes in science was Marie Curie.

I'll put forth other prominent women in science of whom some may not be aware.

Hypatia
Hildegard of Bingen
Ada Lovelace
Caroline Herschel
Marie Curie
Henrietta Leavitt
Rosalyn Franklin

And there are many others, especially today. Watch the Porco TED talk and see what women are doing. I only wish that more women would see the opportunities in the sciences and that in spite of gender bias, women have always been part of science.

Men could not have done it without them. Unfortunately, they often did not get the credit. When I was young culture said that women went to university for an MRS degree. Today, they are a force in the sciences, as it should be. Regardless, women have nothing to be ashamed, they have fought against ridiculous biases and have accomplished much in spite of them.

If only it had happened centuries earlier.

Poor Hypatia.