its amazing what stories people you know have that you might never hear. i saw james clewett around the physics building in nottingham many times, but never would i have suspected that he was the 1999 tetris world champion!?! brady captures the interesting story and james' personality very well in this short (18 min) film:
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
parkes radio dish and the ISS
i'm at the parkes radio observatory right now, in central/western NSW, australia. the 64 meter diameter dish (HUGE!) is one of the largest single dishes in the world and remains one of the most scientifically productive, despite turning 50 years old this year!
last night, we were treated to the sight of the international space station, with the shuttle endeavour docked to it during its last mission ever, passing right behind the dish in the sky! it was a lovely moment.
last night, we were treated to the sight of the international space station, with the shuttle endeavour docked to it during its last mission ever, passing right behind the dish in the sky! it was a lovely moment.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
the asteroids galaxy tour
apparently many people know of this song by the asteroids galaxy tour from a TV commercial, but i just heard/saw it for the first time and think its amazing!!
Friday, May 20, 2011
no one likes consequences...
the rapture is timezone dependent, apparently, so pay attention ;)
(seriously, there is nothing to worry about.... relax people...)
(seriously, there is nothing to worry about.... relax people...)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
El Cielo de Canarias
another beautiful timelapse video from spain's canary islands.
the double rainbow around time stamp 1:11 is incredible!
the double rainbow around time stamp 1:11 is incredible!
El Cielo de Canarias / Canary sky - Tenerife from Daniel López on Vimeo.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
where did the women go?
i helped organize a Women in Astronomy Workshop for the astronomical society of australia that took place in sydney this past friday the 13th of may. a major goal of the workshop was to raise awareness of general issues that face women, who ultimately drop out of the field in huge numbers within a few years of getting a PhD, and work towards finding solutions that can be applied by institutions and individuals to retain women in the profession and help them succeed.
so what is the problem exactly? the good news is that half the students attaining undergraduate science degrees from universities are women. not everyone is interested in attaining a degree beyond a bachelors degree, and that is absolutely reasonable, but of those that choose to pursue a PhD, roughly 40% are women (in australia anyway, the percentage worldwide is probably between 30% and 40% for astronomy). but within a few years of getting a PhD the percentage of participating women starts dropping dramatically, such that less than 8% of science professors are women and less than 4% of the top level positions at science institutions, universities, and observatories are appointed to women. from a management standpoint, it is an incredibly poor business practice to invest in the training of so many women only to lose all their knowledge, expertise, and training within a few short years.
keep in mind that this isnt a problem unique to astronomy or even academia: in the corporate sector, women hold something like 15% of the highest positions and board seats, and of all the people in parliament in the world, only 13% are women (source: see video below). it is not possible just simply to say - women have babies and then decide to drop out of their profession. this is true for some, partially because there is not yet adequate support and flexibility to help parents get back into the swing of things after such a career break, but overall the reasons are much more complex and not discussed openly enough, in my opinion.
one point made at the workshop that i had not fully appreciated before is that women tend not to say things in meetings (big or small) unless they are almost certain that what they are about to say is absolutely "correct." it is more common for men to throw out speculative ideas without regard to whether someone might show they are wrong, or without considering whether their statement might hold up an otherwise very tight meeting agenda.
one of the many reasons for this might be something called "the imposter syndrome," which affects most people to some degree, but much more often women, and potentially to a career-debilitating degree. the imposter syndrome describes the fear or worry that eventually someone will figure you out and realize you're not actually as smart and capable as they think you are! this can prevent you from negotiating contracts, asking for promotions, or applying for grants or positions that you think you probably wont get. of course women and men are equally capable, but the trouble is, you can never get something you don't apply/ask for, and the numbers show that men more often ask for promotions and apply for grants than women.
i recognize that it is my responsibility to speak up at meetings and make a vocal contribution of substance in order to be noticed, heard, acknowledged and appreciated, but i have to admit that it's almost always a challenge. when i attend a meeting or listen to a talk and a question or comment pops into my mind, inevitably my heart pounds loudly and i feel myself shaking a little from nerves over the prospect of speaking out to the group. you'd think after attaining a PhD, thinking about this astronomy stuff for so many years, and genuinely believing that i have ideas to offer the discussion, i would have gotten over these feelings, right? wrong. i still have to force myself to be brave and make the statement, to let my face turn beet red and risk sounding unknowledgeable or stupid.
i know i'm not the only one with these feelings and fears and the only way to help get over them is to be aware of them, admit them, talk about them, and have courage (i hope!)! that is part of what the workshop was about. almost 70 people showed up last friday, including several heads of university astronomy groups and the directors of observatories. considering there are only about 400 professional astronomers in australia, i thought the turn out was a great success! there were many female PhD students present, but the audience was noticeably lacking young male PhD students.
