For the first time since 2006, there will be no women leading House committees. 🤔 #politics #uspol

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republican-women-chosen-lead-house-committees-time-decades/story?id=116764680

Hi Mastodon! I’m Sheril 👋

I am a scientist working in the U.S. Senate on policies related to energy, environment, ocean, ag & tech!

I also host Serving Up Science on PBS & wrote a couple of books.

My PhD is in community sustainability & I’m broadly interested in how we make decisions about science.

Yes, our phones are ‘listening’ to what we say.

“In Leak, Facebook Partner Brags About Listening to Your Phone’s Microphone to Serve Ads for Stuff You Mention”

https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-partner-phones-listening-microphone #tech #AI

The first article from my dissertation research has been accepted!

Hey you.

Yes, YOU.

The person reading this post.

You matter.

I’m glad you’re here.

Three articles published yesterday in #Science, Science Advances & Nature 🤔

Women remain underrepresented among faculty in nearly all academic fields https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi2205

Toxic workplaces are the main reason women leave academic jobs https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03251-8

Women faculty feel ‘pushed’ from academia by poor workplace climate

https://www.science.org/content/article/women-faculty-feel-pushed-academia-poor-workplace-climate

"For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."

- Carl Sagan, Contact (1985)

Not an ad. It’s just that my new phone case makes me smile. #anime #art

“If more of us valued food & cheer & song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

Looking at my female dominated grad cohort 20yrs ago, I expected we were going to be part of a shift to include more women in science as our careers advanced.

But retention percentages for women from student to full professor are the same now as they were when I started writing about it in the 2000s.

Academia doesn’t support #women in #science.

Having lived much of the last year in a country that has universal healthcare, it's heartbreaking to be back in the U.S. seeing families having to appeal to strangers online through gofundme sites bc they cannot afford outrageous medical bills while dealing with unimaginable tragedy.

According to OurWorldInData, 80 billion animals are slaughtered for food each year.

The scale of what eat (& waste) is massive, which contributes to #ClimateChange & degrades the environment.

In the US, we consume ~280lbs (127 kg) /person/year (not including fish & seafood).

Beef has the most significant environmental impact & Argentinians consume 104lbs (47 kg) of beef/person/year. #food

#SilentSunday #Australia #birds

A few brief thoughts on Musk:

1/ #Twitter was never worth $44B. That’s just what he paid.

2/ The platform lost value bc most companies don’t want to advertise alongside bigotry, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, transphobia & hate speech.

3/ Twitter is over. Long live the #fediverse.

Scientists in China have found evidence that our ancestors were almost entirely wiped out ~1 million years ago.

Why? #ClimateChange

While not every expert agrees, the research is intriguing & nostr:npub10mwv70vmglgla5ly5dflw49me04dwu3urm025zfe5kyfpzzm5gasgcxxep has the details: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/science/human-survival-bottleneck.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare #science

I’ve enjoyed a lot of these responses 🤭

You all make #Mastodon such a delight ⬇️

Tardigrades have survived every mass extinction on Earth since they evolved about a 1/2 billion years ago.There are ~1,300 known species.

And millions of years from now, they won’t even notice we’re gone.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tardigrades-turn-out-not-be-dna-thieves-180964236/ #nature Image: Eye of Science/Science Photo Library

My sweet pup's having surgery right now.

I wish we could have more time with our #dogs. We really don't deserve them.

We often think of #memes as popular photos, videos, or phrases online.

But the term “meme” was coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins to describe a behavior, style or idea as a unit of culture that can spread or disappear. From social movements to religion to Grumpy Cat.

Even though most folks may not be aware of it, we’re sharing a popular concept from #science, every single day, across #socialmedia.

If the #science community truly wants to make our work more accessible to policymakers & the public + increase support for & trust in our research, we shouldn't publish our work behind ridiculously expensive paywalls that very few people can access.