Insights - 1400 Degrees

Smadar Naoz Doesn’t Care For Aptitude Tests

Working as a postdoc at Harvard in 2014, Smadar Naoz organized a group of local children to learn about astronomy on campus. The group toured a solar observatory and listened to Harvard astrophysicists talk about the prospects of studying the cosmos for a career. The organizers had tailored the workshop, titled “Astronomy for Everyone,” to […]

1400 Degrees

Exploring the Universe of Materials with Nadya Mason

In her 2019 TED talk, Nadya Mason cuts open a Etch-A-Sketch on stage. As the crowd watches, she plays with the magnetic filings and observes the sticky goo oozing out of the toy. Leading by example, she wants the audience to get personal with their technology: to dismantle, test, and question their everyday objects in […]

1400 Degrees

How Authenticity Shapes Jessica Esquivel’s Science

The physics community is on the brink of change, Jessica Esquivel hopes. First, in terms of the science: The Fermilab physicist is a member of the Muon g-2 experiment, which recently announced a potentially groundbreaking new measurement of the muon’s magnetic moment, a property that dictates how much the fundamental particle wobbles in a magnetic […]

1400 Degrees

Young-Kee Kim And The Future Of Particle Physics

Young-Kee Kim has made a bet, over and over again, for the last 25 years. She thinks that the answers to some of physics’ biggest questions lie inside a particle collider—within the shrapnel of elementary particles as they smash into each other near the speed of light. She’s been right many times. The University of […]

1400 Degrees

Debra Fischer On Scientific Culture and Life On Other Planets

When Debra Fischer joined the field of astronomy in the 1990’s, most experts doubted whether planets existed outside of our solar system. Today, researchers have confirmed the detection of more than 4,500 exoplanets—thanks, in part, to her work. “We now know that most stars have planetary systems,” says Fischer, an astronomer at Yale University. “I’ve […]

1400 Degrees

Looking for Dark Matter, Reina Maruyama Found Herself

Reina Maruyama has had her doubts. Like the rest of us, the Yale University physicist doesn’t know what dark matter is. Maruyama is involved in experiments that search for both axion and WIMP particles, two hypothesized contenders for the invisible substance. She also doesn’t know why matter dominates over antimatter in our universe. She studies […]

1400 Degrees

Kerstin Perez, a Dark Matter Hunter from West Philly

Don’t be fooled by her title; astrophysicist Kerstin Perez doesn’t get too excited about the night sky. “If I ever write a memoir, I want the first line to be, ‘I never once looked up at the sky as a child and wondered where we all come from,” she says. Instead, Perez’s passion is building […]

1400 Degrees

How to Attend a Cosmic Fireworks Show with Mansi Kasliwal

A phone alert will often jolt Mansi Kasliwal awake in the middle of the night. Its message? Forget sleeping. Telescopes have detected an unusual burst of light in the night sky, and she’d better record it. If she’s lucky, these fireworks—known as “transients”—may be a sign of a rare cosmic event: the explosion of a […]

1400 Degrees

Andrea Ghez on Discovering the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

All of us are all orbiting a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. We know this because of Andrea Ghez. The University of California, Los Angeles astronomer pioneered telescope techniques to peer into our galaxy’s center, which she has now studied for over 25 years. Her team’s analysis of […]

1400 Degrees

Serena Eley is Swept up in a Vortex of Superconductivity

A newspaper article may have sealed Serena Eley’s professional fate. “When I was in second or third grade, my sisters and I would read the children’s pages in the Washington Post on Sundays,” says Eley, an assistant professor of physics at the Colorado School of Mines. “In one edition, they had an article on Maglev […]

1400 Degrees

Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women

This report from the National Academies of Sciences concludes that there are four conditions necessary to begin to address the problems women face in STEMM. It also lays out a detailed set of best practices for mitigating bias and disparities in career advancement of female STEMM professionals.

NAP

This stunning high-tech mural uses AR to celebrate badass women in science

FINDINGS is a public art series celebrating women and science. Appearing in cities across the United States starting Fall 2020.

Fast Company

Breakthrough: The Galaxy Hunter

A profile and accompanying video about astrophysicist Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, who discovered a new kind of galaxy.

Science Friday

The Virus Moved Female Faculty to the Brink. Will Universities Help?

This piece highlights the challenges facing women faculty of all disciplines, and the potential lasting consequences on their careers, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of juggling family, research, and writing has led to fewer publications by women scholars than their male colleagues and less time for research. A mixed response from universities will likely mean that some women scientist's careers will be impacted long-term by the pandemic.

The New York Times

Grantee Andrea Ghez Wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Heising-Simons profiles astronomer Andrea Ghez, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics for her discovery of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.

Heising-Simons Foundation

Myriam Sarachik Never Gave Up on Physics

A fascinating profile of the life and career of physicist Myriam Sarachik, who fought sexism, discrimination, and the work/life challenges that face women with families as she sought to establish her career in physics in the 1960s.

The New York Times

Women in Science: The Intersection of Identity and Profession

What does a particle physicist look like? Dr. Jessica Esquivel is a Black, Mexican female with a wife. Seeing as she was only the second-ever black woman to receive her physics Ph.D. from Syracuse, not many particle physicists physically look like her. Then again, not many particle physicists can do what she does.

Laboratory Equipment

Astrophysicist Kim Arcand is Helping Everyone Experience the Universe

A piece on how astrophysicist Kim Arcand, Visualization Scientist and Emerging Technology Lead at the Chandra X-ray Observatory, created a 3D printed model of a dead star as a way for people to feel and understand the science from a different perspective, and to enable people with visual impairments to engage with astronomy discoveries.

Lady Science

In the wake of COVID-19, academia needs new solutions to ensure gender equity

PNAS

This Cosmologist Knows How It’s All Going to End

An interview with theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack, on her scientific research and her work on communicating science to the public, including her book on the end of the universe.

Quanta Magazine

Understanding Persistent Gender Gaps in STEM

Researchers examine the masculine culture of physics, engineering, and computer science that begins at the undergraduate level, and offers recommendations on how we can be aware of this dynamic when designing programs to support girls in STEM.

Science

Team Up Report: The Time Is Now

Systemic Changes to Increase African Americans with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy

AIP

The woman who explained the stars

A review of the book What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin by Donovan Moore. The first person to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College and a pioneer in her research on stellar atmospheres, Payne faced many challenges as a female astronomer, as depicted in this biography.

Nature

Masculine Defaults: Identifying and Mitigating Hidden Cultural Biases

Authors Sapna Cheryan and Hazel Rose Markus provide a detailed look at 'masculine defaults' of behavior within culture. They articulate how oftentimes masculine defaults masquerade as innocuous social norms at first glance, but are in fact problematic.

Psychological Review

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