unfortunately, i think the tendency for most people is to think "well, i'm not sexist (or racist, etc...) and i don't understand how anyone could openly express such discrimination, so i don't have anything to gain by attending such a workshop."
it's not enough just to believe that you do not practice these behaviours and then ignore the issues entirely, because
we all have "unconscious biases" and many of your colleagues are systematically suffering because of them. we need to be aware of these biases in order to change the current state of career progression and not lose female talent from continuing along the academic (or corporate or political) pipeline.
instead of going on about more potential problems that lead to the decreased number of women at the highest levels, i will refer you to the video below for some other issues, and move on to sharing some practical suggestions that came out of the workshop that can be implemented by institutions and individuals.
action points for institutions:
action points for individuals:
please share any other ideas in the comments and i'll update this list if possible. for further reading, the american astronomical society provides a nice page of resources for all.
i'll leave you with yet another excellent TED talk by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on "Why we have too few women leaders." she articulates some of the above, but also brings up several other very interesting points, including why it's true that "success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women."
so what is the problem exactly? the good news is that half the students attaining undergraduate science degrees from universities are women. not everyone is interested in attaining a degree beyond a bachelors degree, and that is absolutely reasonable, but of those that choose to pursue a PhD, roughly 40% are women (in australia anyway, the percentage worldwide is probably between 30% and 40% for astronomy). but within a few years of getting a PhD the percentage of participating women starts dropping dramatically, such that less than 8% of science professors are women and less than 4% of the top level positions at science institutions, universities, and observatories are appointed to women. from a management standpoint, it is an incredibly poor business practice to invest in the training of so many women only to lose all their knowledge, expertise, and training within a few short years.
keep in mind that this isnt a problem unique to astronomy or even academia: in the corporate sector, women hold something like 15% of the highest positions and board seats, and of all the people in parliament in the world, only 13% are women (source: see video below). it is not possible just simply to say - women have babies and then decide to drop out of their profession. this is true for some, partially because there is not yet adequate support and flexibility to help parents get back into the swing of things after such a career break, but overall the reasons are much more complex and not discussed openly enough, in my opinion.
one point made at the workshop that i had not fully appreciated before is that women tend not to say things in meetings (big or small) unless they are almost certain that what they are about to say is absolutely "correct." it is more common for men to throw out speculative ideas without regard to whether someone might show they are wrong, or without considering whether their statement might hold up an otherwise very tight meeting agenda.
one of the many reasons for this might be something called "the imposter syndrome," which affects most people to some degree, but much more often women, and potentially to a career-debilitating degree. the imposter syndrome describes the fear or worry that eventually someone will figure you out and realize you're not actually as smart and capable as they think you are! this can prevent you from negotiating contracts, asking for promotions, or applying for grants or positions that you think you probably wont get. of course women and men are equally capable, but the trouble is, you can never get something you don't apply/ask for, and the numbers show that men more often ask for promotions and apply for grants than women.
i recognize that it is my responsibility to speak up at meetings and make a vocal contribution of substance in order to be noticed, heard, acknowledged and appreciated, but i have to admit that it's almost always a challenge. when i attend a meeting or listen to a talk and a question or comment pops into my mind, inevitably my heart pounds loudly and i feel myself shaking a little from nerves over the prospect of speaking out to the group. you'd think after attaining a PhD, thinking about this astronomy stuff for so many years, and genuinely believing that i have ideas to offer the discussion, i would have gotten over these feelings, right? wrong. i still have to force myself to be brave and make the statement, to let my face turn beet red and risk sounding unknowledgeable or stupid.
i know i'm not the only one with these feelings and fears and the only way to help get over them is to be aware of them, admit them, talk about them, and have courage (i hope!)! that is part of what the workshop was about. almost 70 people showed up last friday, including several heads of university astronomy groups and the directors of observatories. considering there are only about 400 professional astronomers in australia, i thought the turn out was a great success! there were many female PhD students present, but the audience was noticeably lacking young male PhD students.
 |
| photo credit: bryan gaensler |
unfortunately, i think the tendency for most people is to think "well, i'm not sexist (or racist, etc...) and i don't understand how anyone could openly express such discrimination, so i don't have anything to gain by attending such a workshop."
it's not enough just to believe that you do not practice these behaviours and then ignore the issues entirely, because
we all have "unconscious biases" and many of your colleagues are systematically suffering because of them. we need to be aware of these biases in order to change the current state of career progression and not lose female talent from continuing along the academic (or corporate or political) pipeline.
instead of going on about more potential problems that lead to the decreased number of women at the highest levels, i will refer you to the video below for some other issues, and move on to sharing some practical suggestions that came out of the workshop that can be implemented by institutions and individuals.
action points for institutions:
- appoint diverse committee members to select speakers for conferences and recipients of awards and jobs. our unconscious natural tendency is to want to work with people who are like ourselves. this is mostly ok, or at least understandable, but ever notice, for example, how invited speakers at conferences are almost always men despite the fact that attendees are much more gender balanced? of course there are fewer women who have reached the career stage to give invited talks, but we have to start recognizing and encouraging and exposing the women that are in the field. diversifying selection committees is one way of taking action towards this goal.
