#humanactions

#YesAllWomen tweets reveal persistent sexism in science By Fiona MacDonald via ScienceAlert. | Image Credit: First three images via ScienceAlert via Twitter, fourth image via Twitter.

Reading through the tweets on the #yesallwomen hashtag is heartbreaking, illuminating and frustrating all at the same time. 

And if you’re a woman, you’ll be nodding along to nine out of 10 of them.

The hashtag started after it was revealed that 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, lead suspect in the Isla Vista shooting, had shared extremely disturbing and misogynistic views in a video posted shortly before the attack.

Instead of flooding the internet with Rodger-specific fury, Twitter took the discussion to the next level and remind the world that sexism is still very much present across society, and #YesAllWomen experience it.

Among those tweets were many honest and confronting admissions of sexism from female scientists, students and communicators.

This isn't the first time the issue of misogyny in science has been brought up, but it's always sad and shocking to see certain opinions persist when females have come such a long way in the field.

As ScienceAlert is staffed almost entirely by women, we though we’d add a few of our own:

Because only 44 out of 835 Nobel Prize laureates are women.

Because senior scientists would still rather hire males, and pay them more.

Because people are still shocked when we tell them ScienceAlert is run by women.

Remembering Past & Present Unsung Heroes During Black History Month | Image Credits: First image via Beyonce's Site. Second image via Biography Site. Third image via Bessie Coleman's Site.

In honor of African American men and women who have worked diligently dedicating their lives to inspire our future, I want to shine a spotlight on their achievements and sacrifices during Black History Month. These are some of the unsung heroes, past and present. For 28 days I will highlight their stories in hopes to inspire, motivate and move you. - Beyonce's Black History Month Spotlight

Second Image: Edward Bouchet, the son of a former slave, grew up in Connecticut with limited educational opportunities. However, he became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Yale in 1874 and the 6th American of any race to earn one in physics. He taught for 26 years at the Institute for Colored Youth and several other universities until his death in 1918, serving as an inspiration to generations of young African Americans.

Learn more about Edward Bouchet here.

Third Image: Born to a Native American father and an African American mother, Bessie Coleman faced many hardships during her childhood. After seeing some newsreels on aviation, she became interested in becoming a pilot, but no U.S flight schools would accept her because she was a black female. She saved enough money to go to France where women could be pilots. In 1921, she became the first black woman in the world to own a pilot's license.

Learn more about Bessie Coleman here.

By Clara Moskowitz | Scientific American

Earth is not prepared for the threat of hazardous rocks from space, say astronauts who helped formulate the U.N. measures

When a meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February, the world’s space agencies found out along with the rest of us, on Twitter and YouTube. That, says former astronaut Ed Lu, is unacceptable—and the United Nations agrees. Last week the General Assembly approved a set of measures that Lu and other astronauts have recommended to protect the planet from the dangers of rogue asteroids. 

The U.N. plans to set up an “International Asteroid Warning Group” for member nations to share information about potentially hazardous space rocks. If astronomers detect an asteroid that poses a threat to Earth, the U.N.’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will help coordinate a mission to launch a spacecraftto slam into the object and deflect it from its collision course.  

Lu and other members of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) recommended these steps to the U.N. as a first step to address at the long-neglected problem of errant space rocks.  “No government in the world today has explicitly assigned the responsibility for planetary protection to any of its agencies,” ASE member Rusty Schweickart, who flew on the Apollo 9 mission in 1969, said at the museum. “NASA does not have an explicit responsibility to deflect an asteroid, nor does any other space agency.” The ASE advocates that each nation delegate responsibility for dealing with a potential asteroid impact to an internal agency—before the event is upon us.

The next step in defending Earth against dangerous asteroids is to find them, Lu said. “There are 100 times more asteroids out there than we have found. There are about 1 million asteroids large enough to destroy New York City or larger. Our challenge is to find these asteroids first before they find us.”

Early warning is important because it increases the chance of being able to deflect a threatening asteroid once it is found. If a spacecraft struck an asteroid 5 or 10 years before the rock was due to hit Earth, a slight orbital alternation should be enough to make it pass Earth by; if the asteroid wasn’t detected soon enough, evacuating the impact zone may be the only option available. “If we don’t find it until a year out, make yourself a nice cocktail and go out and watch,” Schweickart quipped.

The B612 Foundation, a non profit Lu founded to address the problem of asteroid impacts, is developing a privately funded infrared space telescope called Sentinel, which it hopes to launch in 2017. The telescope would begin a systematic search for hazardous near-Earth objects.

The Science of Flaming Farts. By Esther Inglis-Arkell | io9 | Image Credit: Gif made by The Science of Reality, video via Youtube.

You know you've always wondered why farting on a lighter causes a brief burst of flame. Believe it or not, there is rarely any methane in farts, and so methane is not what’s burning when farts are ignited. Find out what does, and why some farts ignite and others don’t.

It’s a commonly-held belief that farts contain methane, which is why they smell and they can ignite. And this would be true, if people were cows. Actually, the gut bacteria of humans generally don’t produce methane. There are certain kinds, which live in a certain percentage of the population, that do produce methane, but it’s far from in the majority of farts.

What actually makes it through your body will depend on many things, including what you put in. Eggs, cauliflower, and meats are often more sulfur-rich and so add a little hydrogen sulfide to the final, ah, product. As for the rest, the largest component is often nitrogen, which is already a good portion of the atmosphere, and so doesn’t ignite all that readily.

What will? Mostly it’s the hydrogen in the hydrogen sulfide that’s released. Occasionally, if the person does have the lucky gut that produces methane, it will burn along with the hydrogen. In order to get the most flammable fart, people will generally eat sulfur-rich foods. It’s not a good idea to hold them in and store them up, as to those who have tested the technique a held-in fart is less likely to catch fire.

A typical breakdown of the chemical composition of farts via About.com's Chemistry section:

Nitrogen: 20-90%

Hydrogen: 0-50% (flammable)

Carbon dioxide: 10-30%

Oxygen: 0-10%

Methane: 0-10% (flammable)

Oh, but don’t go for the matches just yet. About a quarter of the fart igniters get burned in the process. There is no way to stress how little anyone likes to get burned in that area. Worse, the ignition of the released fart can ignite gasses higher up the intestinal tract, and sometimes, high in the intestinal tract, there will be swallowed oxygen. Oxygen is swallowed daily, but generally doesn’t make it out of the body because it is so readily absorbed into cells.

Oxygen is also likely to ignite explosively if heated, and this has happened during surgical procedures carried out in the intestinal area – though there is no record of it happening when someone tried to ignite their farts. Still, it’s a bad idea to take even the most remote chance on an internal Hindenburg. Just let this knowledge seep into your mind, and keep your downstairs area well clear of it.