Careful, Your Gender Gap is Showing

When Elise Andrew, the owner of the Facebook page "I fucking love science" posted a link to her personal twitter account on the page, a lot of people got over excited. Whilst some of them, like me, were keen to expand their exposure to rather marvelous puns about transport proteins (oh come on, it is funny), an alarming number of Facebook commentators took it upon themselves to be shocked about her gender.

STEM gender gap - An unnecessary barrier ©Doctree; Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Statements ranged from the confused: "Dude ur a chick? Wtf???!?", the confusing:"MUST BE A LESBIAN! just kidding", to the pretty insulting:"Please sell this page to a male.". And not all were, it seems, made in jest.

So why is there this alarm that an incredibly popular page focused on the wonderful world of science could be run by a woman?

Gender bias across all STEM subjects is a still a massive problem. It is a problem seen all the way from how lab partners treat each other in high school chemistry lessons to who gets what job and which pay packet well into adulthood.

The general idea that women neither like nor do well in math and science has been widely accepted by many people and for many years. Girls are meant to prefer the "arty" subjects, they like fiction and writing comprehension, let boys play with the chemicals and the machines. And yet, when interviewed and assessed in primary school, girls get higher grades and are more likely to express an interest in maths or science than boys.

The problems seem to begin in high school as girls are drip fed the idea that they are somehow under-qualified to perform scientific tasks. A study performed by Psychology Today, 72% of 11 year old girls felt that they were confident in their STEM skills, but only 55% of 15 year olds described themselves as confident. However when comparing the results of standardized test scores no loss in actual ability was seen.

This loss of self-confidence leads many to forsake the science subjects that they may have performed very well in at GSCE and choose A levels in areas where they haven't been convinced that they are innately unable to perform in.

This trend follows into higher education and post-graduate education choices. Growing up I was lucky, I come from a family of scientists across all fields and went to an all female high school, gender discrimination in the sciences wasn't something that I experienced. So it wasn't until the first year of my biochemistry undergraduate that someone suggested that "Surely doing just biology would be more girly?" and another informed me that "You don't look like enough of a nerd to do chemistry".

Whilst the male to female undergrad split in the biological sciences in the UK now lies at around 50:50, look sideways into the chemistry, physics and engineering fields and you'll find only one woman for every eight men.

The 2011 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (in the USA) showed the average weekly earnings of a woman in biological sciences ($853) versus that of a man in the same field ($1,117). This all adds up to a woman in the same area of work earning a little over £9000 less a year compared to her male counterparts.

You may have noticed that this study is rather general, perhaps the women are working part time (perhaps for childcare reasons) or in less well-subsidized areas and thus their average income is brought down?

Researchers at Yale in 2012 thought this too. They produced a set of CVs, each one with identical qualifications but half were identified as being from men, and half from women. They gave these CVs to 127 science faculty members (of mixed genders) at the university and asked them to rank the applicant on a scale of 1 to 7 and also suggest a mean starting salary that they would give each candidate.

Regardless of the gender of the professor, or even their field of study, the female "applicant" was consistently offered a lower starting salary and ranked lower on all accounts of competence. Over all, a woman going into this (albeit fictional) job would expect to earn over $3000 less per year than her male counterparts.

There is little to suggest that things are any different this side of the pond. If I wish to persue a career in academic science, a decade from now I can expect to be earning noticeably less than any guy in my graduation class who follows the same path. And God forbid I take time off to have children - or even suggest to a prospective employer that one day in the future I may wish to start a family.

But what can be done to address this ongoing inequality? Groups such as theWISE Campaign aim to encourage woman and girls to enter the STEM fields, but progress has been slow and any "trickle up" effect seen from encouraging girls to take science A levels has yet to make an impact. The Athena SWANaward, given in institutions to recognise their commitment to advancing women's careers in STEM academia, is helping to encourage universities to be aware of the bias that can and will affect their female STEM graduates. The Department of Chemistry here in York is the first Chemistry Department in the UK to hold an Athena SWAN gold award.

