The ESA and the Shirt

Last week we landed on a comet, which was a fantastic. But we also saw a glimpse into the ESA that was not very positive. When a scientist appeared on camera for the ESA wearing a shirt covered in scantily clad women in some interesting poses, that sent a message. An unintentional message, but a message all the same. To me, it said that the ESA does not put professionalism front and centre. It said that it is appropriate for men to wear something like that to work in a field with real problems with female uptake and retention. In the grand scheme of things, wearing a shirt is a small thing, but it throws a light on some of the still present problems in science.

The scientist in question has apologised, which I welcome. To be honest I wouldn't have had a problem if the scientist had worn the shirt on his own time. But here's the real kicker, He has apologised, but not the ESA. Where is their apology? My main problem with the whole episode is with the ESA's lack of action. How did the higher ups let someone go on live broadcast wearing that shirt? Why would they think that such clothing was appropriate for a prestigious and important event? Why did no one ask him to change? Why are they not taking some responsibility for the incident? That's the thing that worries me. Not that one person did something which was misguided and a bit silly. It's the fact that the ESA stood back and let it happen, I'm sure they didn't think, but that's a problem in itself. What else are they not thinking about?

Another aspect to this story is how Boris Johnson has waded in. He had a piece published in the Telegraph yesterday where he laments that people have picked up on the shirt and the issues it hints at. In some way's Boris' article is laughable, He calls people who mentioned that the choice was less than stellar abusers. I'm sorry Boris but if you want to see abuse, maybe have a look at what women in the video game industry have been bombarded with. Did the scientist get rape and death threats? No. Did he have to leave his house? No, but women speaking out about the video game industry did. Why aren't you speaking up for them? In this case people pointed out that the shirt wasn't the best choice and I have yet to see any of these bullying tweets, but surely if there were any they would be all over the newspapers wouldn't they? So Boris well done for telling us we should apologise, and well done for ignoring the real issue. Maybe you should have read Alice Bell's wonderful article before you started writing.

Link Round-Up 10th November 2014

Welcome back to the link round-up! Here are a few things on the net that have caught my eye.

1. It's hopefully not crunch time for the Rosetta probe.
   
   It's nearly time for the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta probe to send the Philae robot down onto the surface of the comet Rosetta has been orbiting for a while now. Starting tomorrow the ESA will be webcasting the landing process, which is scheduled to be completed on the 13th. Fingers crossed Philae will make it safely onto the comet! If you would like to find out when interesting things are happening keep an eye on @ESA_Rosetta on twitter.
2. The Your Life campaign launches.
   
   Today the BBC covered the launch of the Your Life campaign, which aims to increase the number of students taking maths and physics at A-Level by 50% over the next 3 years. Although the government backed campaign is looking to raise numbers across the board, they are particularly keen to boost the number of girls doing A-level maths and physics. At the moment all that the website seems to do is to give some interesting stories about where science and engineering might take you, but it suggests it's going to do more in the months ahead, so fingers crossed it'll engage and encourage people to do more science.
3. Watching the birth of a new solar system.
   
   Whilst testing out a new high resolution mode for the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, astronomers have managed to capture a disc of planet formation around a young star in beautiful detail. What's particularly interested the scientists is that the star at the centre of this new planetary system would normally be thought of as too young for planets to form around it. Therefore, this one image could lead to a re-think on how planets form! Now, if that's not a great test run I don't know what is.

And finally, as season 8 of Doctor Who came to a pretty good conclusion this weekend here's a Fan Made 50th Anniversary Trailer from last year I'll be watching until Christmas.

Currently Listening to The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan, I've become an audio book junkie and its a really efficient way to listen to the ultimate fantasy epic that is the Wheel of Time.
Currently Watching nothing! I've finished my current series and I need to pick something new or an old favourite to re-watch.

Big Bang Fact

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, things have been a bit busy recently! I'll try to get back on track next week.

The Big Bang Theory is one of the biggest television shows on in the USA right now and it's pretty popular here in the UK too. So, I thought I'd have a look at the way Big Bang Theory presents science and how that matches up to what it's really like. This is all pretty much based on the episodes I've seen  (a lot, but only the random selection E4 keep airing) so there may be times when things are presented differently, but this is how I think the show represents academia overall and how that differs from real research from a UK perspective.

Big Bang Theory: You don't have to interact with undergraduate or graduate students if you don't want to.

Research Reality: Erm... no. Sorry to burst the bubble, but it is pretty much impossible to isolate yourself from students of any kind. If Sheldon were a real university scientist at the same stage in his career he would most certainly be supervising a couple of post-graduate researchers. I know that this season with Sheldon's associate professorship he has to take a class, but if you want to get a permanent position, teaching experience is essential and you actually begin teaching as a PhD student.

Big Bang Theory: Research funding magically appears!

Big Bang Fact: Research funding is hard to get! You need to apply for grants and awards which, in the UK at least, is a pretty exhausting thing. If you're doing some 'sexy' science you might be able to get some kind of deal going for a campaign in the alumni magazine/newsletter but most of the time you have to fight to keep money coming in.

Big Bang Theory: You have lots of time for pet projects.

Big Bang Fact: If you can get all the work that your funding is mandated for done and find yourself with some time on your hands and a pot of money with no designated project attached you might get to have a pet project. However, its much more likely you'll get the undergraduate project students to work on it as its the only way you can get time and money to do it.

Big Bang Theory: Our whole universe was in a hot dense state then nearly 14 million years ago expansion started! Wait.. Earth began to cool....
Big Bang Fact: Yep. Pretty much!