🎄 Issue 7: Women of Science Dec '23
News, research, reviews, recommendations & a festive science "best of" list
Welcome back to Women of Science, featuring all the best happenings re: women of science every week 🧬 (our last for 2023 - see you in January!)
🔬 What to expect?
All subscribers receive the free edition covering weekly 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 science
Materials, Methods, Discussion: Festive science stories repurposed
Conclusions & Further Reading: Reccos, reads & links this week 
Abstract & Intro
Headlines, news & media snippets re: women of science this week
Healthcare: Scientists Pinpoint Cause of Severe Morning Sickness
The nausea and vomiting that often define the first trimester of pregnancy are primarily caused by a single hormone, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. Researchers said that the discovery could lead to better treatments for morning sickness, including rare, life-threatening cases of it.
Healthcare: UK men to test hormone-free male contraceptive pill
A group of British men are the first in the world to test a new hormone-free male contraceptive pill; Scientists hope that if the tests are successful, the daily pill could broaden shared responsibility for contraception between the sexes.
Healthcare: New menopause therapy guidance will harm women’s health, say campaigners
The UK’s NICE guidelines for GPs ‘placing CBT on a par with HRT’ are criticised as ‘patronising’ and ‘scaremongering’, according to MPs and campaigners this week.
Fewer women pursue careers in physics than biology, and scientists from around the world believe these differences come down to personal preferences, according to a new Rice University study of international scientists. The study’s researchers warn that merely chalking this imbalance up to individual choice may diminish the push for gender equality in the sciences.
Marine biology: All-woman crew of marine scientists rowing 5,000 km non-stop for ocean conservation
Four marine scientists are rowing 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic to raise half a million dollars for ocean conservation.
The all-woman ‘Salty Science’ crew is taking part in the World’s Toughest Row – Atlantic 2023, where teams row without stopping and without support from San Sebastian de La Gomera in The Canary Islands to Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua. They’ll set out on Dec. 13, weather dependent, and the voyage can take anywhere from 40 to 55 days depending on factors such as weather, the crew’s physical state and more.
Healthcare: New gene therapies confront many sickle cell patients with an impossible choice: a cure or fertility
With the dawn of CRISPR, exemption by public insurers may leave most people living with sickle cell in the U.S. — the majority of whom are covered by Medicare or Medicaid — to shoulder the costs of fertility preservation on their own, even if their insurer agrees to cover the price.
& in other brief news:
⚡ Headaches and Women: What Do Hormones Have to Do With It?
Materials, Methods, Discussion
Our usual essay replaced with some festive science stories repurposed from Science Magazine
Some of our favourite holiday-themed science stories: Science isn't immune to the holiday spirit, and so while we wind down to Christmas, here are some of our favourite holiday themed news stories via Science Magazine to keep you cozy by the fire.
Conclusions & Further Reading
More links & signposts for you to enjoy this week…
Publication of the week
In keeping with the holiday theme, here’s a festive one via The BMJ - Improvement of oesophageal food bolus obstruction as reported by patients (ie, aggregate of complete and partial passage), and evaluation of complete passage. The secondary outcome was any intervention related adverse event.
Unfortunately, in this study, cola consumption did not lead to a higher rate of improvement of complete oesophageal food bolus impaction. Given the lack of adverse events in the treatment group and some events of resolution after treatment, cola might be considered as a first line treatment, but should not delay any planning of endoscopic management.
Books & review articles:
📚 ChemistryWorld Book Club - A Taste for Poison: Combining chemistry and biology with true crime, this book is ripped straight from news headlines and is also based on historical records.
👩🔬 Revenge of the gaslit patients: Now, as scientists, they’re tackling Ehlers-Danlos syndromes
🤖 We Don’t Have to Choose Between Ethical AI and Innovative AI: We keep hearing about how AI is going to steal women’s jobs, proliferate racial bias, make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
And if we focus solely on that fear, it very well might.
💡 Shining a spotlight on disabled scientists: As Enable Science launches a poster series to celebrate disabled scientists, founder Chantelle Minchin discusses the importance of representation
🔬 The 11 most astonishing scientific discoveries of 2023: From space-time breakthroughs to virgin births, Nat Geo wraps up this delightful read for you to round off the year…
👩🚀 27 Historic Firsts For Women In 2023: From astronauts to Nobel Prize winners, women secured first-time achievements in diverse fields like entertainment, sports, business, education, science, and the military. These accomplishments mark important milestones and signal ongoing progress toward gender equality. They also remind us of the numerous roles that, up until now, have been occupied solely by men—often for centuries.
Podcast of the week:
Emma Unson Rotor: The Filipina Physicist Who Helped Develop a Top Secret Weapon: Emma Unson Rotor took leave from her job as a math teacher in the Philippines to study physics at Johns Hopkins University in 1941. Her plans were disrupted when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded and occupied the Philippines. Unable to access her Philippine government scholarship to attend Johns Hopkins, she joined the Ordnance Development Division at the National Bureau of Standards. It was here that she did groundbreaking research on the proximity fuze, the “world’s first ‘smart’ weapon,” in the words of physicist Frank Belknap Baldwin, who also helped develop the technology.
Opportunity of the week:
34 best science and tech gifts for 2023: Last year, Christmas getting cancelled taught us that family really is the most important thing at this time of year... Pah! Christmas is about presents, pyjamas, pigs in blankets, Die Hard, preposterous sandwiches made of leftovers and migraine-inducing volumes of fizz. In that spirit, here’s our pick of the best science and tech gifts that money can buy...
Whether they're a gadget geek, an audiophile or a gamer, there's sure to be a gift in this list that they'll love. And if not, then check out the best gifts for geeks, Star Wars gifts, educational toys, or any of our other gift lists.
Out and about this week:
Wellcome Trust Exhibition: Genetica Automatica: ‘Genetic Automata’ is an ongoing body of video works by artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy exploring race and identity in an age of avatars, videogames and DNA ancestry.
The four films in the series investigate where deeply ingrained ideas about race come from and the role that science has played in shaping these perceptions. The exhibition premieres ‘_GOD_MODE_’, the newest film in the series, commissioned by Wellcome Collection, Black Cultural Archives and Wellcome Connecting Science.
📍 Wellcome Collection, London: 8 June 2023 – 11 February 2024
That’s all for this week!
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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