Better Living Through Science: Women in STEM

A look at pioneering women in fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Aug 28, 2014

August 28, 2014

In the story we shared earlier this week you learned about Brittany Wegner, a young entrepreneurial scientist who has made breakthroughs in the technology of cancer diagnosis. Continuing in the thread of women in the STEM fields we bring you an in depth look of two women making strides in the fields of astronomy and nuclear non-proliferation, their educational journey, and the impact that women mentors in STEM had on them growing up.

In August of 2014 the Fields Medal, the Nobel Prize equivalent of mathematics, was awarded for the very first time in history to Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian woman. Women like Dr. Deidre Hunter, Astronomer and Deputy Director of Science at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and Dr. Patricia Lewis Research Director for International Security at Chatham House in London are prime examples of women who went against the grain and chose careers that inspired them to change the world. Whether it has been the work of a patriarchal education system, macro cultural conditioning, or a likely combination of the two, when women make up 48% of the U.S. work force and only represent 26% of STEM fields there are still radical shifts to be made.

The importance of modeling careers in STEM to younger women is paramount. “One person who was very influential to me was Vera Rubin,” said Dr. Hunter, “the astronomer who discovered that spiral galaxies rotate. She [Rubin] was passionate about promoting women in science, probably because she had seen so much discrimination during the course of her career. Because of pioneers like that, science is much more open to women today.” Dr. Deidre Hunter has made significant breakthroughs as a scientist and astronomer, researching irregular galaxies, star formation, and star clusters. Hunter grew up during the Apollo Program, and had a fervent desire to become an astronaut. “I thought walking on the moon or another planet would be so exciting,” said Hunter. “I quickly realized that I would never be an astronaut. I wear glasses and in those days astronauts were test pilots and they could not wear glasses. But thinking about it had made me want to know about the universe beyond earth, and I decided I would study what was out there instead.”

Dr. Patricia Lewis, part researcher, part superhero, hybridizes the practice of science with international policy. “I read all the astronomy books in our local library and I used to do science experiments in the kitchen as a young girl,” said Lewis, “[I] was lucky in that I went to an all girls school…my physics and math teachers were all women and we were expected to excel.” “[Now] I run a research department looking at all aspects of international security that ranges from the threat of microbes to the role of gender in international conflicts to nuclear weapons,” noted Lewis. “I am dedicated to doing everything I can to keep people safe from the scourge of war and to make sure that humanity survives this stage in our history.”

Lewis and Hunter’s view is that children need to be encouraged and engaged with STEM topics at an age when they will still be receptive. “I think the key is to get kids (girls and boys) excited about science early on. The 5th-8th grades are a prime time to influence them. It is between the early elementary years when kids are excited about everything and high school when kids lose that spontaneous excitement for the world,” states Hunter. Concurrently, it is integral for the work women have already done in the STEM fields to be recognized. The contribution of women to STEM subjects and professions has never been fully appreciated,” said Lewis. “STEM needs women and women need STEM.”

In addition to their work in the STEM fields, Hunter and Lewis have made teaching and education a fixture in their lives. “Since coming to Lowell Observatory, I co-founded an outreach program that works with teachers and their classes on the Hopi and Navajo Nations,” remarked Hunter. “Each year I partner with 5th-8th grade teachers conducting astronomy activities with their classes. I also hold star parties and bring the classes to Flagstaff to observe on Lowell’s research telescopes.” For Lewis, she has held teaching positions at the University of Birmingham, the University of Auckland New Zealand, the Imperial College, and was the Deputy Director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Clearly mentoring begets mentors as these two women’s past role-models have influenced their careers as scientists, and also their mission to help guide young people to find their path and engage in the worlds of science, technology, engineering, and math—a mission worth pursuing. Young girls like Brittany Wegner who created Cloud4Cancer, a web-based application that has correctly diagnosed 99.11% of 7.6 million cancer trials.

Add to Google News

More for You

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons & Flickr – Justin Bieber performs onstage (left) and at a Nintendo store in 2009 (right).

Culture, Music

Therapist shares why Justin Bieber’s duet with 13-year-old self was so incredibly moving

“I loved it so so much, aaaand now I’m crying again.”

Mark Wales

4/14/2026

Taking the stage at Coachella, singer Justin Bieber gave fans something unique: singing along to a YouTube video of himself at just 13, he harmonized on songs like “Baby,” “Never Say Never,” “With You,” and others.

