When I was in junior high school, I went to a “Women in Science” event at the local university. I learned about solar panels (awesome), and I got to feed a deadly centipede from South America through a tube (creepy and awesome). It was great to be exposed to women working in science, because it made me feel like I could do it too. Sadly, these types of programs are few and far between. The gender gap in STEM (Science, ... Read More

We wrote about the European Commission’s epic fail of a video campaign to promote women in science back in June. Their video’s slogan, “Science: it’s a girl thing!” was accompanied by just enough makeup, nail polish, and cliché girly images to trigger your gag reflex. If you’re brave enough, you can watch it below. After the disastrous (and completely warranted) response of every logical ... Read More

A study by Yale scientists has shown that academic scientists are, on average, biased against women. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), tested scientists’ reactions to men and women with exactly equal qualifications. In the study, academic scientists — both men and women — were given an application from a student applying for a lab manager position. The applications were all ... Read More

  Vanderbilt psychologists have recently found that women are better than men at recognizing living things, and men are better than women at recognizing vehicles. The psychologists didn’t set out to study sex differences: the discovery was the surprising result of an analysis of a series of visual recognition tasks collected in the process of developing a new standard test for expertise in object recognition.  ... Read More

A new, breakthrough technology has just been unveiled to accurately assess tissue samples for signs of breast cancer through a minimally invasive procedure. But wait! There’s a twist: The cloud-based neural network was brought to us by a girl at the young age of 17. I repeat, the mastermind behind this breakthrough technology is a 17-year-old girl, and in addition, she won the top prize in this year’s Google Science Fair ... Read More

The future of science may rest in the hands of women. In each of the three age groups at Google's first science fair, three girls were the chosen winners among 7,500 entrees from 91 countries.  And not only were these projects scientifically impressive--they also may be used to benefit public health. Lauren Hodge, winner of the youngest group of 13-14 year olds looked at carcinogenic levels in various marinades for grilled ... Read More

For all of March, The Smithsonian Channel is putting the spotlight on some of the world’s greatest female scientists. On the channel’s interactive website, they’ve turned stories of inspiring scientists into short comics for your nerdy enjoyment. The comics are just a preview of the shows that will be airing throughout the month of March. These scientists tackle the question of immortality, run with wolves, and travel ... Read More