Melissa Harris-Perry & Doc McStuffins Rock The House

There was a great segment on diversity in science on the Melissa Harris Perry show this weekend.  Topics include the Doc McStuffins Disney cartoon which promotes women in science, and the involvement of the Girl Scouts with STEM.  The guests include Dr. Aletha Maybank, Anna Maria Chavez, Christianne Corbett and Danielle Moodie-Mills. 

One quote that stuck out for me was As Mooide-Mills says , "Be visible and be fabulous!" There are many times that minorities that are underrepresented in science get discouraged because they don't say examples of people that look like them teaching in their schools or being popularized by the media. And those that are - such as Neil Degrasse Tyson - can be seen as "exceptions". The visibility of women and Blacks within science well help us all push things forward. That's one of the reason why I created this site

More about the We Are Doc McStuffins movement is covered in this MSNBC piece.

If you find yourself singing Doc McStuffins' "Time For Your Checkup" song, don't blame me - it's infectious!

If you see the video below, please click here

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Michelle Obama also made a key point that scientists are not unreachable goals that are only intended for those with the resources - everyone should be able to achieve it.

If you can't see the video below, please click here.

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Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. Made History Today

On Feb 9th, 1995, Dr. Bernard Harris Jr. became the first African American to perform a space walk (EVA for extra vehicular activity).  A space walk essentially consists of leaving the confines of a spacecraft while in space. You may have seen astronauts moving around the outside of a spacecraft to make repairs and make other observations.

From Dr. Harris's bio, "he enjoys flying, sailing, skiing, running, scuba diving, art and music." Talk about well rounded, considering that he also holds degrees in medicine and bio medical science. Some people are just awesome. He's also a member of my fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Dr. Harris founded the Harris Foundation with the mission "to invest in community-based initiatives to support education, health and wealth". Check a video from the foundation below - if you can't see it, click here.

The March for Diversity in Science Pushes On

City Town Info has created a nice infographic concerning women in science. While some numbers regarding income and representation may be bleak, there is positive news - more and more young women are becoming interested in science careers. The challenge is keeping this interest fresh by keeping science interesting throughout the crucial elementary and high school years.  We need to make sure that scientists are shown as role models, such as those that I posted about at the end of last year.

Courtesy of: Citytowninfo.com

CES 2013 Wrap Up Video & Tweets

Last week, I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Below is a video of some footage that I took on the floor. Unfortunately, my microphone adapter broke so I was not able to hold any interviews - gotta get that fixed for next year!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Also, I've embedded a list of Tweets that I shared if you weren't following the action last week. Check it out! If you can't see the tweets below, click here.

Scientists Are The New Rockstars: 2012 Edition

It should be obvious that I love science, but I understand and respect that everyone doesn't.  Still, people that excel in their craft should be recognized the same way that entertainment stars are.  I'm not saying that we should have a "Real Housewives of Science" reality show or have a Kardashian scientist stumbling around labs, but it wouldn't hurt to share in some of that publicity.

To that end, let's check out some of the top scientists of 2012, as reported by the scientific journal Nature. Here is an excerpt that was news to me:

While it's no surprise that women are underrepresented in science, pinning that to discrimination, rather than gender differences in aptitude or interest, has been tricky. But when Yale University microbiologist Jo Handelsman showed that researchers offer fictitious female job applicants about $4,000 less in salary and rate them as less competent and worthy of mentorship than male counterparts, she produced strong evidence for sexual bias. Handelsman says she hasn't personally experienced strong bias, but became motivated to speak out about it when other women scientists described their experiences with sex discrimination.

It's common news that job applicants with ethnic sounding names (hello Shareef Jackson!) get called less for interviews, but it is extremely worrisome that this applies within the science field. Gender discrimination is real and it exists.

To see the full list, check out the entire article on the Mother Nature Network.