Women’s History Month
“Our” month is nearing its end. Did you, women readers, feel honored this month?
I have enjoyed New York Times special pieces during Women’s History Month. But it is not one of those that I want to share. Instead, it is an article that captivated me. It’s not even about women, but about birds.
I decided I could use it today because it was written by a woman reporter, writing about a woman scientist, and because it’s intriguing.
Woman Writer, Woman Scientist, and Bird Song
Birds alter their songs to overcome noise in their environment. “Scholars of bird song have long noticed that avian city dwellers sound different from their peers in the country,” the article says.
“But Dr. Warrington wanted to understand how wild birds adapt to the pumps and drills that oil and gas development has brought to wide swaths of North America.”
What she and her team found is that the sparrows they studied change certain parts of their song to adjust to the noise from the equipment.
I found this most amazing. There is a recording included in the article. I couldn’t hear the difference in the birds’ songs, but there is a visualization included that I could understand.
Five Women Scientists
Five women who changed our world but were ignored are the subject of a book reviewed in the Beacon Press. According to the article, these are “women whose contributions to science have changed the way the world spins on its axis.” Appropriate for Women’s History Month!
The author Angela Saini reminds us that women who did not become famous were equally important as, maybe more than, those who did! Her book is Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story,
She describes Lise Meitner as “the unsung hero of nuclear fission, having played an essential role in its discovery—a fact we would all be better aware of if she hadn’t failed to win the Nobel Prize that was rightfully hers.”
I especially loved the final section of the Beacon Press piece: “As recently as forty years ago, the Nanadukan Agta women in the Filipino island of Luzon were the complete antithesis of what comes to mind when we talk about hunter-gatherer communities. Not only were most of the women enthusiastic hunters by choice, they often carried their babies and children with them on hunting trips and split tasks like childcare, cooking, and building with men.”
Do you have a favorite story from Women’s History Month?
Moses’ Tablet
I asked Alexa and she told me something about Chinese New Year.
4 Comments
Leave a reply →