|
⇤ ← Revision 1 as of 2017-12-26 18:26:29
Size: 483
Comment:
|
Size: 1920
Comment:
|
| Deletions are marked like this. | Additions are marked like this. |
| Line 8: | Line 8: |
Mathematically-trained women "computers" contributed to the design of space vehicles and missions at JPL. This book describes their dresses in more detail than it describes the actual math. These skilled women balanced work and family in an unenlighted age, and the book dwells on their struggles rather than their cleverness. These smart women may have followed rote procedures designed by male scientists and engineers, but I imagine they also discovered more efficient and accurate ways to do their work, and made specific technical contributions that I would love to read about. This book reminds me of the 1992 talking Barbie doll that said "math class is tough". In order to reach the mathematically illiterate, the book avoids stimulating the mathematical imaginations of the next generation. How will girls learn that their junior high math books are a stepping stone towards designing future space missions - or a cure for AIDS? Dr. Holt received a PhD in biomedical science from Tulane for anti-HIV gene therapy in "humanized" mice; and wrote [[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525953922ASIN:0525953922 | Cured]] about that (which I haven't read). In [[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465097901 | Rigor Mortis]], Richard Harris describes how poor mathematical reasoning in the life sciences leads to failed cures and wasted billions in biomedical research. Math avoidance costs lives, as well as our future in space. |
Nathalia Holt
Rise of the Rocket Girls
2016 Beaverton Library, 839.4092 HOL
This book is about the personal lives of women working as "computers" at JPL, mostly before the advent of digital computers.
Mathematically-trained women "computers" contributed to the design of space vehicles and missions at JPL. This book describes their dresses in more detail than it describes the actual math. These skilled women balanced work and family in an unenlighted age, and the book dwells on their struggles rather than their cleverness.
These smart women may have followed rote procedures designed by male scientists and engineers, but I imagine they also discovered more efficient and accurate ways to do their work, and made specific technical contributions that I would love to read about.
This book reminds me of the 1992 talking Barbie doll that said "math class is tough". In order to reach the mathematically illiterate, the book avoids stimulating the mathematical imaginations of the next generation. How will girls learn that their junior high math books are a stepping stone towards designing future space missions - or a cure for AIDS?
Dr. Holt received a PhD in biomedical science from Tulane for anti-HIV gene therapy in "humanized" mice; and wrote Cured about that (which I haven't read). In Rigor Mortis, Richard Harris describes how poor mathematical reasoning in the life sciences leads to failed cures and wasted billions in biomedical research. Math avoidance costs lives, as well as our future in space.
Cured: How the Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science
2014 Beaverton Library 614.5993 HOL
Haven't read yet. Does it extrapolate too much from two patients? We'll see