Credentials, respect, and STEM fields diversity: How I relate to DNLee

I just read about what happened to DNLee, a blogger for Scientific American. Have you not heard what happened to her?  Well you can read about it here on her blog.  There's also a decent rundown of the incident on Buzzfeed.  The short of it is that a gentleman for a not so well known science blog asked DNLee to write pro-bono for his website.  She politely declined and the response attacked her profession, background and gender all in one horrible sentence: Are you an urban scientist or an urban whore?

Quick list of how ridiculous this response is:

1) It's super personal for someone who never met this person
2) It's racist and sexist in one fell swoop
3) It's certainly not professional
4) It ruins any chance of potentially changing a potential blogger's mind in the future

DNLee actually did a pretty good response about not only why she declined the proposal sent to her and how she felt about the response to her:


I am sure there are plenty of people who can relate to the feelings expressed in the video. The idea that one should feel "lucky" to share their expertise they've worked hard for and should just share their talents for free.  It can happen because you're a minority, or a woman, or even because you're education is considered "below par" for your field despite many proven accomplishments.  Or sometimes you just deal with someone who's being a complete jerk.

DNLee makes some good points.  Don't settle because someone decides you should.  Figure out what your baselines are for your work.  Stick to them.

But she shares a struggle that happens all the time for people in many science fields, and again in minority groups.  Although we may like to believe there is, in America there is not a lot of varied representation of people in STEM careers.  Most of them are white, most of them are men, and there is a lot of overlap with those two groups.  On top of that there is a lot of the public who will freak out if it turns out that it isn't the atypical person who's actually knowledgeable, let alone interested, in anything scientific or mathematical.  Does anyone else remember when the internet exploded because it found out the person who runs the I Fucking Love Science page on Facebook is a woman?  I do mean people freaked out.  Was it the combo of her being a woman who didn't mind cursing on the internet who also really fucking loves science?  I don't know but I remember being ashamed not only that people were reacting poorly to it, but that I was surprised a woman ran the site.  What the hell was wrong with my head that I assumed that Facebook page was run by a man?

It's a societal thing, and it's a societal thing that is due to get in the way of a better future.  We need to have people invest in science, be interested in every scientific field, to help make the future fantastic.  We can't be discouraging anyone from the field.  For every DNLee who knows her worth, there are a ton more people who've been wrongfully turned away from a field because someone thought they didn't "fit the profile".

Did I ever mention to you guys that ever since junior high, when a teach in eight grade told me I never needed math again, I sabotage myself in my math skill all through college?  Those little things make a difference throughout life.  I'm not going to make excuses, and I am glad there was a a professor at college that pointed out how ridiculous that whole premise was and did his best to smack me out of it.  P.S., random shout out to Robert Rebelein, who despite his not very well updated website was possibly one of the best professors I had the pleasure of working with in my undergraduate career.  He treated me like an adult before I realized that's how I should be treated. He let me know if I wanted to be an economist, I could be despite getting a C in my first economics class.  I wish I had more people earlier in my life (outside my awesome parents) that told me I could do whatever the hell I wanted with hard work.  That I could do math--it wasn't just a guy skill or "not relevant" to the rest of my life.  You'd be surprised how those little influences change you.

Getting back to my point, if we just convince ourselves that only a small group of people are able to do science, let alone be respected in the field for it, we are doing future science a disservice.  For those of you who do have STEM talents, take it from DNLee: people are lucky to have your expertise around, not you being lucky to share it.  We need you around and you are valued.  We don't care what you look like, where you came from, or even who you love.  Just keep being awesome.  We need your STEM goodness!

One last thing: Everyone should be encouraging the next generation to take up science fields.  Not forcing, mind you.  But nudging.  It's really the only way we can secure a better, brighter future for ourselves.

Belated Birthday Wish for the future

Yesterday I celebrated turning 26 years of age.  Woot!  I did make a wish off my birthday cake that I did not share with anyone and refuse to until it comes true.  But it's not the only wish I make.

The news that warp drives may actually be possible returned a hope in me that I didn't remember since I was a child.  Space was a place that was magical and fun.  You could float!  You would discover new things!  You may even meet aliens!  Why wouldn't a child want to go?  Many of us were taught to reach the stars.  Why not reach literal stars?

As you get older you realize the reality of that dream.  Space is cold.  You need a lot of fuel.  You need food.  And you have to build an efficient shelter to sustain yourself.  Space travel is hard work!  How are you supposed to do it?  They make it look so easy on Star Trek!

Now it can be easy like Star Trek.

So I wish out loud a long term wish, which is part of the reason I feel safe saying it.  Because it's not a wish you can put a little hope out in the universe and pray to yourself it hooks on to something good.  It's a wish that's going to take a lot of dedication, a lot of work from the right people.

I wish that my grandchildren will be able to comfortably live on Mars.

African Americans that have encouraged my inner nerd

It's the last day of Black History Month, and I rarely pay enough attention to it here.  So today, I'm going to list some of the black nerds that I appreciate.

