Let us not forget those who have gone before us, who have fought the good fight with faith, and courage. Black History Month is due in remembrance of them all, and us today must not allow those torches of courage to ever go out. Kudos to the Black Panther movie, now a superhero movie for us--not one of a "pale like," one that bolts out of a phone booth wearing a flying like red and blue cape. Blessings to you all!
Featured Posts (3519)
Sort by
 |
| Dr. Jarita C. Holbrook, Astronomers of the African Diaspora |
Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii Pre-doctorate education: B.S. Physics (1987), California Institute of Technology; M.S. Astronomy, (1992) San Diego State University Doctorate: Ph.D. Astronomy & Astrophysics (1997) University of California, Santa Cruz Area: History and Cultural Studies of Astronomy
Jarita C. Holbrook, received her degree in 1997 from the University of California at Santa Cruz. A National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at UCLA, her interest is mainly in contemporary and historical African astronomy and cultural astronomy. Holbrook has traveled to Africa and the South Pacific to document celestial navigation techniques there and how new technologies have modified those techniques.
Experience (since the Ph.D.)
1998 NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UCLA.
Oct 98 - Oct 00 Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Biological, Social,Behavioral, and Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation
Aug 99 - Nov 99 Visiting Faculty, Department of Seamanship and Navigation, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
May 99 - July 99 Cultural Astronomer, Celestial Navigation Fieldwork, Kerkennah Islands, Tunisia, North Africa
Oct 98 - Jan 99 Visiting Faculty, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY
August 1998 Cultural Astronomer, Celestial Navigation Fieldwork, Moce Island, Fiji, South Pacific
Oct 97 - July 98 Visiting Scholar, Center for the Cultural Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine, History Dept., UCLA
Sept 1997 Visiting Scientist, Research on organic compounds in comets, NASA Ames Research Center
July 1997 Cultural Astronomer, Celestial Navigation and Astronomical Artifacts Fieldwork, Tunisia, North Africa.
June 1997 Professor, Physics Dept., North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC
2000 Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow in The UCLA Center for the Cultural Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine
RESEARCH
Current Projects:
* African Astronomy & Culture
* Celestial Navigation in Three Cultures: Fiji, Tunisia, and the United States
* Celestial Navigation in East Africa
* Celestial Aspects of African Art
Research Interests: The night sky continues to fascinate people all over the world. How people think about the sky, use the sky, and depict the sky is immensely varied. Assuming that these variations reflect social and environmental differences, I use sky lore and sky knowledge as a way to probe cultures other than my own. Oftentimes, I decipher the science behind the myths: For example, moon goddess myths often speak of the goddess growing larger and then shrinking and growing larger again. This reflects the observed waxing and waning of the moon which occurs over 29.5 days.
As an applied anthropologist, I am thinking through ways in which my research can be of benefit. As a BARA member, I study indigenous knowledge systems and practices primarily to uncover the science in order to better understand the limitations of their effectiveness. This can be important in 'development' settings because quaint practices are then scientifically validated and transformed into practices that work. These practices then can be left intact or modified rather than destroyed.
Related links:
#P4TC: Survival Strategies...April 9, 2013
Twitter: https://twitter.com/astroholbrook
 |
| Credit: fotocelia Getty Images |
Topics: Commentary, Existentialism, SETI
It is my observation we haven't quite mastered terrestrial encounters with other hominids of differing cultures or shades of Melanin. So, an actual encounter with extraterrestrial life would be at this moment in our existence daunting. We're not ready, for extraterrestrials, or very frequently, each other.
When ‘Oumuamua, a mysterious interstellar object, swept through our solar system last October, it elicited breathless news stories all asking the obvious question—is it a spaceship? There were no signs it was—although many people seemed to hope otherwise.
Throughout history most strange new cosmic phenomena have made us wonder: Could this be it, the moment we first face alien life? The expectation isn’t necessarily outlandish—many scientists can and do make elaborate, evidence-based arguments that we will eventually discover life beyond the bounds of our planet. To true believers, what may be more uncertain is whether or not such news would cause global panic—which depends on how our minds, so greatly influenced by our Earthly environment and society, would perceive the potential threat of something utterly outside our familiar context.
If it’s a discovery somewhere in between the extremes of an extraterrestrial microbe and rapacious, hostile aliens laying siege to Earth, will people respond differently based on the era or society they live in?
Our brains are wired with ancient circuits to defend us against predators. But as we navigate through the world, experience can also shape what we come to accept or to fear and how open we are to novelty. This study only looked at U.S. responses but two neuroscientists think the results might have been very different around the world. “If you look at societies that are much less open and much more xenophobic and so on, they might perceive [finding extraterrestrial life] as much more negative and unsettling,” says Israel Liberzon, a professor of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan who was not part of the study.
