Recommended reads #202
“I wouldn’t be a scientist without my abortion.”
13 ways to keep bugs away from you when you’re in your patio or yard. I think this is a great listicle that actually relies on knowledge from experts.
Impossible choices at the crossroads of motherhood and fieldwork
Why they left: stories from five professors of color who’d had enough.
This is absolutely wild. Despite all the talk about first-gen this and first-gen that, the proportion of faculty who have parents with graduate degrees is has been growing by a lot over the last 50 years. The slope of this curve has flattened a bit, but, look at these data. Wow.
I feel like Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s TED talk, which I thought was quite good, was made just for scientists to help us identify how we can target the climate crisis. Finding the intersection of what we’re good at, what needs to be done, and what brings us joy is a useful idea to keep thinking about. We’ve gotta find the joy in this work, and live in it. One thing that really strikes me when you read about the lives of people who were leaders in very difficult times is that they were not just inspirational and optimistic, but they often were quite happy in what they were doing, even if the work itself addressed very grim matters and involved a lot of human suffering. It’s not only okay to be happy, it’s important to be happy, as we do the work.
This Pew report on Hispanics/Latines in science is quite something. Public trust in science relies on representation in science.
The connection between racist pseudoscience and terrorist attacks in the US, and what scientists need to do about this.
This short video by zefrank will break your heart.
“My students cheated…a lot.” Note that the link is to the internet archive, because the author has since pulled the post after it caught more attention than wanted. I think there are a lot of interesting things to be gained from reading this, but I did want to simply remark that what is documented here is entirely non-exceptional and often the norm.