6/23/2012

Women and science

I haven't had much time to update the blog lately and this is because I've been working hard and I've been waking up at 5.30 am every day during weekdays. I just couldn't find the energy to write a post even if I had things to read. But that's science and I knew this would eventually happen. Then this video appeared:


It was made by the European Commission with the intention to make Science desirable for women, they had to take it down the same day they uploaded it, because of the negative votes they were getting.  Personally, I find it offensive and misleading. First, it gives the impression that the only reason women would do science is because of make-up and shinny things in fancy colors, I've never asked fellow scientists for their reasons to do science, but personally I never choose my career because I could make make-up, I decided to do science because it was something that would give me a sense of fulfillment. Secondly, I don't know how many scientists at work have they ever seen, but you CANNOT work on those high heels, most of the day you're standing up, so what you're going to see the most is flat shoes, similarly I've never dressed so fancy to go to the lab, main reason is that in the lab it's cold (around 20 degrees) so if you dress too summery you end up freezing, also because you need to be comfortable and not having to worry about if you stain your clothes or how does the shirt looks and anyway you should wear a labcoat in the lab!

Of course that we need more women in science, but not for the wrong reasons, and anyway I think that the main problem is the lack of women leading research groups, there are lots of female PhD students, I don't know the ratio, but fewer group leaders. If you are a woman and you want to do science you must know a few things: you'll have to work hard, you'll have an important lack of sleep, you'll be stressed out, people won't understand your work most of the times, but it will pay-off because you'll be doing what you want to do and you'll do some discoveries that can be important worldwide or on your field, but you'll have done something good. 


6/13/2012

On this week

I haven't posted anything in a long while, I was way too busy and tired to think of anything, I'm still busy and tired but I thought that I should write something anyway. So this post is just to tell you about a couple of things that I'm doing this week.

First on, tomorrow I'm taking the CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English) and I no longer know if I'm prepared or not. Sometimes I feel as if I was loosing all my English, even if I'm using it every day. I don't know if I should be stressed out or whatever, but the truth is that going to English class is really expensive and I'm not learning anything else by going to the lessons, the only way for me to keep improving is going abroad. Well, I hope it goes well and I get a nice mark.

Secondly, this weekend in Barcelona there's the "Festa de la Ciència i Tecnologia" which is a huge "exhibition" of the science that is currently being produced in the city. I'll be there talking about memory and doing some experiments, so if anyone is around and wants to pass by he/she'll be welcome.

And pretty much that's it. I have to say that I'm pretty excited about this weekend since it will be the first time I talk science with the general public and I still don't know how well will I fare.