my transition state

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Hooray for realizing that you shouldn’t have to be thick skinned or put up with comments that make you feel bad about yourself/uncomfortable or could potentially make a visiting student feel this way! Just wanted to chime in, if you’re concerned about it, talk to the grad students in a lab to see if this stuff has come up before, if the PI was made aware of it, and how the PI handled it. @hood32 and I are fortunate to work for someone who sees the lack of women in STEM and specifically organic chemistry as an issue and has talked to both of us about why there are so few and seems keen on helping to improve this. When issues have been brought forward they were addressed rapidly and professionally, and I know that hasn’t been the case across the board for all labs. You can always get good information from students, and if you feel like they’re sugar-coating, go talk to them outside of lab and get a drink. 

Best looking chem lab ever

@ladychemistab, @hood32 things yall might want to be aware of? to join me in railing against the system?

Really interesting! Do you think any of it has to do with that in the lab we can't wear typically feminine articles of clothing (skirts, dresses, heels)? A number of times when I've told people I'm a chemist, strangers (people on planes, uber drivers, etc.) will respond "oh, you don't look like a chemist". Is this possibly because we have preconceived notions of what every profession should look like, or is it because I'm a small, young, blonde female...maybe both? Cool and relevant research for sure.

Sure, a lot of these are celebrities who have science/math degrees but I'm talking about people who are celebrity scientists (famous/public figure because they are a scientist). Most of the ladies you listed (while fantastic and brilliant) are not famous because they are scientists/educating the public on science and research aren't their profession (like Neil and Nye). Definitely great input though, there are some great female news presenters I just feel like they're always "consultants" not the stars.

My hands are really tiny too, just for reference!

Such a large label was asking for an adjustment. It just wanted to introduce itself!

no, foreign languages are very useful for chemistry, and machine translation is not that good yet.  many people publish in english now, but a lot of the older literature’s in german or french.  in my own work, i’ve cited literature in both these languages.  (i had to get my advisor to translate the german paper for me because she speaks it and i don’t.)  russian would probably also serve you well.

It can depend on experience (as with everything) but if you're in college now and are just starting a new language, I think it would be hard to get to the level where you could read/translate a scientific paper in that language while fitting in all of your chem classes...unless you did an immersion study abroad (also difficult with sciences). I took 12 years of Spanish and while I enjoyed it, I can't say where it's really been useful. If you like Russian and have room to take it, I say go for it!