Archive for June, 2007

Friday, June 29th, 2007

fw_print_website.jpg“Everything around us has an invisible reason for existing. That’s why I like science,” the twelve-year-old girl narrator says at the start of the trailer for Future Weather, a new movie in progress. “I like science because it helps you measure changes, changes so small they’re barely visible to the naked eye,” she adds later. It looks like a really interesting film, with a protagonist who feels like a real kid, not a Hollywood kid. It’s about a girl who wants to help stop global warming, and then her mom disappears.

Not only that, but they’re one of the first films to go carbon neutral:

Future Weather will be the first carbon neutral film shot in Pennsylvania, but our green initiatives won’t end there. Our goal is to create a viable blue- or “green”-print for other local films to follow by testing inventive new green initiatives and creating partnerships with local business with sustainable practices.

Our goals are to conserve energy, reduce emissions, renew materials and finally, offset our unavoidable emissions. We will work with guidelines set forth by such groups as the Environmental Media Association and partner with an ecological consultant to create a practical plan for implementing green practices at our various locations. We will examine everything from our modes of transport to the solid waste we generate to the materials we use, including food, water, paper and cleaning supplies, and strive to use the ecological aternative. We are looking into obtaining alternative energy sources including solar power and biodiesel.

They’re trying to raise donations to finish the film.

Future Weather (via Zuska)

“When I was a young science student I assumed that science would be an almost pure meritocracy… stop laughing, I was young.”

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

For the third year in a row, the National Medal of Science recipients were all men, according to a release from the Society for Women’s Health Research. Out of 97 winners over the past ten years, only ten have been women, the Society notes. Says Society CEO Phyllis Greenberger:

When the significant and ongoing contributions of women in science go unacknowledged, it can discourage even the best and brightest women from pursuing a career in these disciplines.

The Society is sponsoring the RAISE project, aimed at making sure qualified women are nominated for awards in science, medicine and engineering. The Society also offers its own award for women who make advancements in women’s health research.

But nothing else can substitute for calling out the National Science Foundation for its blinkered sexism. As usual, Zuska is on the case, and she attracts comments that are a mixture of illuminating and depressing. There’s also a link to a fascinating study on “Nepotism and Sexism In Peer Review.