Will these groups (or any of the multitudes like them) have a positive impact on women's role in science and academic research? I do hope so. However the big change will need to come from a long overdue change in the way that "science" is seen as a boys-only club; young girls should not find themselves forced out of doing what they want to do by the opinions of others.

Published YorkerOnline 27th March

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Science Highlights of the Week - Part Four

The Genetic Sequence of Wheat

The draft genome of bread wheat (Triticum urartu) has been completed. By using this data published in Nature, it is hoped that new strains of wheat that are tougher and giver greater yields will be produced through genetic modifications.

This has brought the debate over the use of GM crops to the surface again, as there are still many who worry that the use of GM plants will lead to the breeding of superbugs or cause adverse reactions in those that consume them. However, as the human population rapidly increases, global food shortages are a genuine threat and any process that can speed up the already intensive selective breeding of foodstuff will likely be welcomed by future generations.

Learning Makes Your Head Hurt

As anyone who has done a 16 hour library stint knows, learning gives you a headache. However all that education may also be causing physical damage, What has now been seen in mice is that exposure to a new environment causes double-strand breaks in DNA in neurons (a single molecule of DNA is broken into two). This is then associated with the movement of histones (DNA packaging proteins) and the rearrangement of other proteins around the neuron.

In a healthy brain, this damaged is quickly repaired and the neuron restored, but in transgenic mice made to mimic a human brain suffering from Alzheimer's this damage is seen to be more severe and longer lasting as the standard repair mechanisms have been disrupted.

This is no excuse to skip on the workload though, as all studies so far have seen that increased brain activity through life, especially in later years, can lessen the risk of neural decline in old age.

Scientists Spend Time Watching Cats

Most cat owners will chat with their pets, I for one have just had a very interesting conversation about the nature of gender bias in the scientific community with my feline companion.

In this vein, two researchers from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo and the Department of Psychology, Keio University have looked into whether or not our furry friends actually recognise the voice of their beloved owners.

In short, the research showed that, unsurprisingly, they do recognise their owners voices but they mostly choose to ignore any calls whatsoever.

Science Highlights of the Week - Part The Third

Higgs Boson Confirmed?

In a press release from CERN on the 14th March, it has been announced that two and a half times more data has been collected from the Large Hadron Collider and analysed.

This new data points towards the particle in question being confirmed as the elusive Higgs boson. However more research is needed to truly be sure what kind of boson it is.

Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria On The Rise

In the last century, we have become ever more dependent on the use of antibiotic drugs. This is not particularly news to anyone who has been following various bacterial epidemic scares across the last few year and ideas to slow the development of resistance have been around almost as long as antibiotics themselves.

A recent report in the UK lead by Sally Davies has highlighted 17 key policies that should be followed to prevent the spread of such resistant pathogens and slow down the evolution of new, even more dangerous ones.

Sex Could Be Good For The Brain

In a study involving rats, researchers in Maryland have seen that sexual experience has a positive effect in increasing neurogenesis(growth of new brain cells) in adult rats.

This is due to the effect of the hormones released during what the paper euphemistically calls a "rewarding experience" on neuron growth and the function of the hippocampus - an area important in memory.

Unfortunately, improved mental function was only seen for some time after sexual experience, if behavioral testing was left too late, little or no improvement in cognitive task was actually seen. On the other hand, frequent sex and often could very well have a strong positive effect on your brain power, at least for a short while.

Congratulations Commander Hadfield

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has taken over the helm of the International Space Station (only the second leader not to be American or Russian).

Hadfield (here on Reddit...) has been part of a skeleton crew manning the station since 21st December, with cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and astronaut Thomas Marshburn. They will return to Earth on 13th May, a total of 144 days in orbit.

Science Highlights of the Week - The Sequel

What's in a name?