Blake Roberts, a licensed therapist and self-proclaimed “dude,” shared his perspective on Bieber’s performance. While reactions to the appearance may be mixed, Roberts found it courageous.

View this post on Instagram

Therapist finds Bieber’s performance incredibly moving

“From the perspective of a therapist and dude, I have to talk about this Justin Bieber-Coachella thing,” Roberts said in an Instagram Reel. “If you’ve ever done any amount of inner child work, you can appreciate what that moment was.”

“That little boy was artistic and creative. Just doing his thing. Probably got made fun of a bunch, and then he gets thrown into this industry. And he loses parts of himself, and people probably take advantage of him,” he added.

Roberts turned the performance into a learning experience, discussing a form of therapy known as inner child work:

“Like we watched this man’s trauma, and yet he still shared a moment with us. Like a peek inside what it looks like to do inner child work. What looks like to look back at the younger versions of ourselves who have been rejected, who have been abused, who we ourselves have left behind. And to look at them with compassion and see them from the purity that they were.”

View this post on Instagram

Mixed reactions to Coachella performance

Bieber’s performance relied heavily on nostalgia and early-career callbacks. A review in Entertainment Weekly described the set as “lacking some swag.” For much of the performance, Bieber sat at a desk onstage, scrolling through viral videos of himself.

Despite negative feedback on his set, some fans appeared to be very appreciative of Bieber. One fan commented on Roberts’ Instagram post, saying, “I loved it so so much, aaaand now I’m crying again.”

Regardless of whether people admire what the artist did, Roberts saw an opportunity to highlight recovery and the value of therapy. Bieber’s duet with his younger self could be seen as a meaningful act of openness and vulnerability. Roberts reflected, saying, “I thought it was pretty crazy. I could feel it.”

Bieber’s challenges scrutinized by the public

For those unfamiliar with Bieber’s personal life, he has faced some rough patches, as rumors have circulated about a struggling marriage and financial difficulties.

The obstacles began to appear in 2017, when Bieber pulled out of a world tour due to mental exhaustion. In 2022, he posted on Instagram about the challenges of dealing with Ramsay Hunt syndrome. The illness occurs when the chickenpox virus reactivates later in life, causing facial weakness. Bieber said he was experiencing facial paralysis on his right side, which led him to cancel his tour again.

View this post on Instagram

There have also been allegations, including claims of drug use and questions about Bieber’s friendship with Sean “Diddy” Combs dating back to his youth. Clips have resurfaced showing Bieber as a teenager spending time with the music mogul. However, Bieber has not made any clear, on-the-record statements about that time.

Keep Reading →
Photo credit: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images – A monkey swipes a soda in Thailand.

Environment, Science

City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world

Why squirrels, monkeys and ibises get bolder in cities.

Good Partner

4/14/2026

Daniel T. Blumstein

Peter Mikula

Piotr Tryjanowski

The urban monkeys in New Delhi are so bold they’ll steal the lunch right off your plate. If you’ve spent time in New York, you’ve probably seen squirrels try to do the same. Sydney’s white ibises got the nickname “bin chickens” for stealing trash and sandwiches.

This brazen behavior isn’t normal for most species in the countryside, yet it shows up in urban wildlife, and not just in these cities.

Studies show that animals living in urban environments around the world exhibit common sets of behaviors. At the same time, these urban animals are losing traits they would need in the wild. This process of urban animals’ behavior becoming more similar is known as “behavioral homogenization,” and it accompanies the loss of species diversity with urbanization.

Squirrels in New York’s Central Park have no qualms about rifling through your belongings and stealing your food. Keystone/Getty Images

We study animals in urban settings to understand how humans can help wildlife thrive in an urbanizing world. In a new study, we explore the causes and the long-term consequences of these behavior changes for urban wildlife.

What makes animals in cities similar?

Cities, despite their local differences, share many of the same features worldwide: They are warmer than the surrounding countryside, noisy, polluted by light and, most importantly, dominated by people.

New York’s squirrels, New Delhi’s monkeys, gulls in coastal cities of the U.K. and other urban wildlife have learned that people are a source of food. And because people typically don’t harm the animals, city-dwelling animals learn not to fear people.

Cities drive evolution as well. Humans and the changes we’ve brought to cities have led to the survival of bolder animals, and those bolder animals pass on their traits to future generations. In genetics, scientists refer to this as the environment “selecting” for those traits.