“Culture may be a strong determinant of how we respond to novelty,” says Cornelius Gross, a neuroscientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory–Rome who studies the neural circuitry of fear and was also not involved with the research. “People came to America because they were novelty seekers, so we’ve selected for [that] and then continued to foster novelty seeking and place it very high on our list.” Furthermore, Shostak says, a person’s religious beliefs could play a powerful role in shaping their reaction to learning that humanity is in fact not as universally special as many traditions hold.
Is Humanity Ready for the Discovery of Alien Life? Yasemin Saplakoglu, Scientific American
 |
| Alice Ball - see link below |
Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
This is Alice Ball, the pharmaceutical chemist who in 1919 developed a medical treatment for Leprosy and gave hope to millions. Her drug was the premier treatment for Leprosy until the 1940’s when antibiotics were developed. Before Alice, Leprosy was considered a hopeless disease. In the US people found to have Leprosy were forcibly removed from their homes and detained indefinitely in remote colonies. Alice’s treatment allowed hundreds of detainees to at last be paroled from the detention centres and go home to their families.
Born in 1892, Alice is the granddaughter of Iconic photographer JP Ball. She graduated from the University of Washington and the University of Hawaii with degrees in pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry. Her master’s thesis was titled The Chemical Constituents of Piper Methysticum and involved extracting active ingredients from kava root. Her chemistry work here was so impressive that she was enlisted by US Public Health Officer Dr Harry Hollmann to work her magic with chaulmoogra oil.
For centuries, Indian and Chinese health practitioners have been using chaulmoogra oil to treat leprosy but with limited success. The oil could be applied topically however that would mean it wouldn’t penetrate deep enough into the body; at best, it provided sufferers with some relief. Oil is not soluble in water therefore injecting was extremely difficult near impossible. Patients described the oil injections as ‘burning like fire through the skin’.
This is where Alice comes in. She was enlisted to use her unique skills and techniques to extract the active ingredients from chaulmoogra oil. She isolated the chaulmoogric acid and hydnocarpic acid contained in the oil and created the first water soluble injectable treatment for leprosy. At aged 24 she had managed to do something that had “thwarted researchers for years”.
Meet Alice Ball – The pharmaceutical Chemist who developed the first effective treatment for Leprosy, Women Rock Science on Tumblr
Originally posted on #P4TC as Speculative Futures #7... February 17, 2015.
Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture By YTASHA L. WOMACK
In this hip, accessible primer to the music, literature, and art of Afrofuturism, author Ytasha Womack introduces readers to the burgeoning community of artists creating Afrofuturist works, the innovators from the past, and the wide range of subjects they explore. From the sci-fi literature of Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and N. K. Jemisin to the musical cosmos of Sun Ra, George Clinton, and the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, to the visual and multimedia artists inspired by African Dogon myths and Egyptian deities, the book’s topics range from the “alien” experience of blacks in America to the “wake up” cry that peppers sci-fi literature, sermons, and activism. With a twofold aim to entertain and enlighten, Afrofuturists strive to break down racial, ethnic, and social limitations to empower and free individuals to be themselves.
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Afrofuturism-World-Sci-Fi-Fantasy-Culture/dp/1613747969
 |
| "The Day We Surrender to the Air" by Antonio Jose Guzman |
An article that appears on io9.com by Jess Nevins, 9/27/12. I include a link below to a remarkable, mentioned and available book "Light Ahead for the Negro," by Edward A. Johnson
Africans, and those of African descent, have not been treated well by speculative fiction, both inside its texts and in real life. Anti-African racism is a fact of life in Western culture, and was even more pronounced before 1945. Not surprisingly, the number of works of speculative fiction written by black writers is low. But that number is not zero, and it's worth taking a look at the fantasy and science fiction stories that black writers produced before 1945.
io9.com The Black Fantastic, Jess Nevins
Light Ahead for the Negro, Edward A. Johnson
 |
| Stephanie Wehner is part of the team trying to build a true quantum network across Europe. Credit: Marcel Wogram for Nature |
Topics: Internet, Quantum Computer, Quantum Mechanics, Schrödinger’s cat, Theoretical Physics, Women in Science
Cultural reference: Hamlet, Act III, scene I.
The sobering part is, Europe will likely build a quantum Internet before us, China will commercialize clean energy; everywhere else will have MAGLEV (magnetic levitation) bullet trains that go 200 mph (while we're stuck with the ones that fatally crash at 80), our bridges, railroads and general infrastructure crumbling (toll road taxed to death) from a malignant narcissist, political amateur conman's claim of being "great again."
