Nerd Girls have self-confidence. We know what we want. We dare to go against the normal social strictures, but we also tend to be social creatures. Even though we love to spend time with others, I realized lately that there is really something to be said about dining out alone. I’m not talking about Chipotle, but getting a table at the kind of place where they put your napkin on your lap for you, or at least have interesting décor or big windows with an awesome view (if you ever find yourself in Southampton, hop the Hythe Ferry and check out The Seagull—I spent hours there).
Let’s talk about hobbies. The things we do for enjoyment often require a lot of discipline and are an important part of the well-rounded Nerd Girl.
Take dance, for example. This article “What Scientists Can Learn From Ballet,” by scientist-ballerina Sylvie Leotin, describes the similarity in aspiration, dedication , and process that exists between those two disciplines. She points out how the beautiful “physicality and geometry of dance… have parallels in the physical interactions that occur in every science, from astronomy and physics, to chemistry and biology.”
This is a time in which universities are embracing interdisciplinary studies because they have recognized that having multiple passions gives people unique approaches to their work. In my film school interview the question they asked most eagerly was about how being a dancer influenced my style. When you watch dance, you see movement. When you dance, you experience depth, air, and energy, things that people might otherwise take for granted. I have learned to attribute my passion for 3D technology to my dancer’s appreciation for depth.
How often we find ourselves not realizing how sleepy we really are… what if there was a test that could identify sleepiness before we noticed it ourselves?
Gentlemen & boys, we welcome you too. Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and if your sweetie is a Nerd Girl, we know she deserves a gift that stands out. You are probably discovering right about now that all the really cool things like the picture frames made of recycled motherboards are kind of hard to find in stores, and it’s too late to order online. But fear not, there is one place where you are sure to find something she’ll love.
This is a fabulous time to be a Nerd Girl. Proof: Do you see that dazzling picture of Nerd Girls founder Dr. Karen Panetta with President Obama in the Oval Office?
Dr. Karen was among nine individuals and eight organizations honored in 2010-2011 for their contributions to the education of the scientists, mathematicians, and engineers of the future. Additionally, honorees receive awards of $25,000 from the National Science Foundation to further their mentoring efforts.
In addition to her academic mentoring efforts, Dr. Karen hopes to advance Nerd Girl culture through the media with Nerd Girls Inc. Check out this awesome interview she did for BBC World Today to get the inside scoop:
I had the opportunity to ask Dr. Karen some questions about the Presidential Award, with the hope that my questions might inspire new ones from the rest of you (take advantage of that “ASK DR. KAREN” button in the Nav bar!). Hit the jump to read more!
After an explosion of outrage from parents, JC Penny removed this T-Shirt, emblazoned with “I’m too pretty to do my HOMEWORK so my brother has to do it for me,” and sized for girls ages 7-16, from its website this week. Thankfully, the item was not stocked in stores for girls to pick out as a complement to their new backpack and pencil case. JC Penny pulled it quickly and issued an apology.
It’s a no-brainer that when we get a new cell phone or computer we want to do our environmental-best by recycling the old one. But an NPR radio piece from the gadget-and-gizmo-purchasing 2010 holiday season might raise the concern of any environmentally conscious techie who thought she had done her due diligence by putting her old motherboard in a blue bin.
In this Fresh Air segment called After Dump, What Happens to Electronic Waste?, NPR spoke with Jim Puckett, executive director of the Basel Action Network, a charitable organization dedicated to keeping toxic waste out of the environment.
According to Puckett, “The dirty little secret is that when you take [your electronic waste] to a recycler, instead of throwing it in a trashcan, about 80 percent of that material very quickly finds itself on a container ship going to a country like China, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Pakistan—where very dirty things happen to it.”
What kind of dirty things is Puckett referring to? Well, in these countries, with their lax (if any) environmental laws, the process of stripping and burning our old has-beens has become a way of life for the poor, sometimes with deadly consequences. Bryan Walsh authored a 2009 Time article titled e-Waste Not where he spoke of “Guiyu, China, a recycling hub where peasants heat circuit boards over coal fires to recover lead, while others use acid to burn off bits of gold.” Guiyu, he goes on to say, has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world.
You know that scene in The Matrix when Trinity says, “Tank, I need a pilot program for a B-212 helicopter. Hurry!” And then Tank downloads a program into her brain and suddenly, voila, she can fly the thing? Crazy with a capital C or maybe not so Crazy? Yup. We’re talking brain implants today.
In June, 2011, The Journal of Neural Engineering published an article that NPR’s Tom Ashbrook calls “the first clear demonstration of a brain implant improving cognition.” Ashbrook hosted a forty-five minute On Point discussing the groundbreaking findings with science reporter Benedict Carey, lead author in the study Theodore Berger, and neuroscientist David Eagleman.