It’s not just sandwich-stealing that is more common among city wildlife; urban birds also sound more alike.

Why? Cities are loud and filled with traffic noise, so those who can effectively communicate in that environment are more likely to survive and pass on those traits.

For example, urban birds may sing louder, start singing earlier in the morning or at higher frequencies to avoid getting drowned out by low-frequency traffic noise.

Cities select for smart individuals and species because that’s what it takes to survive.

Animals may behave similarly in cities because they learn from each other how to exploit novel human food sources. For instance, the cockatoos in Sydney have learned to open trash bins. In Toronto, the raccoons are in a race to outwit humans as urban wildlife managers try to design animal-proof trash bins.

The buildings and bridges in cities become home to bats, birds, and other urban dwellers, at the cost of learning to use more natural nesting sites. Roads and culverts modify how and where animals move.

While rural animals may forage at a variety of places and eat a variety of foods, urban animals may concentrate on garbage bins or rubbish dumps where they know they can find food, but they end up eating a potentially unhealthy diet.

Consequences of similar behaviors

The loss of behavioral diversity is happening everywhere that humans increase their footprint on nature. This is worrisome on several levels.

At the population level, behavioral variation may reflect genetic variation. Genetic variation gives species the ability to respond to future environmental change. For example, for animals that have evolved to breed at a specific time of the year, urban heat islands can select for earlier breeding.

Reducing genetic variation leaves populations less able to respond to future changes. In that sense, having genetic variation resembles a diversified investment portfolio: Spreading risk across a variety of stocks and bonds lowers the risk that a single shock will wipe out everything.

An ibis picks through a trash bin in Sydney. Greg Wood/AFP via Getty Images

Moreover, as animals become tamer, new conflicts between animals and humans may emerge. For instance, there may be more car crashes, animal bites, property damage and zoonotic disease transmission. Such conflicts cost money and may harm both the animals and humans.

Losing behavioral diversity is also troubling for conservation.

When a species loses behavioral diversity, it loses resilience against future environmental change in the wild, making reintroducing urban animals to the wild harder.

Losing behavioral diversity also risks erasing socially learned, population-specific behaviors, such as local migration routes, foraging techniques, tool-use traditions or vocal dialects.

For example, Australia’s regent honeyeater populations have been shrinking and are critically endangered. The isolation of having fewer of their own species around has disrupted normal song-learning behavior, making it harder for male birds to sing attractive songs that help them find mates and breed successfully.

Ultimately, behavioral homogenization is making wildlife in cities such as Los Angeles, Lima, Lagos and Lahore behave in similar ways despite living in different environments and having different evolutionary histories.

Many of these behaviors influence survival and reproduction, so understanding this form of diversity loss is important for successful wildlife conservation, as well as future urban planning.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.

Keep Reading →
Photo credit: National Cancer Institute on Unsplash, CC BY – A doctor at the National Cancer Institute talks with a patient.

Care, Health

Health care sticker shock has become the norm, but talking to your doctor about costs can help you rein it in

Three questions that can lower your medical bill.

Good Partner

4/14/2026

Helen Colby

Deidre Popovich

As health care costs rise, patients aren’t just shouldering higher bills. They’re bearing more and more responsibility for getting information.

Americans are facing a health care affordability crunch on multiple fronts. In 2025, the Republican-controlled Congress approved a sweeping tax law that scaled back premium subsidies for Americans accessing care through the Affordable Care Act starting in 2026. As a result, millions on ACA plans now face much higher premiums, with many dropping out or expecting to drop out and risk going uninsured as premiums surge. By March 2026, about 1 in 10 people on ACA plans had dropped out, and that share is expected to rise.

Meanwhile, high-deductible insurance plans have become more common, requiring patients to pay thousands of dollars before coverage fully kicks in. The rise of those plans, along with surging drug prices and the growing share of Americans who are under- or uninsured, means that medical debt remains a leading source of financial strain.

Nearly half of U.S. adults now report difficulty affording health care. Together, these shifts are accelerating the “consumerization” of health care. Patients now have the ability to comparison shop, evaluate options and manage costs – but often without clear pricing. In this environment, knowing how to ask the right questions may be one of the most important tools patients have.