Before she became a theoretical physicist, Stephanie Wehner was a hacker. Like most people in that arena, she taught herself from an early age. At 15, she spent her savings on her first dial-up modem, to use at her parents’ home in Würzburg, Germany. And by 20, she had gained enough street cred to land a job in Amsterdam, at a Dutch Internet provider started by fellow hackers.
A few years later, while working as a network-security specialist, Wehner went to university. There, she learnt that quantum mechanics offers something that today’s networks are sorely lacking — the potential for unhackable communications. Now she is turning her old obsession towards a new aspiration. She wants to reinvent the Internet.
The ability of quantum particles to live in undefined states — like Schrödinger’s proverbial cat, both alive and dead — has been used for years to enhance data encryption. But Wehner, now at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and other researchers argue that they could use quantum mechanics to do much more, by harnessing nature’s uncanny ability to link, or entangle, distant objects, and teleporting information between them. At first, it all sounded very theoretical, Wehner says. Now, “one has the hope of realizing it”.
The quantum internet has arrived (and it hasn’t), Davide Castelvecchi, Nature
Urban Fantastic Podcast 12 - Genesis Man
This month's Urban Fantastic Podcast has me delving into Jarvis Sheffield's story, finding out what makes the powerhouse behind the Black Science Fiction Society and the Genesis platforms tick.
https://soundcloud.com/marksman-studios/genesis-man-urban-fantastic-podcast-12complete
If in Metro ATL, come by and check out fellow nerds at this Private Screening of "Black Panther."
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nerds-to-wakanda-tickets-42108992129
 |
| Credit: University of Texas at Dallas |
Topics: Instrumentation, Modern Physics, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
A University of Texas at Dallas graduate student, his advisor and industry collaborators believe they have addressed a long-standing problem troubling scientists and engineers for more than 35 years: How to prevent the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope from crashing into the surface of a material during imaging or lithography.
Details of the group's solution appeared in the January issue of the journal Review of Scientific Instruments, which is published by the American Institute of Physics.
Scanning tunneling microscopes (STMs) operate in an ultra-high vacuum, bringing a fine-tipped probe with a single atom at its apex very close to the surface of a sample. When voltage is applied to the surface, electrons can jump or tunnel across the gap between the tip and sample.
"Think of it as a needle that is very sharp, atomically sharp," said Farid Tajaddodianfar, a mechanical engineering graduate student in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. "The microscope is like a robotic arm, able to reach atoms on the sample surface and manipulate them."
The problem is, sometimes the tungsten tip crashes into the sample. If it physically touches the sample surface, it may inadvertently rearrange the atoms or create a "crater," which could damage the sample. Such a "tip crash" often forces operators to replace the tip many times, forfeiting valuable time.
Dr. John Randall is an adjunct professor at UT Dallas and president of Zyvex Labs, a Richardson, Texas-based nanotechnology company specializing in developing tools and products that fabricate structures atom by atom. Zyvex reached out to Dr. Reza Moheimani, a professor of mechanical engineering, to help address STMs' tip crash problem. Moheimani's endowed chair was a gift from Zyvex founder James Von Ehr MS'81, who was honored as a distinguished UTD alumnus in 2004.
"What they're trying to do is help bring atomically precise manufacturing into reality," said Randall, who co-authored the article with Tajaddodianfar, Moheimani and Zyvex Labs' James Owens. "This is considered the future of nanotechnology, and it is extremely important work."
Microscopy breakthrough paves the way for atomically precise manufacturing, The University of Texas at Dallas
 |
| Image Source: Wikiquote "Once you have learned to read you will forever be free." "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." More at Brainyquote.com |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
Originally posted as "The Meaning..." #P4TC, July 5, 2015.
Today is Valentine's Day and Frederick Douglass's 200th birthday, or at least the day he assigned for himself. One of my favorite quotes by him (that I use) is "The soul that is within me, no man can degrade."
Frederick Douglass was known well for being an escaped slave, committed republican (at that time in our history, the progressive party) and abolitionist. He was a staunch advocate of equality (an early one for women) and education, seeing his own personal emancipation centered on something slaves were banned from doing: reading. His former master chastised his wife, saying teaching Frederick how to read would "ruin him" and make him unfit for the peculiar institution. He couldn't have agreed more.
