{art + science}

Probably most of the people who read this blog know that I love when art, design, and science come together - the results are both both beautiful and technically interesting. While I was aware of national SEM image competitions, recently I came across the 'Art of Science' competition from Princeton.

Would you believe this image represents the reversals of the Earth's magnetic field?

Or that this image models population dynamics?

This image captures some of the dynamics of a surfactant (soap) at a thin-film/silicon wafer interface: 

my new grad school goal: find out if the UW does anything like this and if not, make it happen. We even have an art museum on campus!

{I linked some of them above, but I've posted a bunch about art/fashion + science/tech on my other blog}

--life interruption--

near midnight, I learned a few things:
(and not from my MSE textbooks)

when in a washington hospital, code grey is a call for help with a 'combative' person.

apparently there was one in room 9. 

it becomes code 'silver' when there is a weapon involved. fortunately we have not heard that one called yet. 

and most interestingly, codes are frequently not standardized across a state, let alone across the country. This seems to me like something somebody in the government should have addressed by now.....

they have been standardized in WA and OR - thanks, google. 

don't worry, I'm not being seen at the ER, I just drove a friend here. 

I'm probably the only person this hospital has seen recently working on homework while waiting for someone to be seen. I really should be working on formatting my references for my paper due next Monday, but it's kind of hard to focus...

tonight, I'm thankful that two of my dearest friends are nurses.

love you both, thanks for your loving service at Children's and in Bihar!

women in science.

As I've mentioned before, there are very few women in my MSE department here at the UW, which just follows the general trend in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

After reading The Disappearing Spoon, (a really good book - I highly recommend it!) I was slightly encouraged about the current status of females in STEM - in the recent past, women did all the work and their male counterparts got all the credit. (This is not a story confined to science, I'm sure.) At least, now women can author papers and are recognized for their work!

However, from all the lecture's I've attended, from the books that I have read, and from my own experiences, I still don't see women as a whole fully supported in STEM. (disclaimer - even though I'm the only women in my research group, I don't perceive any difference in the way I am supported by my advisor.) I don't know what it is going to take to change the fundamental cultural belief that women aren't as capable in the sciences as their male counterparts, just as I don't know what needs to happen to change the perception of scientists as a whole. (I do have some stories to share about my experiences thus far as a female scientist, but I'll save those for another post, this one is already kind of long....) I may be the lone voice here, but sometimes I get frustrated that scientists are presented so one-dimensionally as people who stereotypically lack social skills and don't dress well. I've already ranted about this on my other blog, so I won't repeat it here, but if you're interested, you can read it here.

Someday, I'd like to create a documentary about women in science. I'm sure it's probably been done before, but I'd like to create an exciting, yet holistic, picture of female scientists, not just reproducing the stereotypical perceptions of women in STEM. Recently, I saw a clip for First Robotics filled with celebrities encouraging students to participate in the robotics competition and to pursue science/engineering/math as a career. There was only one female - Miley Cyrus. (I don't have anything against her, but I feel like the editor didn't cut her sections well.) Even the famous scientists they highlighted through the clip were all male. Sure, Albert Einstein was a genius and, arguably, modern science would not be where it is today without his work, but  without the female scientists throughout history, we wouldn't know the structure of DNA or fundamentals of radiation.

{Rosalind Franklin - fundamental DNA structure work via x-ray crystallography}

{Marie Currie - fundamental knowledge of how radiation occurs}

(though I'm sure that if you're reading my blog, you already know about these women :) )

more recently recognized women: 

{Françoise Barré-Sinoussi - fundamental HIV research; Nobel prize 2008}

{Barbara Liskov - (first female US PhD in Computer Science; object-orientated programing}

I did find this video - but let's be real, what was more exciting/inspiring: the video on women in science or the one  with celebs for FIRST? And that was the best looking video I quickly found on YouTube....

So. What can I do now? How can we get more women in STEM? I'm still not sure, but I'm going to do my best to encourage and support every female I work with. I'm headed to NM in a week and a half to give a presentation to underrepresented students in STEM - hopefully my story can encourage them to continue STEM careers.

I've also picked up Right Stuff, Wrong Sex recently from the library, all about the first female astronaut candidate. I can't read it until break, but I'm looking forward to reading it. I'm also on the hunt for other books/media on women in science - so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

(on an slightly unrelated note - I changed my blog theme - what do you think?)

engineering school

according to my good friend Hannah, engineers become engineers to escape writing lots of papers.

apparently, this is not true in my program this quarter. I'm sitting here, in the Suzzallo library, staring down three intense reports that have to be done before the end of the quarter.

Thanks to the SPU/liberal arts/UScholars, I don't mind writing, but I'm not enjoying this paper. I am digging through literature that is older than my grandparents and reading 'reports' that really should be books. (I mean, when has anyone published a 86 page literature paper??!)