We are professors who study how perceptions of health care costs shape patients’ decisions about their care. Our research examines how factors such as price-transparency regulations influence patient choices. Across our work, we consistently hear from patients about rising costs and how conversations about price with their providers too often never happen.

Why speaking up about cost matters

When one of us took our child to the doctor for pink eye, the pediatrician quickly sent a prescription for antibiotic drops to the pharmacy. At the pickup, the pharmacist dropped the news that the drops would cost more than US$300. A follow-up phone call to the doctor’s office, however, yielded important information: A generic version of the same medication offered the same treatment and the same results, but at a fraction of the price.

That quick phone call saved her a lot of money. It also raised a broader question: Why don’t more people have these conversations about cost? In fact, one study shows that cost conversations occur in only about 30% of medical visits.

These discussions aren’t just for medications. They can be crucial when a recommended procedure has multiple alternatives; when out-of-pocket costs might affect whether you follow through on care; or when a sudden medical bill could create financial strain. Speaking up about price can help patients stay healthier and avoid the all-too-common trade-off between medical care and household expenses.

The study mentioned above also found that doctors and patients identified ways to reduce out-of-pocket costs – such as switching to a generic drug or adjusting the timing of care – in nearly half of those cases. Importantly, these conversations were typically brief and did not compromise the quality of care, the researchers found.

Patients actually prefer doctors who bring up costs, other research has found. Still, most patients remain hesitant. While a majority say they want to discuss cost, only a minority actually do, often waiting until a bill arrives – often when it’s too late to consider alternatives. That’s why it’s important that consumers feel empowered to ask the right questions. Here are three that can help make care more affordable.

A patient works on a medical billing form. Mael Balland on Unsplash., CC BY

Is there a generic or lower-cost alternative?

One of the simplest ways to reduce drug costs is to ask whether a less expensive option is available. Brand-name medications can cost significantly more than generics, even when they are equally effective. One industry survey estimated that 90% of all prescriptions filled in 2024 were generic or biosimilar, but these accounted for only 12% of drug spending.

In many cases, physicians can substitute a generic drug or recommend a similar treatment that achieves the same outcome at a lower price. And when no direct generic exists, there may be therapeutic alternatives worth considering. For example, if a brand-name eye drop or inhaler isn’t available in generic form, doctors can often prescribe a different medication in the same class that works just as well but costs far less. Research on physician–patient cost conversations shows that switching to lower-cost, clinically similar alternatives within the same drug class is a common strategy for reducing out-of-pocket spending without compromising care.

Is there any financial assistance available?

Some hospitals and large health systems have specific programs aimed at making care more affordable for lower-income patients. In many states, government programs address this same goal. These programs often offer discounts on care, but they can be complex to navigate and require significant paperwork. Many health care offices have staff who are knowledgeable about these programs and can help patients determine eligibility and sometimes even assist with applications, although the Trump administration has cut funding.

Patients can often find these programs through hospital or health system websites, which typically include financial assistance or “charity care” pages outlining eligibility and how to apply. State Medicaid offices and insurance marketplaces are also key entry points for coverage and subsidy programs. Nonprofit organizations and patient advocacy groups may also offer or list assistance tailored to specific conditions or medications.

It’s also important to remember that for prescription medications, what you’re quoted isn’t always the final price. Many medications come with options to reduce costs, including manufacturer coupons, copay assistance programs and patient assistance programs. Doctors’ offices and pharmacists may also know practical ways to save money, such as using a different pharmacy, switching to mail order or adjusting how a prescription is written. Asking about these options can uncover savings that aren’t immediately obvious.

What will this cost me, and are there other options?

Health care pricing is often opaque, and costs can vary widely depending on where and how care is delivered. Asking up front about your expected out-of-pocket cost can help you avoid surprises later.

This question also opens the door to alternatives. For example, patients may be able to choose a lower-cost imaging center, opt for outpatient rather than hospital-based care, or delay nonurgent services until insurance coverage improves.

Speaking up is part of taking care of your health

Health care decisions shouldn’t feel like a choice between your well-being and your wallet. A brief, honest conversation about cost can lead to more affordable and more sustainable care.

Physicians can’t address financial concerns they don’t hear about, and most want to help their patients access care they can realistically follow through on. As costs continue to shift toward the patient’s burden, asking these questions isn’t just helpful – it’s essential.

The next time you’re handed a prescription or a referral, remember: One simple question about price could make all the difference.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.

Keep Reading →