In his uniquely bellicose manner, Mr. Douglass tackles this in a long soliloquy given July 5, 1852 in Rochester, NY. I have thought of Charleston, South Carolina and how the narrative of our nation had been determined by a defeated foe to the point of redefining the narrative and main rationale (if you can call it that) behind the Civil War: the continued indentured servitude of a kidnapped people in perpetuity. In light of the debate sparked by the assassination of nine innocents in Mother Emanuel AME, and the symbol the terrorist so revered; the possibility on that symbol's removal in the bloody aftermath, I give you Frederick Douglass' apropos speech on its 163rd anniversary in excerpt, read by the accomplished actor and voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones.
Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of my ability, than I do this day. A feeling has crept over me quite unfavorable to the exercise of my limited powers of speech. The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. I know that apologies of this sort are generally considered flat and unmeaning. I trust, however, that mine will not be so considered. Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me. The little experience I have had in addressing public meetings, in country school houses, avails me nothing on the present occasion.The papers and placards say that I am to deliver a Fourth of July Oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for me. It is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence. But neither their familiar faces, nor the perfect gage I think I have of Corinthian Hall seems to free me from embarrassment.The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to he overcome in getting from the latter to the former are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence I will proceed to lay them before you.This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birth day of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day. This celebration also marks the beginning of another year of your national life; and reminds you that the Republic of America is now 76 years old. l am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young. Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. Three score years and ten is the allotted time for individual men; but nations number their years by thousands. According to this fact, you are, even now, only in the beginning of your national career, still lingering in the period of childhood. I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot's heart might be sadder, and the reformer's brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow. There is consolation in the thought that America is young.-Great streams are not easily turned from channels, worn deep in the course of ages. They may sometimes rise in quiet and stately majesty, and inundate the land, refreshing and fertilizing the earth with their mysterious properties. They may also rise in wrath and fury, and bear away, on their angry waves, the accumulated wealth of years of toil and hardship. They, however, gradually flow back to the same old channel, and flow on as serenely as ever. But, while the river may not be turned aside, it may dry up, and leave nothing behind but the withered branch, and the unsightly rock, to howl in the abyss-sweeping wind, the sad tale of departed glory. As with rivers so with nations.
History is a Weapon: The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, Frederick Douglass
Related link: What the Civil War Can Teach us About Patriotism, Jarret Ruminski, PhD Historian, "That Devil History" blog
 |
| Imhotep, The Encyclopedia Britannica online |
Topics: Africa, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science
Alternative Title: Imouthes
Imhotep, Greek Imouthes, (born 27th century BCE, Memphis, Egypt), vizier, sage, architect, astrologer, and chief minister to Djoser (reigned 2630–2611 BCE), the second king of Egypt’s third dynasty, who was later worshiped as the god of medicine in Egypt and in Greece, where he was identified with the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius. He is considered to have been the architect of the step pyramid built at the necropolis of Ṣaqqārah in the city of Memphis. The oldest extant monument of hewn stone known to the world, the pyramid consists of six steps and attains a height of 200 feet (61 metres).
 |
| Step pyramid, Ṣaqqārah necropolis, Memphis, Encyclopedia Britannica |
Imhotep’s high standing in Djoser’s court is affirmed by an inscription bearing his name on a statue of Djoser found at the site of the Ṣaqqārah pyramid. The inscription lists a variety of titles, including chief of the sculptors and chief of the seers. Although no contemporary account has been found that refers to Imhotep as a practicing physician, ancient documents illustrating Egyptian society and medicine during the Old Kingdom (c. 2575– c. 2130 BCE) show that the chief magician of the pharaoh’s court also frequently served as the nation’s chief physician. Imhotep’s reputation as the reigning genius of the time, his position in the court, his training as a scribe, and his becoming known as a medical demigod only 100 years after his death are strong indications that he must have been a physician of considerable skill.
Imhotep, written by the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica
 |
| Image Source: Simkins et al vs. Cone |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
The scholarship gala for the Greensboro Medical Society used as its theme Egypt, specifically Imhotep, the original father of medicine, despite Hippocrates holding that distinction in the west. The presentation was to honor Dr. Otis E. Tillman, Sr., who delivered babies at then segregated hospitals in High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem. It was with chills that I had an epiphany: this gentle giant of medicine, who had himself endured many indignities of racism and segregation, may have delivered me at Kate Bitting Reynolds Hospital. It was possible. I didn't ask, but it did send chills to hear his clear enunciation, mental acuity and stirring story. I also met my new dentist, who I'll likely be under his care as of this posting. It was a wondrous evening.
