compiled by Noah
1. Why are there still so few women in science? (NYT Magazine, October 2013)
Women still unfortunately face many challenges in establishing a successful career in science. This article serves a timely reminder of these issues and also highlights a number of approaches which are being taken to increase the numbers of women in science and perhaps just as importantly to retain those who have had early career success.
2. End harassment (Nature, October 2013)
A powerful Nature editorial highlighting the sexual harassment often faced by women scientists and the measures that should be taken to crack down on this. Written in response to a recent scandal at Scientific American blogs which resulted in some brave, honest and open blog posts on the subject, see:
(a) Jezebel
(b) medium.com
(c) medium.com(2)
(d) monicacatherine
3. A shot against Malaria (New Yorker, October 2013)
An overview of Phase III trial results of GlaxoSmithKline’s RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine candidate. This vaccine has been in development for almost thirty years and although it is much less efficacious than standard childhood vaccines, it may have the potential to moderately reduce the overall burden of disease caused by malaria in parts of Africa and South East Asia.
4. What’s the point of finding cancer mutations (Slate, October 2013)
The author elegantly describes our increasing understanding of the genetic basis of cancer due in large part to the introduction of new sequencing technologies, but also highlights the lack of drugs which are currently available to exploit this new knowledge.
5. The last laughing death (The Global Mail, November 2012)
A brilliant account of Kuru, the devastating and fatal prion disease which was first reported in Papua New Guinea in 1957. Research into this disease has resulted in the recognition of a new form of infectious disease, a Nobel Prize and was invaluable in enabling rapid research into the cause of CJD in the UK in the 1990s.
One Comment
julianeh posted on October 24, 2013 at 1:28 pm
interesting articles about the harassment cases. It is important that scientists talk about it, not just women, but all scientists.