{kris-uh-nom-iks}

Hidden Figures + my fave looks

Science is a social construct. It only exists because we, humans, do it. And we are full of, often unconscious, bias. We, as scientists, can’t separate ourselves from the society that we’re a product of, which is sexist and racist and ableist and transphobic, so, at some level, the science we produce will also carry those biases. 

So no matter how much we want to think of ourselves as unbiased seekers of truth, we aren’t. Not really. In plenty of cases this doesn’t really matter, however, there are tons of examples where it does. Where the questions we ask and the problems we construct and base our research around are based on said bias. Or the way we interpret results. 

Society is rigged to benefit those in power, and thus, science is too. Especially when you consider that the vast majority of funding comes from the government. 

To say that science is objective and only, inherently, a force for good in the world is at best simplistic and at worst actively harmful. Has it done a lot of good? Of course, unquestioningly. But it’s also done a lot of harm, both historically and currently. 

Fucking science

FUCKING SCIENCE

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

littleanimalgifs.tumblr.com

Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

reddit.com

Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

vinegar and bleach makes chlorine gas, which is highly toxic

ammonia and bleach makes chloramine, which is highly toxic

rubbing alcohol and bleach makes chloroform, which is highly toxic

hydrogen peroxide and vinegar makes peracetic/peroxyacetic acid, which can be highly corrosive

be up front and honest about the things you do not know

acknowledge the intrinsic value of others’ knowledge bases, even if they do not seem important to you from your institutional context

do not feign mastery where you have none

respect the gaps in others’ knowledge bases

be generous, not only with others

but also with yourself

you overwork yourself at the risk of legitimizing a culture of overwork 

privilege voices and perspectives that have historically been left out of the academy

nothing is ever neutral or apolitical

support the progress of other scholars

Deadline opens September 2016 and closes October 14, 2016 at 11:59 p.m. EDT

The 2017 conferences will be held Friday, January 13 through Sunday afternoon, January 15, 2017.

Harvard University

McMaster University

Montana State University

Princeton University

Rice University

University of California Los Angeles

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Wisconsin

Virginia Tech

Wayne State University

The APS CUWiP goal is to help undergraduate women continue in physics by providing them with the opportunity to experience a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions in physics, and access to other women in physics of all ages with whom they can share experiences, advice, and ideas.

A typical program will include research talks by faculty, panel discussions about graduate school and careers in physics, presentations and discussions about women in physics, laboratory tours, student research talks, a student poster session, and several meals during which presenters and students interact with each other.

Travel Information

Food and accommodations are provided by the conferences. You should contact your physics department to determine whether they can support the cost of your travel to and from the conference. The person to contact would normally be the chair of the department or a student services officer; if you are unsure who to contact, ask one of your professors or mentors for advice. Some travel support is available to students whose home institution is unable to provide full funding for travel.

CUWiP Sites

Yesterday I made a post talking about how I bombed a quiz in Quantum Mechanics. Yes, that’s right. We had a quiz on both the first and second days of class. My professor hinted at having a quiz but wasn’t clear about what would be on it. So I studied what ended up being the wrong topic (I wasn’t the only one to do so) and bombed it.

Someone commented,

“You should go into IT sciences instead 😂😂😂“

I should change my entire major because of one quiz? Really? Is that really what you’re suggesting to me? Anyone who changes their major over one quiz is an idiot. Seriously. If you give up at the first sign of struggle you will go nowhere in any part of your life. One quiz does not determine your ability to do well in a specific field.

Even more so, I would argue that one class shouldn’t make you change your major, either, and that’s the real point I want to make here. A lot of people freshman year switch from a major in the natural sciences to a major in either social sciences or business right after the first semester. Maybe they honestly just didn’t like it anymore. Or maybe they failed an important class or barely passed and thought that meant they should quit.

But it really doesn’t mean you should quit.

I had one really bad semester in my physics degree. In the PHY-201 class, Fields and Waves, I got a C-. But I really felt like I deserved to fail. It definitely made me question my ability as a physicist. So much. I was having a huge identity crisis because I was trying to go into physics instead of chemistry, but if I couldn’t get through the first sophomore class how would I get through the rest of it? I was in a head spin because I had no idea what to do with my future if it didn’t include physics. Physics was my plan.

Well, it’s good I stuck with it. Because you know what I got in the PHY-203 class, Modern Physics? An A. And the math classes after that? An A-.

I fumbled in Fields and Waves. I fumbled a lot. But I learned from my mistakes. I made mistakes. I did some things wrong. I didn’t prepare like I should have. I had three other hard lab science/math classes at the same time. And the professor was a lot harder than the professor I had for my previous two physics classes. I recognized that there were things with my situation, whether they were my fault or not, that led me to a poor grade. I realized it, then I made a change.

If you’re considering changing your major, give it some thought. Do you not like the field or did you just not like that specific class? Will you always be doomed to fail or is there a skill you can improve on to do better in the future? Do you need a flawless GPA or can you just manage with the degree?

Really think about these things. Because sometimes people give up on something they would have loved just because it was hard at first.

And honestly, I personally love that physics is hard. I hate studying for chemistry because, relatively speaking, it’s much easier (for me) than physics. So I’m not as interested in spending my time studying it. I really like the challenge that physics and math give me, so I enjoy studying for those classes.  I didn’t give up my chemistry major (obviously; I’m a double major) but I realized I don’t like chemistry. And it has nothing to do with my ability. I just don’t like it. I don’t like studying it or being in lab. Whether it’s class or research.

Physics on the other hand, yeah. I struggled a bit at first. But I’ve learned and improved. And I really enjoy the subject matter. That’s why I stick with it. Because I enjoy it and I know that the only thing standing between me and my success in physics is the work I put into it.

If you have an Device with Siri, switch it to your target language and use for pronunciation practice.

If you’re in middle school or in high school or in college or whatever, work hard, get good grades, etc.

But LIVE a little. I Hermione-ed it out all throughout school, and forgot to relax. I felt at the end of senior year in high school that I needed a whole other year before graduation just to do all the fun things I didn’t do because I was too busy freaking out about school.