The Greensboro Medical Society (GMS) was formed several years after the opening of L. Richardson Memorial Hospital which opened on May 4, 1927. Early accounts indicate that the society was not active during the late 1920's and 1930's. In the mid 1940's; however, the GMS was re-activated. During this time, Drs. G.H. Evans, C.C. Stewart, J.P. Sebastian, J.C. Waddy, J.R. Hawkins, W.J. Hughes, Sr., G.C. Simkins, Sr., B.W. Barnes, M.S. Jenkins, W. Murrow, and Hargraves were the physicians, dentists and pharmacists who composed the Society and staffed L. Richardson Hospital. All members were also affiliated with the Old North State Society and National Medical Association. They came together during this time for the purpose of education, fellowship, networking and socialization.
Because of the policy of segregation, which was prevalent in America during this time, these doctors were denied staff privileges at the majority hospitals and membership in the mainstream majority health professional organizations. These included the American Medical Association, American Dental Association and their regional and local affiliates. The Greensboro Medical Society therefore served as an outlet to temper the ill-effects of the isolation of these times.
After World War II, leaders in the black community were determined to improve health care for black persons by ending discrimination in hospital policies and practices. Leaders of professional organizations developed a collaborative strategy that involved the court system, federal legislation, and research and education of the public and health professionals to integrate the hospital system rather than to expand the existing separate-but-equal system. Efforts culminated in the case of Simkins v Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital; this case became the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court and led to the elimination of segregated health care.
Greensboro Medical Society, Our History
 |
| SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center, February 6, 2018. Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images |
Topics: Mars, NASA, Space Exploration, Spaceflight
Earlier today, our sun gained a new satellite, courtesy of SpaceX’s first test launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket: A cherry-red Tesla Roadster once driven by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, blasting tunes from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” with a spacesuit-clad “Star Man” dummy strapped in the driver’s seat. On the dashboard display as it hurtled into the void? “Don’t Panic,” the tagline from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Launched with an earth-shaking roar from Pad 39a at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida—the same launch site of the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969 and the first space shuttle flight in 1981—the Roadster was boosted onto an interplanetary trajectory that takes it looping between the orbital vicinities of Earth and of Mars. It is neither the first car nor even the first electric model ever launched into space (the Apollo-era lunar rovers take both of those prizes). But it is certainly the fastest, approaching a speed of 12 kilometers per second relative to Earth when it separated from the Falcon Heavy’s payload fairing en route to deep space.
The big news here, though, isn’t actually the Falcon Heavy’s eccentric payload, but rather the mere fact that this behemoth of a rocket exists and is on the verge of regular operations. Musk, for his part, pegged the chances of success at only 50/50, where “success” was defined as the rocket merely flying high enough to clear the launch pad before exploding. In actuality, the rocket performed nearly flawlessly.
Elon Musk Does it Again, Lee Billings, Scientific American
 |
| Image Source: APS link below |
Topics: Civil Rights, Commentary, Human Rights, Diversity in Science, Women in Science
The title of the post originates from a pejorative. The initials "SJW" are meant as an insult to discourage a post on a topic like police brutality against a group (e.g. Black Lives Matter) as being too "politically correct." What is typically left out of the missive is the considerable amount of courage it takes to actually live the initials.
2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize Recipient
Narges Mohammadi
Citation:
"for her leadership in campaigning for peace, justice, and the abolition of the death penalty and for her unwavering efforts to promote the human rights and freedoms of the Iranian people, despite persecution that has forced her to suspend her scientific pursuits and endure lengthy incarceration."
Background:
Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian physicist, engineer, and human rights defender currently serving a 16-year sentence in Evin Prison (Tehran), was born in Zanjan in 1972. She majored in physics at Imam Khomeini University in Qazvin, where she became actively involved in promoting rights and social justice by founding a political student organization and publishing on issues related to women’s and students’ rights. After graduating, she worked both as an engineer with the Iran Engineering Inspection Corporation and as a journalist, highlighting issues related to gender equality. Ms. Mohammadi’s efforts to maintain a career in the sciences while speaking out about human rights abuses were unsuccessful. In 2009 she was dismissed from her position with the Engineering Inspection Corporation. The same year, she was arrested and incarcerated.
Ms. Mohammadi is known globally for her efforts to promote and protect the rights of women, prisoners of conscience, minority communities, and other vulnerable groups. She has also been deeply involved in efforts to promote free and fair elections and abolish the death penalty in her country. As spokesperson and vice-president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), an organization founded in 2001 by Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi and other prominent Iranian lawyers, and closed by the government in 2008, Ms. Mohammadi helped to provide pro bono legal assistance to prisoners of conscience and monitor the human rights situation in Iran. She also served as president of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Peace in Iran, an organization dedicated to opposing military conflict and violence. Together with other human rights activists, she created the Women’s Civil Center, a body that defends the rights of women, political prisoners, and minorities. Her courageous actions in support of human rights have taken many forms, from protests before parliament concerning acid attacks on women to prison vigils with the families of individuals facing execution. Ms. Mohammadi is the recipient of the 2009 international Alexander Langer Award and the 2011 Per Anger Prize for human rights.
