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INTERNATIONAL>Science
International | Science

This science fair winner is taking on global drought using oranges and avocados.

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Science whiz Kiara Nirghin, a grade 11 student at St. Martin's School in Johannesburg, came up with an idea that could make a big difference in drought-stricken regions. "Currently, South Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts in its history," said Nirghin. "I started looking at it, and not only is it affecting my community, it's a worldwide problem. From there, I started looking at, 'OK. What could I do to lessen the impact that the drought had on South Africa's food supply?' — which is one of the main things that it is affecting." Using orange peels and avocado skins, Nirgh
International | Science

China’s bird flu warrior gets global award

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Chinese women scientists have started to make their mark on the world stage moreconsistently. For the second year in a row, a scientist from the Chinese mainland has won the L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science International Award this year. Chen Hualan, the head of Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, an affiliate of the ChineseAcademy of Agricultural Sciences, received the award in Paris on March 24. Created in 1998, the awards program－jointly funded by the French cosmetics maker and theUnited Nations' agency－identifies and supports female scientists globally. Chen, 47, is th
International | Science

Three Revolutionary Women of Mathematics

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We have notable women to thank for modern computation, revelations on the geometry of space, cornerstones of abstract algebra, and major advances in decision theory, number theory, and celestial mechanics that continue to provide crucial breakthroughs in applied areas like cryptography, computer science, and physics. The works of geniuses like Julia Robinson on Hilbert’s Tenth Problem in number theory, Emmy Noether in abstract algebra and physics, and Ada Lovelace in computer science, are just three examples of women whose contributions have been absolutely essential.   Read t
International | Science

Breaking The Mold: Great Female Scientists Of The Victorian Era

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In an age when science and engineering exploded due to the Industrial Revolution, men and women’s roles continued to be sharply defined. Women were often left at home to oversee the domestic duties of the household, while middle-class gentlemen could go off to pursue the sciences, math, and engineering, which had become the preserve of the rich men. Yet some women managed to push these boundaries and break the mould, contributing significantly to the scientific discipline of the era in the process. Mary Anning (1799-1847) - She would become an expert on fossils and geology Ada Lo
International | Science

Two women turn plastic to food with a powerful mushroom

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There’s a lot of plastic in the world. So much that it seems overwhelming to comprehend and figure out what the world will do with the tens of billion tonnes of plastic waste produced each year. However, there are innovative solutions popping up each day, like cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch! Another such inspiring solution “stems” from a rare mushroom and it just might save the planet, by solving the plastic problem and another. Here’s how this got started. In 2012, researcher at Yale University discovered Pestalotiopsis microspora--a type of mushroom that can survive s
International | Science

Meet the Latina scientists who helped find Albert Einstein’s gravitational waves

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Two Latinas are at the top of the scientific team behind this week's huge announcement involving the gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago. Not since the theory of relativity has such a monumental breakthrough been made in the world of astrophysics — a $1.1 billion set of instruments finally detected the extraordinarily faint ripples in the fabric of space and time, waves caused by cataclysmic events such as star collisions. Einstein predicted them in 1916 as part of his general theory of relativity. On the lead researchers in the find are Argentina-born Dr
International | Science

Women who changed science in 2015

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2015 has been full of scientific and technological innovation. From self-teaching robots to gene editing technology, here are the women who made it happen. Stefanie Tellex  - One of the most compelling stories of the year was Baxter, a robot. Once Baxter has learned something, it can 'teach' other robots. Baxter was designed by Stefanie Tellex, assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Brown University. Melissa Little - Head of the Kidney Research Laboratory in Melbourne, Melissa was responsible this year for the growth of mini-kidneys from stem cells. Jennifer Doudna -�
International | Science

Jane Goodall Wants To Save Us (And Her Beloved Chimps) From Ourselves

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Jane Goodall has learned a lot about chimpanzees in her 55 years of studying them. She has learned a lot from them, too. And she's putting those lessons into practice. That's what she explains after giving a lecture at the U.S. State Department. "One thing I've learned from the chimpanzees is the importance of early experience," says Goodall, who at 81 is soft-spoken and casual in khakis and a ponytail. She's just finished an hour-long talk at an event hosted by the Office of Global Health Diplomacy, and took a few minutes to chat with Goats and Soda. And what's the chimp lesson?
International | Science

7 of the biggest achievements of women in science

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Women and science haven’t always had the easiest relationship. Even today as people, including the Chancellor, take to Twitter to celebrate female achievement in science through Ada Lovelace day, women only make up 14.4 per cent of people in STEM careers according to the latest statistics from the Women in Science and Engineering campaign. But still, for centuries there have been women who were determined and did prove all the doubters wrong. Here are some of the biggest achievements in science done by women. 1) Discovered two elements and died from the cause – Marie Curie 2
International | History

Meet the Woman Who Discovered the Composition of the Stars

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In 1925, Cecilia Payne put forth her Ph.D thesis addressing one of the most fundamental topics in all of astrophysics: the composition of the stars. The 25-year-old had entered her field somewhat by chance. After feeling uncertain about which science track to pursue at Cambridge, Payne happened to attend a lecture at which Arthur Eddington relayed the findings of a recent expedition. He announced that his observations of a solar eclipse proved Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which had been published years earlier without physical evidence. After this brush with the thrill of astrop
International | Activism

Women Challenge Gender Stereotypes With #ILookLikeAnEngineer

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After an engineer from California posted a photo of herself with the hashtag, women descended on social media to contribute their photos and badass skills. On Aug. 1, Isis Anchalee published a short essay in Medium in which she shared her experiences as a female engineer. Anchalee, who works in the San Francisco Bay Area, spoke of the mistreatment she has received both in the workplace — a colleague once threw dollar bills at her during work hours — and as a result of an engineering recruitment ad that features her photo, shown above. Near the bottom of her essay, Anchalee (her middle n
International | History

When Woman Is Boss: Nikola Tesla on Gender Equality and How Technology Will Unleash Women’s True Potential

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Engineer, physicist, and futurist Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856–January 7, 1943) is among the most radical rule-breakers of science and is regarded by many as the greatest inventor in human history. His groundbreaking work paved the way for wireless communication and imprinted every electrical device we use today. Without Tesla, I wouldn’t be writing these words on this keyboard and you wouldn’t be reading them on this screen. But like all true geniuses, Tesla envisioned not only the practical applications of his inventions but the profound cultural shifts that any successful technology pr
International | History

Great Women Scientists Left in the Shade

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Gender discrimination, competitiveness, the respect of hierarchies and the weight of established scientific knowledge all played against the revolutionary ideas of these pioneering women. The case of Rosalind Franklin, marginalized with regards to the discovery of the structure of DNA, is not unique. This tour through twentieth century science reveals some great discoveries made by women, whose merits were not recognized at the time: Emmy Noether (1882-1935) Cecilia Payne (1900-1979) Marthe Gautier (1925) Lise Meitner (1878-1968) Jocelyn Bell (1943) Read Their profiles at the
International | History

The female mathematician who changed the course of physics—but couldn’t get a job

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Emmy (officially Amalie Emmy) Noether, born 1882, did not stand out in any particular way as a child, although she did, on occasion, attract some notice for her astonishing quickness in providing accurate answers to puzzles or problems in logic or mathematics. Her father, Max, was a fairly prominent mathematician, and one of her brothers eventually attained a doctorate in math. In retrospect, perhaps the Noethers may be another historical example of a family with a math gene. Germany in the early years of the 20th century was not a convenient place for a woman who wanted to pursue mathem

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