Issue 17: Women of Science Nov '24
News, profiles, research, reviews, recommendations on all things women in science
Welcome back to another edition of WOSc - the weekly newsletter covering all things women in science 📈🧠📚𝞹 and shaking things up a bit after a week off (soz, was quite literally running a marathon and drowning in post-election headlines along with everyone else) - more links and recs for your reading pleasure…
🔬 What to expect?
All subscribers receive the free edition covering highlights in media, awards and discovery as well as things to read, see and watch re: women in science. Drops every Tuesday. Tell your friends:
Thank you for joining. Enjoy the read.
A quick run-down of this issue:
Abstract & Intro: News and updates on all things women of and in science
Materials, Methods, Discussion: Interviews and talking points of note
Conclusions & Further Reading: Our media & content recommendations for your week
Abstract & Intro
Your rundown of headlines, news, notes & media snippets re: women of science
🧪 General science
📌 The world needs science and science needs more women – fast
Five scientists from Australia and New Zealand have been honoured at the annual L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science awards, which highlight the critical contributions women make to science and the importance of gender diversity in driving change.
🥼 Life sciences
📌 Life sciences: Women VCs Target Complex Disease With Life Science Fund
Tiffany Pham and Diane Shao, cofounders and general partners at Legacy Venture Capital, talk investing in chronic disease management in this Forbes feature.
🌎 Climate science
📌 Climate science: This Arctic boomtown is led by women studying climate change
A small Arctic research station in Norway has emerged as a scientific hub, and is home to an increasingly female-led contingent of experts. Sounds dreamy - anyone want to up sticks? ❄️
🏛️ Policy
📌 Policy: Grass-roots pressure grows to boost support for breastfeeding scientists
In more news from Norway, the country’s government is offering up to 2 hours of paid time per day for breastfeeding. The question posed here - Why do other countries’ parental support policies lag so far behind?
💻 Tech
📌 Tech: If we want more women tech leaders, we must close the women’s biology gap
Sophie Creese, Co-Founder of Motherboard and HeyFlow, argues in this feature from Computing that if we want to address the gender pay gap and gender leadership gap in tech, we need to understand that the women’s biology gap is the root cause. Here here!
🤖 AI
📌 Expert Insight: How women are shaping the future of responsible AI
A global competition is underway to spotlight and celebrate the remarkable contributions that women are making in the field of AI - and with a link to nominate still open!
💊 Healthcare
📌 Trump says he’ll let RFK Jr ‘do what he wants’ with women’s healthcare if he’s elected
Sorry folks, but we probably saw this coming after last week’s election announcement… but will try and avoid bombarding you with what we imagine is already an oversaturation of how the new Republican soon-to-be incumbent will affect women everywhere.
📌 Stem cell study could bring hope to women struggling with fertility
Findings of study by Chinese scientists may help extend women's reproductive lifespan as the average age of having children rises with the help of stem cells.
📌 This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab
Virologist Beata Halassy says self-treatment worked and was a positive experience — but researchers warn that it is not something others should try (though damn, somewhat in awe of the self-testing here...)>
Materials, Methods, Discussion
This week - interviews, discussions and more:
🖊️ Interviews of note:
Women in chemistry: Q&A with Dr Aude Sadet: Dr Aude Sadet is a junior scientist who conducts research in the Biophysics and Biomedical Applications Laboratory at the Extreme Light Infrastructure, and discusses her career to date in this Nature interview.
Social media misinformation is scaring women about birth control: A frightening yet necessary op-ed read on STAT News this week.
Flo Health’s CFO on how to gain investor confidence in an untested market: Period tracking app Flo Health has become Europe’s first femtech unicorn. Its CFO, Tamara Orlova, shares the challenges still facing women’s health when it comes to getting investors onside in this feature with Raconteur.
🖊️ Pods and vids:
🥇 Women, Science and the Royal Society; Open Access Research: BBC Inside Science In this episode, the Royal Society investigates the decline in their awards to female scientists: One of the top UK scientific accolades - a Royal Society Fellowship - is held by only one in twenty, of which almost no recipients from its more recent award round are women.
🔧 The FemTech Series: How to fix inequality in healthcare: Med-Tech Innovation NewsIn this episode of The FemTech series, Olivia Friett Editor of Medical Plastics News, is joined by Jane Kennedy, Chief Business Officer at Discovery Park, and Dr. MaryAnn Ferreux, Chief Medical Officer at Health Innovation Kent to discuss the inequality in women's health and how we can overcome the obstacles that come with this.
⚛️ Ida Tin: The Rise of FemTech, Funding Bias and Future of Entrepreneurship | AI Geeks Podcast #9: AI Geeks⚛️ Danish born Ida (she of coining the term Femtech in 2016 fame) is the co-founder and former CEO and chairwoman of Clue, and joins the AI Geeks podcast for a discussion on women’s healthcare funding, femtech and women in entrepreneurship.
Conclusions & Further Reading
More links & signposts for you to enjoy this week…
The Written Word:
👩🏻🔬 SAP BrandVoice: A Bright Future For 100 Innovative Women In Tech
Is the tech industry creating opportunities for women? Researchers interviewed 100 trailblazing women to find out.
🖥️ ‘Code Dependent’ shows how AI harms women and marginalized people worldwide
‘We often forget that women have always been involved in science’: Hyphen sits down with four women working across science and engineering to talk about the barriers still facing them today
🔍 Health and science experts on their hopes and worries for the Trump era: Ok last one for our overstimulated brains on the election this week…
Events & opportunities:
Future Health at BMJ Group's inaugural Conference, including a panel session on YouTube Health featuring Joe Freeman (NHS) and Dr. Aziza Sesay.
📍 19-20 Nov
Google Cloud UK Public Sector Summit, featuring the latest digital transformation initiatives the behemoth is working on for the NHS.
📍 26 Nov
London Institute for Healthcare Engineering's Healthtech Breakfast
📍 27 Nov
AI in Health Summit from Economist Impact events
📍 27 Nov
The annual SomX Healthtech Talks Christmas Party (pre-register now!)
📍 27 Nov
That’s all for this issue!
Thank you for reading: The WoS mission is to support, share and promote the innovative and groundbreaking work that has been and continues to be done by women across all scientific disciplines, and to empower and inspire the next generation of female leaders in the field.
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