2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize Recipient, American Physical Society
"Andrei Sakharov - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 8 Feb 2018. < NobelPrize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharov-facts.html >
 |
| Tanya Moore (Photo: Cindy Charles) |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
The Mathematician
Tanya Moore, Ph. D.
Youth Services Coordinator, 2020 Vision Projects
City of Berkley California’s Unified School District
Tanya Moore demonstrates that mathematicians can help divert social catastrophes. As the leader of the city-wide 2020 Vision Projects, launched in June 2010, Moore’s job is to help close the achievement gap between white, black, and Latino students in Berkeley, California, by 2020. She has a central role in designing the surveys, methodologies, and statistical indicators to be used for tracking student progress. After analyzing the data, she will help design and evaluate youth interventions and services across community agencies and city departments.
Moore’s concern with increasing educational achievement for minorities doesn’t end in Berkeley, where she received her Ph.D. in biostatistics. She also spearheads Infinite Possibilities, a national conference for women of color in all stages of mathematics–from high school students to post-docs and women in private industry. “I started it initially as a reunion because of the experiences I had at Spelman [College]. Now it has grown. It has created this wonderful community over the last few years.
Participants regularly write Moore about how Infinite Possibilities helped them feel less isolated in grad school. She understands their frustration firsthand. While working on a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins she received her share of intolerant comments. “People told me I would only pass qualifying exams because I was an African American woman and the school wanted to make their quota. I’d walk into a room and people would tell me I was in the wrong classroom. Sometimes a professor would say ‘Wow, you did better than we expected.’"
Dr. Tanya Moore, Marcia Wade Talbert, Black Enterprise: Women in STEM
 |
| Jedi Master Yoda. Quote for the image below. |
Topics: Commentary, Civics, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Star Wars
July 27, 2009, Wikipedia:
Orly Taitz+ (born August 30, 1960)[8] is a Moldovan-American political conspiracy theorist. A dentist, lawyer,[9] and former real estate agent,[10][11] Taitz was a figure in the "birther" movement, which promoted the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen eligible to serve as President of the United States. Taitz also promotes a number of other conspiracy theories both related and unrelated to Obama. Taitz has initiated a number of lawsuits on behalf of the "birther" movement; all were dismissed by the courts, and on one occasion Taitz was ordered to pay $20,000 as a sanction for misconduct in filing frivolous claims. Taitz has unsuccessfully run for statewide office in California three times.
Taitz alleges that President Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as President. She claims he was born in Kenya and that he falsified his Selective Service papers and his application to the Illinois bar.[22] "I believe [Obama] is the most dangerous thing one can imagine, in that he represents radical communism and radical Islam: He was born and raised in radical Islam, all of his associations are with radical Islam, and he was groomed in the environment of the dirty Chicago mafia. Can there be anything scarier than that?" [1]
April 4, 2011, Politico:
Birtherism is the latest and most enduring version of a theory in search of facts.
The original smear against Obama was that he was a crypto-Muslim, floated in 2004 by perennial Illinois political candidate and serial litigant Andy Martin. Other related versions of this theory alleged that Obama was educated in an Indonesian “madrassa” or steeped in Islamist ideology from a young age, and the theories began to spread virally after Obama appeared on the national stage – to the casual observer, from nowhere – with his early 2007 presidential campaign announcement.
All through that year, the Obama campaign – with the affirmation of most leaders of both parties – aggressively battled that smear by emphasizing his Christian faith. Obama’s controversial but emphatically Christian pastor emerged as a campaign issue and the belief that he was a Muslim seemed to lose traction.
Then, as Obama marched toward the presidency, a new suggestion emerged: That he was not eligible to serve.
That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008, as Clinton supporters circulated an anonymous email questioning Obama’s citizenship.
