ALD News: Relive ALD, discount available for the Ri's 'Not just for the boys' event
Plus highlights from our other Substack sections, Stylist features ALD in their November issue, and our monthly round-up of what's going on online.
Hi there,
If you’re in the UK and see November’s Stylist magazine being handed out (that’s issue 609, with the silver sequin dress on the M&S wrap), make sure you pick up a copy and turn to page 30 to see Stylist’s round up of Ada Lovelace Day Live.
“Ada Lovelace Day is a joyful celebration of all the inspirational women working in STEM,” the Royal Institution’s Katherine Mathieson told Stylist, and we couldn’t agree more!
Relive Ada Lovelace Day Live
If you want to catch up with all the amazing talks from Ada Lovelace Day Live, then you can now watch the entire evening online!
We are also going to be emailing out all seven talks over coming weeks, along with Helen Arney’s bonus performance of Tom Lehrer’s song, The Elements, which she has updated with the 16 elements discovered since Lehrer’s day. We’ll send these emails out to everyone on the list, not just those of you subscribed to the Videos sub-newsletter, so that no one misses out.
Here’s a reminder of what we’ve got lined up for you:
Dr Antonia Pontiki – 3D printing artificial organs
Dr Aarathi Prasad – Silk
Dr Sophie Carr – Uncertainty, intuition, and superheroes
Prof Jennifer Rohn – Why we should all be angrier about urinary tract infection
Helen Arney – The Elements
Rosie Curran Crawley – Women of wonder (demo)
Dr Azza Eltraify – Greening the ICT world
Dr Anjana Khatwa – The Jurassic Coast: Take a leap into deep time
At the Ri: Not just for the boys
Distinguished physicist Dame Athene Donald will be exploring the obstacles holding women back in science at the Royal Institution at 19:00 GMT this coming Thursday, 16 November. We’re delighted to be able to offer you 50 per cent off the Theatre - Standard ticket, bringing the cost down to just £8. To take advantage of this offer, use promo code RIGUEST.
Times have changed since women were barred from laboratories and unable to take science degrees. But have they changed enough for women in science? Despite making great strides, the numbers of women studying physics and engineering remain small, and those who go on to successful careers are very few.
Join Dame Athene Donald as she explores, using her own experience and those of other top scientists who are women, the factors that drive women to give up on a career in science. From societal expectations, prejudice, hostility, and condescension to unconscious and systemic bias, particularly in science research, as evidenced by recent studies.
In this talk, discover how diversity is crucial to solving the problems of today, and why women should have their proper place as equals, in the lab, and in the committees where top-level decisions are made.
Ada Lovelace Day in the press
Every year, journalists and bloggers around the world take part in or cover Ada Lovelace Day, and we’ve selected five articles from the dozens that we’ve found so far for you to enjoy:
Ada Lovelace Day: Who was the mathematician and what is she known for? Nuray Bulbul & Sian Hewitt, The Independent, 10 Oct 23
‘I wrote my first piece of code at seven’: women share highs and lows in computer science for Ada Lovelace Day, Janet Abbate, Shobhana Narasimhan, Sana Odeh, Farida N. Bedwei, Soraia Raupp Musse & Verena Rieser, Nature, 10 Oct 23
TV's 14 most fascinating women in STEM, Cindy White, The AV Club, 10 Oct 23
What Ada Lovelace’s story reminds us about STEM, talent and belonging, Dr Patricia Xavier, The Engineer, 10 Oct 23
Ada Lovelace Day: Champion women role models to break down barriers, Blathnaid O’Dea, Silicon Republic, 10 Oct 23
Featured posts on Substack
If you aren’t signed up for our weekly emails, you’re really missing out! In recent weeks, we’ve posted a variety of profiles of women in STEM, including:
Dr Frances Wagner, Palaeontologist: Frances Wagner was one of the first women to carry out field research for the Geological Survey of Canada and became a distinguished expert in the use of micropaleontology to study marine geology.
Prof Nadine Caron, General and endocrine surgeon: Nadine Caron is the first Canadian female general endocrine surgeon and graduate of medicine from British Columbia University who is of First Nations descent (Ojibway).
Prof Jewel Plummer Cobb, Cell biologist and cancer researcher: Jewel Plummer Cobb discovered how skin cells produce melanin and how they become cancerous.
Prof Marie Maynard Daly, Biochemist: Marie Maynard Daly was a biochemist who co-discovered the link between high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and the clogged arteries that can cause heart disease and strokes.
We’ve also posted about books and podcasts by, for, or about women in STEM, and delved into our archive of fabulous videos from past Ada Lovelace Days:
Carbon Queen, Maia Weinstock: The story of Mildred Dresselhaus, the pioneering scientist and engineer who carried out pioneering research into the properties of carbon.
Ologies, Alie Ward: Humorist and science correspondent Alie Ward asks smart people stupid questions and the answers might change your life.
Energy transition: Sink or Swim? Yasmin Ali at Ada Lovelace Day Live Online 2022.
If you’d like fascinating posts like these delivered directly to your inbox once a week, then make sure you’re signed up for all our sub-newsletters! I know most of you prefer to receive our updates by email, so make sure you don’t miss out by checking your Notifications settings on the Substack website (these settings unfortunately aren’t available in the Android or Apple apps).
Around the web
Here is our round up of links and reading that we’ve found this month!
Ada Lovelace featured: The National Youth Theatre is showing Ada, by Rebecca Manley, a play about Ada Lovelace aimed at young people. Schools will also receive a free educational pack when they book! Ada is also the subject of a video in the We Belong series by Rosie’s STEM. And this article about royal harpist John Thomas, reveals that his “musical talent caught the eye of Lady Ada Lovelace”. It’s a wonderful glimpse into Lovelace’s life and interests beyond the Analytical Engine!
Forgotten women: Researchers at the UChicago are uncovering the records of many women who worked at the Yerkes Observatory analysing data and writing papers on astronomy.
Women of colour: Futurity report on research into how Black female science teachers talk about race in science, from the Tuskagee experiment to the water crisis in Flint.
News: The winners of the Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science have been recently announced. Congratulations to Dr Hortense Le Ferrand, who won the Scientific Achievement award for her work in creating sustainable materials, and to SwaTaleem, an organisation in India that encourages girls into STEM through the Main Bhi Curie programme. Irish engineer and science communicator Dr Niamh Shaw will be taking part in the Homeward Bound programme to Antarctica, to raise awareness of climate change and forgotten Irish women scientists. Her Campus has a list of Gen Z women in STEM who are inventing, creating and discovering.
Videos and podcasts: A new episode of Lost Women in Science looks at why the work of Eunice Newton Foote, who was the first scientist to demonstrate the Greenhouse Effect, was forgotten.
Books: Lisa M. P. Munoz, author of the recently released Women in Science Now: Stories and Strategies for Achieving Equity, has written an article for Undark about how gender equity strategies need to be evidence-based. Another interesting book released recently is Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe by Professor Shohini Ghose, which celebrates the work of female physicists through history.
That’s it for this month! I hope you enjoy the upcoming videos from ALD Live!
All the best,
Suw & the ALD team