A banner year for female Nobel laureates highlights incremental but steady progress for women in science's mostly male bastions, say experts who point to greater funding and career opportunities for women than ever before.
A record five women were awarded Nobels this year - nearly one-eighth of the 41 awards to female recipients in the 108-year history of the prize.
Until now, the highest number of women honoured in a single year was three, in 2004.
This year's winners included: Herta Mueller who took the literature prize;Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider for physiology or medicine; Ada Yonath for chemistry; and in a major breakthrough, Elinor Ostrom for economics - the first time a woman has won in that field.
Ten women have won the prestigious medicine award since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901, but 2009 marks the first time that two women received the award in the same year. Dr Greider said a sort of emerging old girls' network is aiding women researchers who have been boxed out of high-power science careers by the more traditional old boys' network.
"I think there's a slight bias of women to work for women, because there's still a slight cultural bias for men to help men," she said in Monday's New York Times ."It's not that they are biased against women or want to hurt them. They just don't think of them. And they often feel more comfortable promoting their male colleagues," she told the Times .Donna Dean, an eminent US researcher and regulatory scientist, said one reason women did not always receive the accolades they deserved had to do with their status at the bottom
of the totem pole at research labs and in academia.
"Women have always carried out research at the highest levels; it is just that they were so often not Elinor Ostrom recognised - or nominated for the prestigious prizes - for that work when their male colleagues and peers have been," she said.
"We still have much work to do to assure full recognition for research well done," Dr Dean added.
New laureate Dr Yonath told an interviewer last year that in a world where there were not many women role models in science, she reached back for inspiration to Marie Curie, the first woman scientist to be awarded a Nobel - twice, for physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911.
"I think the population is losing half of the human brain power by not encouraging women to go into the sciences. Women can do great things if they are encouraged to do so," Dr Yonath said.
Ms Ostrom,76, said she was "very surprised" to learn she had won, but hoped this year's awards serve as inspiration to a new generation of female students and researchers.
"I think in many of the sciences,especially the social sciences, it has been only recently that women were full professors, getting grants, doing research," she told National Public Radio yesterday.
"It doesn't say anything about their abilities, it's whether the opportunities were there. And now, slowly but surely,opportunities are being made available,and women are doing great."
Some experts said the number of Nobels awarded to women this year is a sign that, however slowly, US government and research institutions have tried to level the playing field for women in the sciences.
All but one of the women who won 2009 Nobels were Americans, they note.
The lone woman who was not - Dr Yonath, an Israeli - conducted much of her post-doctoral research in US institutions.
"That more US women are showing up as Nobel Prize winners is a reflection of the support and funding for their research that US scientists have received from federal agencies ... as well as from private foundations over the past two to three decades," said Ms Dean.
She noted that this year's Nobel successes are the fruit of years of nurturing women within scientific institutions.
"Given that the US government actively promoted and supported equal access of women scientists to funding and participation in agency grant programmes and processes since the mid to late 70s, the pipeline of productive and outstanding women US scientists is now quite robust," said Dr Dean, who recently ended a two-year stint as president of the Association for Women in Science.
She said that as more women reach academic and professional success in the sciences, they increasingly serve as mentors to female protegees, making more future recognition increasingly likely.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
HAVE "PUUYAI" FALLEN IN ESTEEM OF OUR YOUTH?
Is one of our most popular national values under threat? In a public sruvey, respondents displayed an obviously wavering faith in the old adage "Follow puuyai (senior persons) and dogs won't bite you". Today's young people, the pollsters say, seem to have more confidence in themselves as the "bdlief index" has dropped from 98.6 in the previous survey to 95 this time (100 points is considered historically normal level of belief).
The pollsters' interpretation of the results may be too kind to today's adults. Perhaps this issue of trust has as much to do with adult's trustworthiness as young people's growing self-reliance. Locally and internationaly, youngsters have been withnessing silly political conflicts, absurdd reasons for wars and a much-advocated economic system teetering on an abyss' edge, to name just a few.
They have learned how common it is for adults to be hypocrites, and such bad ones at that, And every day yields a new lesson on double standards, nepotism, prejudice and etc.
So, it's basically good news that young people are not trusting adults as much as before. And why should they? it is the childen now who are begging their puuyai to stop smoking. The anti-climate change campaign has been utilising the energy and sincerity of today's adolescents. Digital innovations have been dominated if not monopolised by young people.
They, of course, don't play politics, and it's no surprise politics is where the world's mess is concentrated, and where, no pun intended, everyone is acting like a child.
The pollsters' interpretation of the results may be too kind to today's adults. Perhaps this issue of trust has as much to do with adult's trustworthiness as young people's growing self-reliance. Locally and internationaly, youngsters have been withnessing silly political conflicts, absurdd reasons for wars and a much-advocated economic system teetering on an abyss' edge, to name just a few.
They have learned how common it is for adults to be hypocrites, and such bad ones at that, And every day yields a new lesson on double standards, nepotism, prejudice and etc.
