Our picks this week

In case you encounter anyone who says that gender bias/discrimination in science is a novel occurrence, and that it's never been an issue before, show them this article by the New York Times. This article outlines the experiences of senior women scientists at revered institutions, like the Salk Institute, who describe an atmosphere of marginalization and hostility throughout their years of service. Whether is was restricted access to resources, funding, or even the size of their laboratories, these women scientists found roadblock at every turn. Dr. Nancy Hopkins recalls a time where she was measuring the dimensions of the laboratories in her building to find that hers was 500 square feet smaller than the average male junior faculty and 1,500-4,500 square feet smaller than her fellow male full professors! When requesting more space (not that it should matter, but only 200 square feet!), the faculty member in charge refused to listen to her argument or view the data she collected. If you're getting push-back on something as simple as allocating appropriate laboratory space imagine the issues faced when trying to access larger scale resources like salary, funding, and promotions.

To read on about the difficulties women face in science and how it has evolved over the last few decades, click here. The number of overall women entering STEM fields is increasing, but these numbers waver when we consider minorities. There is also an issue with retention -- so even though we have made progress, there is still much to be done.

With the first image of a black hole plastered all over the internet, and even transformed into memes, you've probably encountered the name Dr. Katie Bouman, who played a significant role in making this major achievement possible. She entered the spotlight when her candid reaction to viewing a black hole for the first time went viral. It was an exciting eureka moment, meant to highlight an achievement that she and her team had worked so hard to develop. However, like everything on the internet, the narrative got twisted. The idea of the "lone genius" was ascribed to Dr. Bouman. This label is usually given to men -- the idea of that reclusive genius, working tirelessly in the corner by themselves, removed from the world, and solely responsible for their breakthroughs. As scientists, we all know this is rarely, if ever, the case. Science is possible through teamwork -- everyone contributes to a project, a hypothesis, a result. While this reality is rarely considered when a man has been labeled as a lone genius, when the internet attributed this breakthrough to Dr. Bouman, who "single-handedly" created the algorithm for the blackhole image, suddenly everyone is a detective and started questioning how much she was truly involved. Dr. Bouman never claimed to be solely responsible for the algorithm, and even publicly stated that it was a team effort. Still, she faces backlash, claims of "fraud" and threats. All of this because of a picture featuring her excitement about her work. Read on about this story here.

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