“Barack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya with his Arab-African father late in her pregnancy. She was not allowed to travel by plane then, so Barack Obama was born there and his mother then took him to Hawaii to register his birth,” asserted one chain email that surfaced on the urban legend site Snopes.com in April 2008. [2]
February 14, 2014, Outside the Beltway:
While the American public as a whole has a largely negative view of both Vladmir Putin and Russia as a whole, there is a segment of the American public that has, over the past several years developed an oddly positive opinion of a nation that Mitt Romney, to the cheers of many on the right, called our biggest geopolitical rival, and a man who was once a top agent in the KGB. What’s odd is that these cheers are not coming from the left side of the political aisle as they might have in the 1930s, but from the right. Back in August, I observed that people such as Pat Buchanan and Rod Dreher have been heaping praise on Putin for things such as the anti-gay “propaganda” laws that he push through the Russian legislature and compared him positively to President Obama and what seems to be the new version of Buchanan’s “culture war” argument from the 1992 Presidential campaign. In December, Buchanan and Dreher were back with more praise for the Russian President and his authoritarian, anti-equality, and allegedly “pro-Christian” policies. [3]
October 24, 2016, New Republic:
Public-opinion polling shows that Trump’s low opinion of American elections has practically become Republican Party orthodoxy. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, Republicans have an “unprecedented” level of “concern and mistrust in the system.” Roughly 70 percent of Republican voters believe that if Hillary Clinton wins the election, it’ll be due to fraud. In both this poll and an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll, only half of Republicans say they’d accept a Clinton victory. (In the latter poll, by contrast, 82 percent of Democrats said they would accept a Trump victory.)
This suspicious Republican electorate is joined by growing ranks of conservative politicians, pundits, and intellectuals. They’re all increasingly willing to say that the existing American political system is hopelessly flawed and needs to be rolled back to the days before blacks and women could vote. On the most obvious level, this can be seen in moves by Republican governors all over America to make voting more difficult, through stringent voting ID laws, new hurdles to registration, and the curtailment of early-voting options. Equally significant has been the gutting of key provisions of the Voting Rights Act by conservative Supreme Court justices in the 2013 Shelby Country v. Holder ruling.
But these overt forms of voting suppression are merely the most visible manifestations of a larger questioning of democracy on the political right. Trump’s anti-democratic rhetoric—and the eagerness of so many good, white patriotic Americans to cheer it and believe it—is a symptom of the larger trend on the political right toward doubting the legitimacy of the American system. The question we need to be asking isn’t, “Why is Trump being such a jerk?” It’s, “Why is the American Right giving up on democracy?” [4]
One interesting side bar: Orly Taitz+ - the original birther conspiracy theorist before our erstwhile Putin-puppet, Manchurian candidate president* took up the mantle - like two of his three serial marriages is herself an immigrant.
In the 1994 book "Black Labor, White Wealth" by Dr. Claude Anderson, the 1850 census found the slave population coming to parity with the majority white population. Up to that point, "white" had a specificity and excluded certain European countries. Because that parity - even for a slave population - meant an increase in power, the definition of that artificial demarcation got "liberal." To maintain superior numbers, the US opened the floodgates. Czechs, Italians, Jews and Poles would eventually be considered a part of the majority, as if their exclusion had never occurred. It's always been a numbers game.
The immigration policies regarding LEGAL immigration ala Stephen Miller would delay the date white Americans become a numerical minority by five years. It moved from originally 2050 to 2042; it had recently shifted by two years to 2044, apparently. The policies again, on legal immigration thus push it a year before the original 2050 date, which is a deliberate calculus, but it doesn't stop it. The specific targeting of a diverse diaspora is quite deliberate. Couple that with the fever pitched effort to suppress the votes of people of color, you have a naked exercise in white supremacy you can easily measure. It's been the nature of the nation from its genocidal (Native Americans) and kidnapping (African Americans) origins.
It's never been about Christian "family values," if the enabling of wife beaters that don't need security clearances attests to. Christian supremacy - according to the thesis of "The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism, and Religious Diversity in America" by Jeannine Hill Fletcher (a white theologian) is the bedrock on which this nation's bigoted behavior was founded on.
And now it has a voice: the personification of its calamitous zeitgeist: a true man of lawlessness. A need to look back to a pristine time of superiority. It clarifies opposition to people of color, deport any and all Hispanic/Latino immigrants (legal or not), label whole nations in the Caribbean and on the African continent s-house countries (as if "hole" was the insult); the LGBT (they biologically cannot make white babies, to paraphrase Steve King's ridiculous statement). It makes the rise of racist organizations - be they alt-right, birther, homophobic, KKK, Neo Nazi - have a consistent, base theme.
That theme is fear.
“Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate...hate leads to suffering.” Yoda, "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," May 6, 2014
1. Orly Taitz, Wikipedia
2. Birtherism: Where it all began, Ben Smith and Byron Tau, Politico
3. Explaining The Conservative Love Affair With Vladimir Putin: It’s All About Opposing Obama, Doug Mataconis, Outside the Beltway
4. The Right Is Giving Up on Democracy, Jeet Heer, New Republic
 |
| Lisette Titre (Photo: Cindy Charles) |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
The Computer Animator
Lisette Titre
Senior Character & Special Effects Artist
EA (Electronic Arts)
ACG artist and computer animator Lisette Titre has contributed to some of EA’s highest profile games, including Tiger Woods Golf for Nintendo’s Wii, The Simpsons, and Dante’s Inferno.