I did come across this gem in a footnote about the marcasite form of FeS2:

"I  was prepared  to  have  quantitative  analyses made,  but  our  best professional
analysts  (including  Miss  Mary  G.  Keyes  and  the  new laboratory  for  rock  ahalyses
in  charge  of  Dr.  Grout  of  the  University  of  Minnesota)  declined  to  make  them,
pleading  inadequate  equipment  for  sulfide  analyses. Where  can one obtain  reliable
sulfide analyses? My  own  experience with  the  routine  commercial  analyst  is that  he
cannot  be  relied  upon  for  scientific  work."

I'm also enjoying the fact that this paper is all about politely telling the world that the previous analysis of marcasite by Huggins is wrong and he just got lucky that his mis-labeled axes (is it bad that I had to look up the plural of 'axis'?) actually kind of worked.....

back to the paper.

(somedays I'm thankful we don't see sun everyday in Seattle. too bad today is not one of those days.)

I wish I was an Astronaut

just to see this:

what an incredible view. 

It's easy for me to forget the big picture when I've been in my windowless office for days, but then I find something like this video. wow. did you see the Aurora Borealis?? and the lighting storms?? Even though I live in a big city, one of millions of people, the night images of the Earth, with all the bright city spots, reminds me just how big the world actually is - almost 7 billion people! And then I  remember how small our little blue planet actually is in the grand scheme of the universe.

anyways. the likelihood of actually seeing the earth from space is slim, either on the ISS or on another space-bound mission. I'd be content to see the Aurora Borealis - it's going on my list of things to do when I spend a summer researching in Sweden!

oh. apparently NASA is opening Astronaut applications today......

watch the announcement.

(I met one of the astronauts up there! so good to see him still in the program!)

(and the woman speaking about the hiring process, Dr. Janet Kavandi, graduated from the UW!)

awkward

This morning, I almost had a super awkward experience with one the guy who sits in the desk next me. Instead it was only kind of awkward:

It was before 10am, and as usual, I was the only one in the office. I was really really really tired this morning. My cup of tea got me through the 7:30am bus ride, hour prep for my meeting with my advisor, and finally through said meeting, but I was fading fast post-meeting. So, I figured since I'd be the only one in the office for a bit, I curled up on my chair, which is decently wide, and closed my eyes for ~6 minutes.

unfortunately, my legs like to fall asleep quickly when curled up, and so I decided to move to nap under my desk for 10 minutes.

I only needed a 10 minute power nap.

So, here I was, crawling under my desk, which is decently spacious, and just settling into my nap when I hear the lock turning in my office door.

uh oh. apparently my office-mate decided to show up to school this morning.....
(this is guy who thus far has only ever said "Oh! I didn't know you were that tall!" to me a few weeks ago - he hasn't been in the office very frequently lately)

as quickly and gracefully as I could, I reached for my computer power cord and pretended that I had to be on my hands and knees, completely under my desk, to get it plugged in. Fortunately for me me, the plugins are inconveniently located under my desk in the far corner....but it was already plugged in.....so I pretended that I had just finished plugging it in....

second sentence he ever said to me: "Are you alright?"
"yep, yep" just plugging in my laptop"
third sentence: "there's a strip cord over here you can use if you want."
"it's okay, I've got it figured out, thanks!"
(besides - who knows when I might need that excuse again?)

I crawled out from under my desk and started working again. no nap today.

I'm 99% sure he bought my story.

-----------

tomorrow's a day 'off', but I find this quite appropriate:

you know I'm going to be in tomorrow by 8:30am. 

blessed.

I'm currently sitting in what is probably a multi-million dollar house in Queen Anne that has the most breathtaking view of Seattle I've ever seen. With a view similar to that of Kerry Park, the house is designed with 3 stories of windows that face out towards the water, so whenever you look outwards - there sits Seattle. I just can't get over how incredible the city looks at night.

{this is legitimately what the view looks like, only everything appears even closer and larger....}

tonight, I was supposed to edit NSF fellowship essays, but instead I've been sitting in a tastefully designed house drinking tea from an Olivia the Pig mug and enjoying being in the same room as my roommates. not gonna lie - this house is a beautiful combination of everything I've dreamed about in a house - open, spacious, lots of windows + natural lighting, decidedly minimalist, but still incorporating lots of floor-to-celling bookshelves full of english, art, design, and scientific literature.

we read love poems from a slim red volume, started a game of scrabble (but only got as far as 'daft', thanks Steph :) ), played with a soft hamster, and I finished editing some photos of my newest skirt.

all in all a good evening. so blessed to live in this city, to live with these women, to be pursuing a research degree in a field that I love, and as I was reminded last night while reading through Colossians 1, I'm so blessed to be a part of the Kingdom of Christ, forgiven and redeemed.