When we celebrate STEM history, we tend to focus on individuals singled out for specific inspiring scientific achievements. And that’s…
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Black History Month Stories of African-American STEM Societies: Part 1 — The First Wave (1895 to 1947)
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Evidence Post-Surgery Thoughts on Evidence and Choice
I had been losing sight, slowly at first, but later, scarily quickly. By the time I had my first surgery…
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Black History Month Black History Month: Mathematicians’ Powerful Stories
It was a turning point. The previous year, the US Civil Rights Act had passed. On 26 January 1969 in…
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History Peak Gender Gap: Women at the Top of Science Agencies
This story didn’t get off to a very good start. It turns out, it’s not easy to dig out online who’s been…
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History Why Pockets and Waves of De-Feminization in Science’s Past Matter Now
I knew there wasn’t a steady, inexorable rise of women in science. I still thought of it as a trajectory of progress though: virtually…
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History “The Same Folly, the Same Fury”: A.V. Hill in 1933
Freedom itself is again at stake… It is difficult to believe in progress, at least in decency and commonsense, when this can…
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History What Lies Beneath a Scientist’s Life: A Father and Son Story
It was one of those lovely, comfortable conversations between people who have known each other a long time. I took this selfie…
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History Science and the Rise of the Co-Authors
Physicists set a new record this year for number of co-authors: a 9-page report needed an extra 24 pages to list its 5,154…
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History Curiosity to Scrutiny: the Early Days of Science Journalism
1894: “[T]he acknowledged leaders of the great generation that is now passing away, Darwin notably, addressed themselves in many cases to…
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History The Outrage Factor – Then and Now
There’s a lot of outrage about outrage storming around women in science and science journalism at the moment. And fear of…
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History Peer Review BC (Before Citations)
In theory, science isn’t just self-interested. We’re all driven by curiosity and pure motives to strive together to unlock the secrets of the universe and…
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History Pentimento: Revealing the Women Obscured in Science’s History
Sometimes, beneath the surface layer, an artist’s earlier rendition of part of a painting can be glimpsed. Something was replaced, changed…