As a character modeler, Titre takes data from scanned images of characters or real-life individuals and reworks the information to build a 3-D digital sculpture. After the character’s digital skeleton is built, she takes the skeletons and applies computer modeling controls so the fingers will curl, the legs will bend, and the character moves with fluidity.
Titre, who is often the only animator working in-house on her projects, also manages a team of outsourced artists in China, Australia, and Canada. Each team can consist of five to 20 people who work on game titles for as little as one year to as long as four years.
Ms. Lisette Titre, Marcia Wade Talbert, Black Enterprise: Women in STEM
 |
| Ashanti Johnson (Photo: Steve McAlister) |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
The Chemist
Ashanti Johnson, Ph. D.
Chemical Oceanographer/Geochemist
University of South Florida,
College of Marine Science
Studying soil and sedimentation of rivers, estuaries, and beaches, Ashanti Johnson’s work as an aquatic radiogeochemist was instrumental in decoding the environmental effects of potentially hazardous incidents throughout Puerto Rico.
Johnson can be found scouring the beaches of Rincón, where a nuclear power plant operated until the 1970s, or collecting soil samples in Vieques, where depleted uranium residue remained for years following an artillery firing range run by the U.S. Navy. “These problems have been investigated very little," says Johnson. “It takes a lot of dedication and is really labor intensive. You get muddy, you get wet, and at the end of the day, you’re happy to have processed your samples."
Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in marine science and a Ph.D. in chemical oceanography from Texas A&M University. Her Ph.D. work helped assess whether nuclear waste released in the Arctic by the former Soviet Union migrated toward the Alaskan coastline. She also spent a short time working at Exxon as a geochemist before venturing back into teaching at Georgia Tech and Savannah State University.
Dr. Ashanti Johnson, Marcia Wade Talbert, Black Enterprise: Women in STEM
 |
| Dr. Aprille J. Ericsson, NASA, image source link below |
Topics: African Americans, Diaspora, Diversity, Diversity in Science, History, Women in Science
The Aerospace Engineer
Aprille J. Ericsson, Ph.D.
Deputy Instrument Manager
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
As the deputy instrument manager for the ATLAS Instrument team at NASA, Aprille J. Ericsson leads development of an instrument to house satellite-based lasers used to measure the topography of ice sheets from space in order to measure global climate changes.
Ericsson, who holds a master’s of engineering and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in aerospace from Howard University and who earned a bachelor’s of science in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was previously one of the lead engineers on the concept study report for GEMS, or the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer. The unmanned observatory, which is scheduled to launch no later than April 2014, will be the first to measure polarized X-rays to study supermassive black holes and magnetars. Ericsson's work was influential in winning $105 million of funding for the project in 2009.
Ericsson was also the project engineer for LOLA, a lunar orbiter laser altimeter, which created an unprecedented topographic map of the moon’s landscape in late 2009.
“High school students need to be encouraged to do summer programs. If they have an interest in engineering or science they need to apply at field centers at NASA and NOAA so they get a feel for what they want to do," says Ericsson, who did the same at a young age. “It’s really important to have [hands-on lab] exposure as early as freshman and sophomore year. They perform better with their course work because they learn in an applied atmosphere."
Dr. Aprille J. Ericsson, Marcia Wade Talbert, Black Enterprise: Women in STEM
 |
| The g-2 magnet arrives at Fermilab to be installed in the Muon g-2 experiment (Courtesy: Fermilab) |
Topics: Modern Physics, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics
Physicists in Japan say they have a solution to a problem that has puzzled particle physicists for nearly two decades – the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon.
Measurements made over several years at the at the g-2 experiment at the US’s Brookhaven National Laboratory suggest that the muon magnetic moment is significantly larger than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. After careful analysis of data related to the decay of the muon to an electron, the statistical significance of this discrepancy is at 3.6σ – which means that it is extremely unlikely to be a fluke.
One possible explanation is that particles not described by the Standard Model are involved in the muon decay, and their presence affects the measured value of the muon magnetic moment. Finding evidence for such particles would be a colossal achievement, which is why the new Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab is gathering data this year.
Now, however, Takahiro Morishima of Nagoya University and Toshifumi Futamase of Kyoto Sangyo University have come up with an alternative explanation of the anomaly. In three preprints uploaded to the arXiv server, the duo calculate that effects due the curvature of space-time could result in an increase in the measured value of the magnetic moment. This effect of general relativity is related to the gravitational field of the Earth.
Has the muon magnetic moment mystery been solved? Hamish Johnston, Physics World