Apparently, quite a lot if you are a dolphin. Published in the latestProceedings of the Royal Society B, a study has shown that bottle-nosed dolphins are able to identify themselves and each other by "signature whistles".

The research was done at the University of St. Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit (collecting data in the more dolphin-friendly waters of Florida), and is the first evidence for animals other than humans using identifying names for each other.

The ability to call each other by name probably plays a key role in dolphin social structure. The ocean is a massive place and a dolphin whistle can travel up to 20km through the water. This allows family members and close friends to find each other across great distance and locate each other.

Captive dolphins (both bottle-nosed and other species) have also been seen to create new sounds to apply to objects that they have been recently introduced to, and to identify keepers.

It is the size that counts

In research published in Mammalian Biology , it has been shown that Female Hottentot Golden Moles select mates with larger penises, whereas the appearance of the female genitalia seems to have no impact on the males' choice of mates.

The night-before pill

A new technique to assemble biomimetic enzyme nanocomplexes has been used to create complexes of enzymes that have been used to reduce blood alcohol levels and liver damage in mice that have been given high levels of alcohol.

The technique allows enzymes to be positioned in such away to increase their activity in living systems, by mimicking the way that they are organised within living cells.

Mice treated with aspecially designed nanocomplex containing alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes as they were given alcohol showed a significantly greater reduction in blood alcohol content after three hours when compared to thier untreated counterparts.

However this is not yet any sort of practical anti-hangover treatment as the breakdown of alcohol in the body produces a toxic intermediate called acetaldehyde. There is not yet an enzyme nanocomplex produced to degrade this, so superefficient alcohol breakdown will just result in a different kind of poisoning.

Predicting Future Health during Pregnancy

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in women in the UK. They account for a quarter of all deaths, three times more than breast cancer. Key to reducing cardiovascular disease risk and mortality is the early spotting of symptoms and signs that a woman is likely to suffer poor cardiovascular health in later life.

In the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), researchers looked at the health of some 13, 600 women during pregnancy in the early 1990s and followed their health and the health of their children across the following two decades.

The study looked into the association of pregnancy diabetes, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, preterm delivery and size for gestational age with the calculated 10 year risk of cardiovascular disease – measured on the Framingham score (based upon a famous study of several thousand people across many decades, tracking health problems and identifying factors that increased risk, including cardiovascular disease with high blood pressure, high blood glucose levels and many other compounding factors).

A clear trend was seen - HDP (hypertensive disorders of pregnancy) and pregnancy diabetes are both associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the mother ten years down the line. Preeclampsia (when a pregnant woman suffers from extremely high blood pressure) was seen as the best predictor of future cardiovascular problems as it was seen to be associated with a wider range of risk factors after ten years.

Pregnancy is a time when a woman’s body is under an incredible amount of biological stress, so systems that may not be as strong as they are in some others can begin to show signs of failing. This makes pregnancy an important opportunity for early identification of women at increased risk of CVD later in life and will allow doctors and health professionals to give preventative advice for ideas such as small lifestyle changes and diet adjustments.

Are you at risk of cardiovascular disease later in life?

There are some factors that greatly increase your risk of suffering from CVD post-middleage. many of which you cannot control. Among these are:

• A strong family history - especally prevalent in some ethnic groups
• Being male
• Hair loss (eg, male pattern baldness)
• Early menopause in women
• Age (the older you are, the more likely you are to develop atherosclerosis

However there are also many things that you can do to reduce your cardiovascular disease risk, and improve your overall health.

Reducing your cardiovascular disease risk:

Being more physically active (walking to work, taking the stairs etc) has been shown to have a massive impact on reducing CVD risk. Keeping to a healthy weight is also very beneficial (that means neither too at nor too thin), if you are worried about your weight, you should speak to a GP.

Quitting smoking and reducing your drinking habits to around the recommeneded weekly allowance will bring about the greatest changes to your CVD and to your health in general.

Published The Yorker 1st March 2013