Nichelle Nichols--Not only can black women go to space, but they can look fabulous doing it!  And as season two and three of the the original Star Trek Series went on, she got more spotlight and made sisters look intelligent with poise and respect.  This was a great thing to see when I was in junior high becoming a woman: black women can be smart and pretty at the same time.

Dr. Mae Jemison--She may not have had as huge an impact as some of the others listed, but as a kid having a black woman succeed in the field of space means that I can do anything.  And believe me, there were a lot of people down the road telling me I couldn't, whether they knew it or not.

LeVar Burton--Obviously, he played an engineer on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  But he also was the host of Reading Rainbow!  So not only can I be good at math, I can be well read too!

Octavia E. Butler--another person who I had limited exposure to, but reading Parable of the Sower is inspiring in the tapestry that she weaves with character development and how to write a future world.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson--He is this generation's Carl Sagan, which is something we desperately need at this time.  He will lead us to the future of Galaxy-rises.  Also, the only person who I would like to officiate my wedding.  It's never going to happen but a girl can dream.

Finally of course, I have to make a nod to my grandfather and my mother.  They saw in Sci-fi a world where we can all be equal, or worlds that showed why not making that choice is disastrous.  They saw in it the future they wanted their children to have, and in that encouraged their families to do anything and everything they wanted to do.  Specifically thanks to my mom.  I don't think I would still be pursuing my writing dreams without her encouragement.

Happy Carl Sagan Day!

For those of you who don't know who Carl Sagan is, find out now.  He is a scientist who wanted the world to know how beautiful the intricacies of the universe are, and was willing to share the information.  He was brilliant, prolific in writing and in television production, and one of two men that Asimov admitted surpassed his own knowledge.  Essentially, a scientist and an intellectual badass.

To have a small celebration to a day that has almost ended, I think a remix complete with autotune and philosophical ideas should do the trick.

The Sims 3 Is My Skinner Box.

I have finally figured out exactly why I keep on playing the sims to almost legitimately addictive level--It's a self made Operant Conditioning Chamber.

Doesn't that sound like an apparatus from an villain in a sci-fi film or something like that?

You might be asking yourself "what the hell is that?"  Well, an Operant Conditioning Chamber, or Skinner Box, is a structure where a subject being studied, usually a lab animal, is given some sort of lever system for either a reward or punishment.  Common applications include a lever for food, or a lever to prevent electric shock.  The nature of some motivational tools was discovered while using these structures in tests.

One thing that was noticed was that if pulling the lever always gave food, the subject (let's just call it a mouse) wouldn't worry about food.  The mouse would just pull the lever whenever it was hungry, knowing that the food would be there.  However, if the lever would only sometimes provide food, and sometimes nothing would happen, the mouse would press the lever all the time.  Therefore, it was discovered that if a reward was random, the mouse would repeat the action again and again to make sure it would receive it's reward.

Now, we all know food is a more important reward that many other things, but the Sims 3 is doing that to me.  Its making me press the lever again and again!

"But d20 Sapphire," you might respond, "the Sims 3 has no goal!  You can't be getting any reward from that game."

Au contraire, my dear devil's advocate, that's what makes this worse.  You see, although the Sims 3 may not have concrete goals for gameplay, it allows the player to decide what goals he or she wishes to obtain.  And they make sure there are plenty of goals.  Other than just the usual happy family model to make, or doing scandalous stories like I do (because an affair from time to time makes things pretty interesting), there are tons of things to do like wishes, lifetime wishes, collectables, careers, skills, points to spend on rewards... and as the expansion packs continue the list goes on.  Essentially I am the mouse, and I am deciding what reward will come out of that lever, even if I have to pull it hundreds of times to get the desired result.

It's almost like I'm convincing myself I'm customizing my experience because I can choose my goals, but to be honest reaching each goal puts me back in that Skinner Box.  Different bait, same trap.

I'll be nice to the sims though, it's not as bad some other games.  Cracked.com had a list of how games will get you addicted using some of the Operant Conditioning Chamber discoveries.  A good amount of games will do this, partly because it's more effective and consistent way of profits than say, oh I don't know writing a good story and creating an engaging world?  Yeah, it's cheaper to do it the brain washing way.

Think about it the next time you play your game.  Are you comfortable as a player with a designer thinking of you like this:

And are you really getting enjoyment from your game if you're playing it like a mouse in that chamber?

No shame if you do, but it's a legitimate question to ask yourself.  Because if you like these types of games, the market is going to put out more of them.  Do we want to encourage game developers to think of us as mice in a Skinner Box?

Dinosaurs died off by lizard flu instead?

This article on the Times website is somewhat interesting. Basic gist: The asteroid may not have killed the dinosaurs.

I'm still sticking to the asteroid theory until there's a better explanation of why things are different at the impact site then they are at every other part of the world. But you got to love science's prevailing need to know the absolute truth!