- supply childcare at professional meetings, especially national meetings, so that parents can also benefit from the community and the networking possibilities for themselves and their students. and since we all know that a lot of ideas and new collaborations happen at the pub and over dinner, offer a few evenings of childcare as well so parents can spend some time with contacts outside of the rigorous daily conference sessions.
- offer more flexible working arrangements and small grants to encourage mothers and fathers to return to work while dealing with all the unpredictable time frames of children. examples: if you are advertising a position and it is possible to hire someone at part time, mention that in the ad! monash university offers a populate and publish maternity leave grant (what a name!?!). offer an option to take unpaid holidays for school breaks, provide onsite childcare, support a child friendly work environment (and tell employees!).
- encourage employees at all levels to participate in organized mentoring programs. if there is no program in place, develop one. dont make the mistake of assuming that "hard work and merit" are the only factors necessary for advancement for every individual. people also need encouragement and mentoring.
- in applications, ask for selected 5 years of publications, instead of just previous 5 years, to account for career breaks.
- institute a double blind academic journal refereeing system. (can someone explain to me why this isnt already in place? that's not the only problem with the academic journal racket though.)
- have open discussions about these issues inside your working groups!! encourage the acknowledgement of unconscious bias.
action points for individuals:
- speak up at meetings (be brave), network broadly, find mentors, set goals, know when to say no, apply for things!! do not let people assume that just because you do a task once that you will always be responsible for it, especially if it isnt gaining you any prestige or career benefit! dont fear that because you say no you wont be "liked." the point is not to be liked, but to be respected.
- goals should be specific, measurable, attractive to you, realistic, and time-framed (short- and long-term).
- find mentors! seek senior members who can be active mentors (both men and women), or widespread university programs, and do this at every stage in your career! recognize who in your department or institution is useful, successful, powerful, and/or influential and get to know them! seek their advice and mentorship.
- pay attention to words used when writing recommendation letters. (as a test, search through the adjectives you have written in a letter for a man and a letter for a woman. it was a telling exercise in unconscious bias for one speaker at the workshop)
- use appropriate titles (Dr, Prof, etc...) consistently for all colleagues regardless of gender.
- surround yourself with happy (not miserable) people in your working environment.
- make sure your romantic partner is a real partner in every sense of the word.
- be self aware of personal biases
please share any other ideas in the comments and i'll update this list if possible. for further reading, the american astronomical society provides a nice page of resources for all.
i'll leave you with yet another excellent TED talk by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on "Why we have too few women leaders." she articulates some of the above, but also brings up several other very interesting points, including why it's true that "success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women."
UPDATE: if you're interested in this post, i recommend reading through the discussion happening inside the comments. i also encourage everyone to participate!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
round and round and round saturn goes
for about a year after observations are taken with the hubble space telescope, no one but the original scientist who thought of the idea and took the observations is allowed to access the data. after this "embargo" period, anyone can access the data from an archive via the HST search form.
that is exactly what the imaging editor of sky & telescope magazine, Sean Walker, recently did! he took advantage of some newly released images of saturn and created this lovely video. in addition to watching the storm clouds in saturn's surface go round and round, you can see moons move and patterns in the rings as they spin around.
from el lobo rayado
that is exactly what the imaging editor of sky & telescope magazine, Sean Walker, recently did! he took advantage of some newly released images of saturn and created this lovely video. in addition to watching the storm clouds in saturn's surface go round and round, you can see moons move and patterns in the rings as they spin around.
from el lobo rayado
Saturday, May 14, 2011
material world
aside from a poor taste in beer, i like this image from the material world collection by david welch.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
becoming great
"you don't become great by trying to become great. you become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process."
another gem from xkcd.
another gem from xkcd.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
hello babies. welcome to earth.
i attended a lovely wedding in edinburgh a few weeks ago. men wore kilts, we danced ceilidh, and several excellent quotes by kurt vonnegut were read during the humanist ceremony. here's a quote that stuck with me, followed by a few photos surrounding the event...
'Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -
"God damn it, you've got to be kind." '
- kurt vonnegut
'Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -
"God damn it, you've got to be kind." '
- kurt vonnegut
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
one last look
today is my final full day in greece before i make the long trip back to the land down under tomorrow. it has certainly been an adventurous and exhausting 6 weeks. i woke up sore today, but all i did yesterday was sit on a ferry for nine hours returning to athens from santorini island?
thanks to all old friends i caught up with and new folks i've met on this trip. it has been memorable, productive, fun, and exhausting. i should have scheduled a short holiday from my holiday, but after i return to sydney on saturday, i give a talk on monday!?! i'll think about that on the plane...
thanks to all old friends i caught up with and new folks i've met on this trip. it has been memorable, productive, fun, and exhausting. i should have scheduled a short holiday from my holiday, but after i return to sydney on saturday, i give a talk on monday!?! i'll think about that on the plane...
Friday, April 29, 2011
parthenon: ancient legos
i started my official holiday today - in greece! i probably wont be posting much over the next week, but i couldnt resist sharing some photos from a walk up to the acropolis of athens today.
is it just me, or does the parthenon look like it was put together with stone legos? ;)
Γειά σας!
is it just me, or does the parthenon look like it was put together with stone legos? ;)
Γειά σας!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
timelapse
the moon set is my favorite scene in this one. interesting editing with the wind turbine shots too! the music is violin concerto: III by philip glass.
Leica Summilux-C w/ Tom Lowe from Band Pro Film & Digital on Vimeo.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
heidelberg, germany
two weeks ago i visited the lovely city of heidelberg, germany and the max planck institute for astronomy (MPIA) located on top of a mountain overlooking heidelberg.
the little city has a very large castle!
and a big river with an old bridge to walk across.
i love the coziness of restaurants that serve german food, i just wish i would have thought to take this photo when the plate was still full with yummy spätzle and meat.
after a nice journey up the steep hill ("berg" = mountain) in a funicular, we saw some lovely views and walked the rest of the way to MPIA through a forest.
just next to the MPIA, a building is being constructed in the shape of a spiral galaxy (!!) and will host the haus der astronomie - an exciting organization dedicated to teaching astronomy to school children and adults all over the german-speaking world!
i was lucky enough to get a full tour :)
the little city has a very large castle!
and a big river with an old bridge to walk across.
i love the coziness of restaurants that serve german food, i just wish i would have thought to take this photo when the plate was still full with yummy spätzle and meat.
after a nice journey up the steep hill ("berg" = mountain) in a funicular, we saw some lovely views and walked the rest of the way to MPIA through a forest.
just next to the MPIA, a building is being constructed in the shape of a spiral galaxy (!!) and will host the haus der astronomie - an exciting organization dedicated to teaching astronomy to school children and adults all over the german-speaking world!
i was lucky enough to get a full tour :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
ways to stay creative
for the most part, this list is great (see number 1), but personally, i dont do number 7 (does this surprise you as much as it does me? i dont know, i just never think to do it).
from life on michigan avenue
Monday, April 25, 2011
Pythagoras’ Trousers radio show
while visiting cardiff a couple weeks ago, i participated in a radio interview for a show called pythagoras' trousers. the show examines current issues "from the worlds of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, bringing these fields to a wider audience and promoting these subject areas to school pupils." excellent stuff!
the episode is called:
Bank Holiday Astronomy Special: Herschel Space Mission
and will be aired tonight, monday 25th april, from 8-8:30pm (GMT, which is 3-3:30pm EDT). you can listen to the show at radio cardiff (locally at 98.7FM) or streaming online, or anytime after the air date as a podcast at pythagorus' trousers.
i havent heard the episode yet, but during the interview, i talked about what knowledge we gain by using long-wavelength herschel space telescope observations to complement optical data of distant galaxies in the universe, and also what these combined observations teach us about our own milky way galaxy.
the image above shows the andromeda galaxy (M31) through herschel's big eye.
to learn more about the herschel space observatory, please check out the very nice website produced by the outreach group at cardiff university: click here!
the episode is called:
Bank Holiday Astronomy Special: Herschel Space Mission
and will be aired tonight, monday 25th april, from 8-8:30pm (GMT, which is 3-3:30pm EDT). you can listen to the show at radio cardiff (locally at 98.7FM) or streaming online, or anytime after the air date as a podcast at pythagorus' trousers.
i havent heard the episode yet, but during the interview, i talked about what knowledge we gain by using long-wavelength herschel space telescope observations to complement optical data of distant galaxies in the universe, and also what these combined observations teach us about our own milky way galaxy.
the image above shows the andromeda galaxy (M31) through herschel's big eye.
to learn more about the herschel space observatory, please check out the very nice website produced by the outreach group at cardiff university: click here!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
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