The Math of Matilda

The Math of Matilda

In 1993, sci­ence his­to­ri­an Mar­garet Rossiter intro­duced the term the Matil­da Effect. Writ­ing in the jour­nal Social Stud­ies of Sci­ence, Rossiter described a recur­ring pattern

“Obviously Bold.” A Feminist Generation Keeps Marching

“Obviously Bold.” A Feminist Generation Keeps Marching

Pod­cast tran­scripts Wel­come to Math! Sci­ence! His­to­ry! I’m Gabrielle Bir­chak, your host. For Women’s His­to­ry Month, I want­ed to fea­ture one bril­liant thing, one clean win, and one woman whose work still qui­et­ly runs the world, even if most of us do not real­ize it. Today’s “one bril­liant thing” was a sort­ing sys­tem. A clas­si­fi­ca­tion scheme. A way to take the universe,

Read More

Flashcards! The Archive that Survives

Flashcards! The Archive that Survives

If you have ever felt your stom­ach drop when you’ve lost a file on your com­put­er, then you already under­stand the first les­son of his­to­ry. His­to­ry is not only made by peo­ple. His­to­ry is also made by what survives. 

Benjamin Banneker, the Black Authority that Shaped DC

Benjamin Banneker, the Black Authority that Shaped DC

The nation spoke in the lan­guage of lib­er­ty, but it had been built to deny lib­er­ty. It praised rea­son, but it fenced rea­son off by race. Yet here was a self-taught Black astronomer doing pre­cise fed­er­al work for the cap­i­tal of the Unit­ed States.

Hobbes v. Boyle: Who Decides Scientific Facts

Hobbes v. Boyle: Who Decides Scientific Facts

In the 1600s, philoso­pher Thomas Hobbes and exper­i­men­tal sci­en­tist Robert Boyle clashed over a strange new machine, the air pump, and a dan­ger­ous ques­tion: when should soci­ety trust sci­en­tif­ic claims, and who gets to decide? Their dis­agree­ment wasn’t just about experiments … 

The Sun Dagger: How Ancient Puebloans Made Calendars from Sunlight

The Sun Dagger: How Ancient Puebloans Made Calendars from Sunlight

Before cal­en­dars were print­ed, before clocks ticked, and before num­bers were writ­ten, humans looked up. We looked up at the sky not just to admire the beau­ty of the stars and celes­tial bod­ies, but also to pre­dict the best times for plant­i­ng and har­vest­ing crops. So stargaz­ing was not just an enjoy­able endeav­or; it was a method of sur­vival. In

Read More

FLASHCARDS! Imagination Is the Engine of Science.

FLASHCARDS! Imagination Is the Engine of Science.

TRANSCRIPTS Wel­come to Flash­cards Fri­days! If you had a chance to lis­ten to Tuesday’s episode, I inter­viewed the the­o­ret­i­cal physi­cist Dr. Ronald Mal­lett, who shares how a moment of heart­break in his child­hood became the foun­da­tion for his entire sci­en­tif­ic career. It’s an inspir­ing inter­view, and I hope you lis­ten to it. Today I’m fol­low­ing up on his con­clud­ing state­ment, and

Read More