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If you want to take your maths and Physics further then....

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= Why a woman's place should be in the lab =

Just 10 per cent of Royal Society members are women. But more can be done to change that, writes Jake Wallis Simons.
Solution: more female scientists Photo: ALAMY

By Jake Wallis Simons 8:00AM BST 28 Jun 2011  [|7 Comments]

In his latest book, From Here To Infinity, Martin Rees – the Astronomer Royal and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at Cambridge – argues that [|**science**] and hi-tech manufacturing must do more to attract the next generation. "It's crucial that the brightest young people should perceive the UK as a place where cutting-edge science and engineering can be done," he says. Yet something is missing: and that something is women. Lord Rees points out that only 10 per cent of members of the Royal Society, from which he recently stepped down as president, are female. "Obviously, we are handicapping ourselves on the world stage if we don't give opportunities to women," he says. This is where **For Women in Science** comes in. This award, made by L'Oreal and Unesco every year since 1998, "recognises the achievements and contributions of exceptional female scientists" by offering a £15,000 grant to further their research, money that can be spent on anything from lab equipment to childcare. The latest winner will be announced this evening; among the eight finalists are Dr Antje Weisheimer, who is researching methods to predict extreme weather more accurately, and Dr Monika Gullerova, who is studying the sort of genetic mutation that leads to cancer. Projects like this are helping to bring about change: Lord Rees says that 30 per cent of those receiving [|**University**] Research Fellowships from the Royal Society are women. In 20 years, he says, this will be reflected in the higher echelons. "But more needs to be done," he says. That sentiment is shared by Athene Donald, head of the L'Oreal-Unesco judges. "Too too many young women are discouraged – actively or passively – from pursuing their dream of a career in science," she says. "We need to confront the stereotypes." Yet some argue that the problem is not cultural, but biological – that women are just not as well suited to science as men. Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psycho-Pathology at the University of Cambridge, categorises men as "systematisers" because they are "hard-wired for understanding and building systems", whereas women, with their innate sensitivity to people and emotions, are "empathisers". As a result, he says, "some occupations are almost entirely male". There is no denying that the male and female brains have distinct structures and compositions. But different doesn't mean better. As the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker says, "Men are better at mentally rotating shapes; women are better at visual memory. Men are better at mathematical problem-solving; women are better at mathematical calculation." According to Athene Donald, this difference in approach makes women's contribution to science all the more valuable: "Women can be more collaborative, for example, bringing a team together rather than solving things in a corner on their own." The real obstacles for women in science, she says, include an inflexibility towards child-care arrangements, an overly competitive atmosphere and a lack of good role models. Rosaleen Kaye, a physics teacher, says that the education system has a lot to answer for. "I've seen how boys can elbow girls out of the way in science classes," she says. "They take more risks with experiments, and tend to dominate as a way of showing off." Once, she gave a group of boys and girls the task of building a solar-powered vehicle. The boys took over the designing, and the girls were delegated to colouring-in. "The girls were just as clever," she says, "but they were taking a back seat. We need to instil in girls the strength to stand up for themselves."

=Carnival of Space =

If you run a space/astronomy related blog, and would like to get more awareness, participate in the Carnival of Space. Every week, a different webmaster or blogger hosts the carnival, showcasing articles written on the topic of space. It’s a great way to get to know the community, and to help your writing reach a wider audience. If you’d like to be a host for the carnival, please send email to __ carnivalofspace@gmail.com __ If you have no idea what a blog carnival is, __ [|check this out] __. Here’s a sample of some of the past carnivals. Week 197 – __ [|Steve’s Astro Corner] __

Week 196 – __ [|Vintage Space] __

Week 195 – __ [|Next Big Future] __

Week 194 – __ [|Next Big Future] __

Week 193 – __ [|Robot Guy] __

Week 185 – __ [|The SpaceWriter] __ = = = = = Famous black hole confirmed after 40 years =

[|A black hole after all] Using a vast array of radio telescopes, astronomers in North America are the first to make a direct measurement of the distance to Cygnus X-1, allowing them to conclude that the mass of its dark star is so great it can only be a black hole. They have also discovered that the black hole spins faster than most of its peers. "There's no doubt about its distance now, and there's not much uncertainty anymore about its mass," says Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It's definitely a black hole." A black hole is a star that has run out of fuel and died, collapsing into a small body with such enormous gravity that nothing escapes its grip. First identified as harbouring a possible black hole in 1971, Cygnus X-1 was one of the first sources of X-rays discovered by astronomers. It is found in the constellation Cygnus the Swan, also known as the Northern Cross, and is one of the most studied objects in the sky. It even inspired a 10-minute song by the Canadian rock band Rush about how the stars of the Northern Cross were "in mourning for their sister's loss".

