Plugging the leaky pipeline for UK female chemists

Plugging the leaky pre-B cell receptor.

Simpson’s Paradox in the interpretation of “leaky pipeline” data

The traditional ‘leaky pipeline’ plots are widely used to inform gender equality policy and practice. Herein, we demonstrate how a statistical phenomenon known as Simpson’s paradox can obscure trends in gender ‘leaky pipeline’ plots. Our approach has been to use Excel spreadsheets to generate hypothetical ‘leaky pipeline’ plots of gender inequality within an organisation. The principal factors,...

Fixing the leaky pipeline: women scientists in academia.

Although the number of women receiving doctorates and in academic positions has increased over the past 20 yr, females still are under-represented on university faculties. The extent of and reasons for this inequity are discussed. There are four critical periods that influence the retention of women in science: early childhood, adolescence, college, and the graduate school/job entry period. For...

Soft robotics for chemists.

In areas from assembly of machines to surgery, and from deactivation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to unmanned flight, robotics is an important and rapidly growing field of science and technology. It is currently dominated by robots having hard body plans—constructions largely of metal structural elements and conventional joints—and actuated by electrical motors, or pneumatic or hydrau...

Coordinating chemists for global development.

Chemistry has an important part to play when it comes to addressing some of the world’s most pressing societal issues, including water and food security, better health, and cleaner energy. Unfortunately, in countries for which these problems are most acute, teaching chemistry and conducting chemical research are typically difficult to achieve effectively. Many regions of the developing world su...