Love Notes

Hello World!

I recently saw two things recently that made me reflect on love. One was a cartoon and another was one of my favorite sites. This cartoon is making reference to the capability and need for self love (in an ironic way)

                  (From yahoo comics)

The other, an organization for empowerment, http://www.iamthatgirl.com   features many articles about finding your worth and not relying on others for approval (but not being narcissistic either). The one that caught my eye though was a love letter to herself that the founder of this organization writes each birthday. I pondered what I might write to myself and found it a little awkward, but also helpful. How easy is it to fault ourselves? How easy is it to want to be more? In writing a love letter, we look at strengths, things we appreciate, things we connect with, hopes as well as reality- turning that view toward me reminded me to keep smiling on those days that it is challenging and to better accept myself. I believe self acceptance can be cultural, with varying degrees but learning from others and applying something new is pretty powerful. You may wonder, but why write it down? There are quite a few studies that show writing things down can make them more concrete, easier to remember, easier to grasp, and more. See this article for more on that http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/10/the-power-of-writing-thin_n_165675.html

And For a great article on the science (improving) your scientific writing, check out   https://www.americanscientist.org/issues/issue.aspx?id=877&y=0&no=&content=true&page=4&css=print

Here is too affirming we have the "write stuff"!

:)

Lemurs Love Math

Hello World!

Did you know that lemurs love math? It is true! They are pretty good at crunching numbers and heaps of fun to be around. (http://research.duke.edu/blog/2010/11/animal-intelligence for more on that or this link for a nice lemur math worksheet http://www.safarisamblog.com/lemur-math-challenge/) 

I had the fun of hanging out with them at a wildlife conservation ranch where I learned (from our female guide) that camels don't store water in their humps, that zebras stripes keep flies away, and other fun facts.

 If you want to obtain cool educational materials or learn how to observe lemur behavior in the wild check out

http://www.lemurreserve.org/fieldtrainingprograms.html

You don't have to go to their native home of Madagascar, you can go to Florida and actually camp out under the stars to lemur watch! Maybe you will be the next Jane Goodall (http://www.janegoodall.org for more on her, or this nice post about a young women who studied lemurs and found a female dominant social structure. She currently is looking at monkey math http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2009/01/math.aspx

There are so many fun ways to study STEM! No more monkeying around, I will leave you with some lemurs to look at :)

:)

On the feminine and the feminist

Hello World!

I hope you had a lovely Valentines. Mine was great! I have several posts worth of material that I am excited to share from my weekend. I will start with the feminine and the feminist. First, a litte background information. Diversity includes cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is the tangible and intangible elements of history, family, and culture- it can include a place or a building, such as the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul or a practice, such as having tea. A huge part of my cultural heritage is the practice of gift giving and celebrating holidays. Saint Valentines is my favorite and when anyone celebrates in the way that I do I feel especially grateful. (Likewise, when I celebrate in the fashion of others cultural heritage as they identify it, they are grateful!). Now that you know that history- on to the story! 

This Valentines I was given two gifts by the same person, a fantastic and encouraging book on girl power (the feminist) 

And this super cute (to me) dress (the feminine).

These two gifts at the same time and by the same person made me reflect with gratitude. I realized how meaningful it is to be supported in all my interests. It seems like we are told to choose one or another aspects of ourselves, as if one cannot coexist with the other. I believe that limits the fun and benefit to our diversity though, and it really isn't true. I would like to advocate for women while wearing what I find cute, and there is no reason I shouldn't! (Unless the attire is specific to a task and needed for safety or such, of course). These gifts made me grateful that I am not put in a box with associated stereotypes, but encouraged to just be. That to me, is true love. I hope you find someone special, be they friends, family, or mates who encourage you to be everything you want to be. As for me, I am proud to be a feminist wearing this frock!

:) 

STEM of Love

Hello World!

Happy Saint Valentines! Today is a day of love for many people. For me it is about all types of love, family and friends as well as romantic. Did you know that love is a field of study? One of my favorite books from school was a book titled "Psychologists who defied the crowd and won" (http://www.apa.org/pubs/books/431681A.aspx) and in this book was a chapter about Ellen Bersheid, one of the first love researchers. She was actually set to retire when a person took great offense to her studies and gave her the Golden Fleece award (which is a mock award for "useless" science). At the same time, the general public appreciated her research so much they begged her for more data and appreciated her insights. This launched her into a series of studies that showed her research was nothing to make a mockery of and highly useful. I admire that she persisted despite such a frustrating start. Love as a science is well established now and you can enjoy reading about it here 

http://www.economist.com/node/2424049 

or here 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/hottopics/love/

Or at this lab's page, where they discuss physiology and family relationships https://www.gottman.com/research/the-love-lab/

Science shows that activities with adrenaline (sports or scary movies) or bonding (feel good movies) will increase your love potential (just don't whack the person with your elbow if you elect sports, as I once did!) whatever you do,

I hope you have a lovely day today, filled with oxytocin and other love elements :) 

Love

Hello World!

In honor of Saint Valentine's (my favorite holiday) I will blog this week about love. There are so many topics to choose from, I shall begin with a few things that I love about STEM and diversity

I love STEM because it is fun! Exploring, creating, solving problems and using a set of tools to have a positive impact on policy, people, systems and more.Then there is there is the cool people you meet and friends you make, the places you get to go for conducting or sharing research and the fact that you are Never done learning. I love diversity because it adds richness to life and always brings better solutions to any problem I may try to solve. It is a joy to connect on similarities and celebrate differences. These are just a few things in STEM and diversity that I appreciate and value every day. What do you love? 

:)

Beauty and the Brain

Hello World!

The other day I saw this post about TV show actress Mayim Bialik, she, both a neuroscientist and actress, is noting the media's perpetuation that beauty and brains are somehow incapable of coexistence. I agree that such a notion is ridiculous. It is So important to be mindful of the messages we are given and the biases we have or recieve. For example, while researching a different post on women physicists I found a news article that featured a brilliant woman, but she was depicted in such a disrespectful way- from her picture to her quotes- it was appalling. I continued searching and found many more instances of her (in pictures and interviews) as what I believe to be closer to the truth- a remarkable woman in many ways. I believe not only are there tons of smart And beautiful people out there but I also believe intelligence is a beautiful feature in itself. There are many ways to be beautiful, from a smile to a kind heart, to the diverse array of physical features one could have- we miss out when we reduce ourselves to only one identifier (such as smart or beautiful, athletic or intelligent), I say let's recognize ourselves for everything we are or want to be. (Globe trotting fashionable humanitarian scientist extraordinaire? Why not?!). And let us see the plurality in others...we never know what commonalities or new things we will discover, in ourselves and others! 

:)

Nonprofit STEM

Hello World, 

I had the joy of supporting one of my friends as she launched her nonprofit the other night.

Here nonprofit is all about mentoring and providing skills (emotionally & mentally) to kids in need. I believe it is so important to give Everyone access to life skills. I know I would not be where I am today without mentors! To me it like a ripple effect, one small drop can influence an entire body of water, likewise enhancing one kid's skills can impact everyone in their community. I was also struck by the STEM that she used in her launch speech. Statistics, facts, projections, trends, and more! We cannot avoid STEM no matter what we do, we must be literate in it. As a tool or a lifestyle, STEM drives decisions and behaviors, and it is fun! If you are interested in helping out or enrolling your kids, please check out www.iamproof.net

A little support can go a long way, in all areas of life, but especially STEM and diversity.

:)