A neutron star instead?
However, some scientists were sceptical of its black hole and in 1974 Stephen Hawking bet Caltech's Kip Thorne that Cygnus X-1 did not have a black hole. Instead, the dark object might be a neutron star, a less extreme type of dead star. The key to the controversy involved a mundane fact: its distance from Earth. The dark star in Cygnus X-1 orbits a hot blue star every 5.6 days. But without knowing its distance from us, no-one could say how much light the blue star emits. The closer Cygnus X-1 is to us, the less powerful this star must be, therefore the less mass it must have. And the less massive this star, the less mass the dark star whose gravity tugs the bright one has. If the dark star has less than three times the Sun's mass, it could be a neutron star rather than a black hole. Recent distance estimates have favoured a higher mass – Hawking conceded defeat two decades ago – but these have been indirect. The best way to measure distance is through parallax – the small shift in a star's apparent position that results as we view it from different perspectives while Earth goes around the Sun. But Cygnus X-1 is so distant that optical astronomers can't measure its tiny parallax.

Huge array of telescopes
Fortunately, Cygnus X-1 emits radio waves, so Reid and his colleagues took aim at the object with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which consists of ten 25 m radio telescopes scattered from New England and the Virgin Islands to California and Hawaii. This huge array measures positions 100 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope. "Cygnus X-1 produced beautiful data," says Reid, "and we were able to get a very accurate distance." The parallax indicates that Cygnus X-1 is 6050 light-years from Earth, with an uncertainty of just 400 light-years. From this the astronomers deduce that the dark star is 14.8 times more massive than the Sun; the uncertainty is just one solar mass, so the object is far above the dividing line between neutron stars and black holes. The blue star it orbits is even more massive, at about 19 solar masses. "The radio estimate of the parallax is a wonderful achievement," says Douglas Gies, an astronomer at Georgia State University in Atlanta who is not affiliated with the research team. "It is an extraordinary result."

Spinning rapidly
The researchers also found that the black hole spins at 97% of its maximum possible speed. They deduce this by observing X-rays from a disc of hot gas that whirls around the black hole – gas that the black hole has torn from its unfortunate partner. The general theory of relativity says that the faster a black hole spins, the closer an object can circle it on a stable orbit. The part of the gaseous disc closest to the black hole is the hottest. For Cygnus X-1, the inner edge is so hot that it must be very close to the black hole, thus the black hole spins fast. The gas at the disc's inner edge revolves at half the speed of light, completing 670 orbits every second. The astronomers have submitted three papers to //The Astrophysical Journal//, one on the distance, one on the mass, and one on the spin. Preprints are available on //arXiv//.

= Earth sciences: unlocking the secrets of a dynamic planet = = The latest video report from our globe-trotting multimedia team offers an “up close and personal” take from the bleeding edge of the Earth sciences, as told to us by faculty and graduate students in the geosciences department at the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas). = Filmed in the spring as an add-on to our coverage of the American Physical Society March Meeting in Dallas, the interviews cover a lot of ground – to be expected for a discipline that aims to unlock the secrets of the solar system’s most active planet. Carlos Aiken and colleagues, for example, are using an approach called cybermapping (which integrates laser scanning, digital photography and satellite positioning, among other sensors) to build 3D photorealistic models of surface geology around the world. Their work is being applied in oil exploration and education (for virtual field trips). Meanwhile, fellow researcher John Ferguson is applying a technique called 4D microgravity – essentially ultraprecise gravitational measurements, a few parts per billion of the Earth’s gravitational field – to monitor the success (or otherwise) of CO2 sequestration in underground reservoirs. Another important strand of the UT Dallas geosciences programme is the use of remote sensing (specifically, space geodetic satellite observation) to understand changes in Earth systems over time. “There’s much more to it [remote sensing] than pretty pictures,” explains Alexander Braun. “You can actually measure real physical parameters – such as the [Earth’s] gravity field or magnetic field – and, more importantly, you can detect surface deformation. The Earth is a very active planet and it is crucial for us to understand when and where it is moving.” In the second video (below), senior scientists in the UT Dallas geosciences programme explain what attracted them to a career in the Earth sciences. It seems if you like to travel and have a hankering for the outdoors then Earth sciences could be just the ticket. Or, as Bob Stern puts it, “It’s really a remarkable opportunity to get out and see things that no-one else gets to see – that you would never see as a tourist.”

Posted by Kate Gardner on Aug 11, 2011 2:59 PM | [|Permalink]

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