yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

The "Coming of Age" Science Moment | StarTalk


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

It wasn't until I was later in high school that I had my first biology tutor who sort of gave me the confidence that I could be a scientist. I was a tutor because you're acting, correct? Right. So I was on the show Blossom from the...

Oh, you were awesome! I was lost on the show Block Work. Block? Yeah, that clear, correct? Once I met this woman who was my biology tutor, that was sort of my real kind of coming out party of believing that I could be a scientist.

I didn't even have the skill set because I had been paying attention all the previous years in math and science, but really just doing what I needed to to get by. I didn't really understand the beauty of science and math and that whole world until I was later into high school. Then obviously pursuing it in college was, you know, it was a party.

So this saddens me. You know why? Not your story. The perfect, I've heard that before. Know that if that single person, right, made a life difference to you, right? How many people are missing that single person who cannot like just...

I mean, I can. I’m sure we could all run the stats on it. Many girls, right? It is the first answer. Good. That's the first name, and that's because of a historical difference in the representation of women in these fields, and probably a cultural bias on the part of teachers and instructors and even administration.

How much intellectual capital lay untapped in this world? Do you want a number? Documented? Numbers? I want numbers first; give me numbers. Don't just say it. I don't have them. I think it's a weight. This is Startalk; they don't leave you numberless.

When? If we can put numbers in this situation, you have the number, I have the power. I shouldn't have doubted you nor a second. No, I'll have the power to give you the numbers. I have the power to get someone to give you them. Oh, that's how I work.

I grab Howard to listen to those numbers. So, Mona, can I get some numbers, please? All right, everyone, this is Mona Lobby. She's a data journalist. Did you even know that thing existed? Mona, you got some numbers for us to bring some of this into focus?

I do. I wanted to try and answer my aim's question as directly as possible, so I wanted to find out how many female scientists America is missing. The number that I came to is 80,000 missing, meaning they might have been scientists but some force prevented that from happening.

Exactly, okay, exactly. And I just took biologists, chemists, and a category called other natural scientists, and I worked out how many women you would need to just get to a 50/50 gender split. And that's when I got eighty thousand.

So what do you say? Eighty thousand? It's just eighty thousand in those professions? Exactly. You're leaving out engineering and physics and mathematics and all the rest of this.

Yeah, okay, but presumably equal access, equal opportunity doesn't require equal outcome. So that missing number presumes that if everything were even then everything would be even, right? But we know that we don't have equal access.

Right. My am touched on it in the clip, and it's really, really relevant. So I also looked at some of the cultural barriers that stop women from going into the sciences. Now we know that statistically women are less likely to be hired by science faculty, they're less likely to be asked to perform mathematical tasks, and they're less likely to have their academic papers deemed of high quality.

And I know that last bit because of research by a female scientist called Emma Pearson. Now, what Emma did was she looked at nine hundred and thirty-eight thousand three hundred and one academic scientific papers, and she found that the average male scientist publishes forty-five percent more papers than the average female scientist.

So you're saying we're messed up? That's what you're saying? That's how to be messed up. Numeric? In numbers, numbers are showing how messed up you are. That's right.

More Articles

View All
James Manyika on how the pandemic has accelerated the future of work | Homeroom with Sal
Hi everyone! Welcome to our daily homeroom. I’m very excited about the guest we have today. Before we jump into that conversation, I will give my standard announcement. I want to remind everyone that Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization that can…
Charlie Munger: The Investment Opportunity of a Lifetime
And I think more inflation over the next 100 years is inevitable. It’s not every day a year, given how rare it is for Munger to sit down and share his thoughts. What we are in for is a rare treat. Munger recently did a two and a half hour long interview w…
Dividing a decimal by a whole number on the number line
In this video, we’re going to try to figure out what 0.6, or 6 tenths, divided by 2 is. I’ll give you a little bit of a hint; we have 6 tenths plotted on the number line right over here. One way to think about it is if I wanted to go from zero to six ten…
Net force | Movement and forces | Middle school physics | Khan Academy
Let’s say that we are in deep space, and there is this asteroid here that, compared to us, is stationary or relative to us is stationary. What we want to do is we want to start to move it. So, what we do is we attach a rocket to one side, and then we igni…
How to study efficiently using Notion [Active Recall]
Hi guys, it’s me Dodie! Today, I’m going to be showing you guys how I take study notes using one of my favorite apps, Notion. I’m so, so glad that this video is sponsored by Notion because I’ve been using Notion for a couple of months. If you go to my old…
15 Ways To OPTIMIZE Your MONEY
They say money can’t buy you happiness, but it certainly can come as close as possible to doing so. Having your finances in order brings you a sense of peace and security because you know there’s always a backup plan. On the other hand, when your finances…