Sophia Brahe (1556-1643)
Art by Carolyn Bernhard (website, tumblr)
Tycho Brahe was one of the most important astronomers of the sixteenth century. The last major astronomer to work without the aid of a telescope, Tycho built his own instruments to track the movements of celestial bodies. His work paved the way for Johannes Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.
Tycho’s younger sister Sophia assisted him in his scientific observations. Their family was part of Denmark’s high nobility and although the Brahe children were well educated, their parents did not consider science an appropriate field for people of rank. Nevertheless, Sophia taught herself astronomy and as a teenager helped her brother observe a lunar eclipse. Throughout their lives, Tycho and Sophia maintained a close correspondence.
Sophia also studied alchemy, horticulture, and chemistry, but her most lasting individual work is her genealogy of Danish noble families. Published in 1626, it remains an important source for Danish historians today.
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The questions I am often asked about my career tend to concentrate not on how one learns to code but how a woman does.
Let me separate the two words and begin with what it means to become a programmer.
The first requirement for programming is a passion for the work, a deep need to probe the mysterious space between human thoughts and what a machine can understand; between human desires and how machines might satisfy them.
The second requirement is a high tolerance for failure. Programming is the art of algorithm design and the craft of debugging errant code.
[…]
Now to the “woman” question.
I broke into the ranks of computing in the early 1980s, when women were just starting to poke their shoulder pads through crowds of men. There was no legal protection against “hostile environments for women.” I endured a client — a sweaty man with pendulous earlobes — who stroked my back as I worked to fix his system. At any moment I expected him to snap my bra. I considered installing a small software bomb but understood, right then, what was more important to me than revenge: the desire to create good systems.
I had a boss who said flatly, “I hate to hire all you girls but you’re too damned smart.” By “all” he meant three but, at the time, it was rare to find even one woman in a well-placed technical position. At a meeting, he kept interrupting me to say, “Gee, you sure have pretty hair.” By then I realized he was teaching me a great deal about computing. It would be a complicated professional relationship, in which his occasional need for male dominance would surface.
So, on that day of my pretty hair, I leaned to one side and said, “I’m just going to let that nonsense fly over my shoulder.” The meeting went on. We discussed the principles of relational databases, which later led me to explore deeper reaches of programming, closer to operating systems and networks, where I would find my real passion for the work. My leaning to one side, not confronting him, letting him be the flawed man he was, changed the direction of my technical life.
Pioneering software engineer Ellen Ullman, author of the fascinating Close to the Machine, on how to be a ‘woman programmer.’ Also see the letters of the women who helmed the tectonic cultural shift of the era Ullman describes.
Pair with Margaret Atwood on literature’s ‘woman problem’ and Caitlin Moran on how to be a woman.
(via explore-blog)
Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter Offers College Scholarship for Underserved Students
The Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation is unique in that it offers scholarships to single mothers, children who attend alternative schools, students who have earned a GED, students with grade point averages of 2.0 and students who have previously been incarcerated, etc., but desire a higher educational opportunity.
Just as a heads up, the deadline is May 31st!
Teen’s invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds
(Photo: Intel)
Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student’s invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds.
Everybody, remember this face.
Remember this name.
If this becomes a commonly used & highly lauded discovery, at some point a White guy is going to take credit, even if he has to word it like “Improved upon a previous…”
No no no
Fuck that guy.
Remember this brown girl.
Remeeeemmmmmberrrrr
^Absolutely important that we recognize her achievements, and give credit where credit is due. Also worth noting that not all young people interested in science have the same resources accessible for them. Nonetheless, awesome work by a young woman of color!
You'll need to remove the spaces, but this popped up on my dash & it seem right up your ally - fandomacepilot. tumblr. com/post/50925219121/continueplease-nbcnews-teens-invention - prussanic-miscellanea
Yes, thank you! I’ve been looking into the story more to make a post, but I didn’t realize I never reblogged this post.
11/14/12
“An English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; thanks to this, she is sometimes considered the world’s first computer programmer.”
The question is how we react to this great prejudice against women. The rule of law and social activism certainly are crucial. But no matter how strong the social structure, there is always that cheek-slapped moment when you are alone with the anti-woman prejudice: the joke, the leer, the disregard, the invisibility, the inescapable fact that the moment you walk through the door you are seen as lesser, no matter what your credentials…the prejudice will follow you. What will save you is tacking into the love of the work, into the desire that brought you there in the first place. This creates a suspension of time, opens a spacious room of your own in which you can walk around and consider your response. Staring prejudice in the face imposes a cruel discipline: to structure your anger, to achieve a certain dignity, an angry dignity.
— Ellen Ullman, How to be a ‘Woman Programmer’ (via girlinalabcoat)
Do you know a mad scientist in training? A tiny Einstein? A miniature Mendel? A chibi Marie Curie?
Kids in grades K-8 can win $10,000 towards lab equipment for their school by entering our Science Challenge. Deadline extended to May 26th! Find the details on Stuff to Blow Your Mind.
Former NASA Engineer Awards Kiera Wilmot Scholarship to Space Academy
As a show of support, former NASA engineer Homer Hickam awarded Kiera a scholarship to attend the United States Advanced Space Academy (ASA), a branch of the famous Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama!YESSSSSSSSS!