So, it's basically good news that young people are not trusting adults as much as before. And why should they? it is the childen now who are begging their puuyai to stop smoking. The anti-climate change campaign has been utilising the energy and sincerity of today's adolescents. Digital innovations have been dominated if not monopolised by young people.
They, of course, don't play politics, and it's no surprise politics is where the world's mess is concentrated, and where, no pun intended, everyone is acting like a child.
Friday, October 9, 2009
MILLION BAHT DINNER COMES WITH BIG SERVING OF GENEROSITY
One might think, why on earth would someone fork out a million baht for dinner in these economically volatile times? But Chalerm and Daranee Yoovidhya of Red Bull did just that. However, it wasn't a display of wealth but rather a reflection of their social consciousness - their million baht went to charity.
Bangkok's costliest dinner took place recently at the couple's residence, where a parade of stylish guests streamed through the doors.
The occasion was prompted by Daranee's winning bid for a special dinner at her home during the recent Bangkok Chefs Charity Gala Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. For the gala dinner, graced by the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, sixteen of Thailand's top executive chefs from hotels in Bangkok and Phuket got together to create an eight-course banquet for a full house of the city's affluent gourmets. The proceeds went to the Princess's Sai Jai Thai Foundation and underprivileged children at three remote schools in Chiang Mai. That's where Daranee's money ended up.
One of the highlights that night was a series of silent auctions to raise even more money during the course of the evening. The highest bidder in each got to choose their favourite chef to cook for one night at their own home.
The grand finale of the evning was an auction won by a bid of one million baht by the Yoovidhya family of the world-famous Red Bull empire. It resulted in four executive chefs to their choice orchestrating a special gourmet dinner for Chalerm's birthday.
The handpicked gastronomic dream team comprised Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok's own celebrity executive chef Norbert Kostner, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok's Nicolas Schneller, Banyan Tree Bangkok's Degan Suprijadi and Plaza Athenee Bangkok's Martin Faist.
The million-baht menu for 14 distinguished guests consisted of canapes, appetisers, main courses, desserts and petits fours, all prepared from scratch in the kitchen of the Yoovidhya mansion.
"Each one of us has chosen the best ingredients we could find," disclosed Kostner. "I brought with me cepes and chanterelle mushrooms I picked myself on a recent visit to alpine forests in Italy to use in one of the main dishes."
The evening's host, Chalerm, said: "The motivation for this dinner is to support charity. The meal itself is a bonus. Tonight, everyone - the chefs, their assistants, my guests and my family - are all part of a charitable enterprise."
After being fortunate enough to be able to travel and enjoy the food at Michelin-starred restaurants overseas, Chalerm and Daranee were delighted to witnes firsthand how Thailand's culinary scene had advanced to a world-class standard - whether in the quality of ingredients, skill of chefs, or food presentation.
In appreciation of their impeccable skills in creating a superb meal and their selfless contribution of time and energy for chairty, each of the four executive chefs went home with a bottle of Dom Perignon, compliments of the generous host and hostess.
Bangkok's costliest dinner took place recently at the couple's residence, where a parade of stylish guests streamed through the doors.
The occasion was prompted by Daranee's winning bid for a special dinner at her home during the recent Bangkok Chefs Charity Gala Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. For the gala dinner, graced by the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, sixteen of Thailand's top executive chefs from hotels in Bangkok and Phuket got together to create an eight-course banquet for a full house of the city's affluent gourmets. The proceeds went to the Princess's Sai Jai Thai Foundation and underprivileged children at three remote schools in Chiang Mai. That's where Daranee's money ended up.
One of the highlights that night was a series of silent auctions to raise even more money during the course of the evening. The highest bidder in each got to choose their favourite chef to cook for one night at their own home.
The grand finale of the evning was an auction won by a bid of one million baht by the Yoovidhya family of the world-famous Red Bull empire. It resulted in four executive chefs to their choice orchestrating a special gourmet dinner for Chalerm's birthday.
The handpicked gastronomic dream team comprised Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok's own celebrity executive chef Norbert Kostner, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok's Nicolas Schneller, Banyan Tree Bangkok's Degan Suprijadi and Plaza Athenee Bangkok's Martin Faist.
The million-baht menu for 14 distinguished guests consisted of canapes, appetisers, main courses, desserts and petits fours, all prepared from scratch in the kitchen of the Yoovidhya mansion.
"Each one of us has chosen the best ingredients we could find," disclosed Kostner. "I brought with me cepes and chanterelle mushrooms I picked myself on a recent visit to alpine forests in Italy to use in one of the main dishes."
The evening's host, Chalerm, said: "The motivation for this dinner is to support charity. The meal itself is a bonus. Tonight, everyone - the chefs, their assistants, my guests and my family - are all part of a charitable enterprise."
After being fortunate enough to be able to travel and enjoy the food at Michelin-starred restaurants overseas, Chalerm and Daranee were delighted to witnes firsthand how Thailand's culinary scene had advanced to a world-class standard - whether in the quality of ingredients, skill of chefs, or food presentation.
In appreciation of their impeccable skills in creating a superb meal and their selfless contribution of time and energy for chairty, each of the four executive chefs went home with a bottle of Dom Perignon, compliments of the generous host and hostess.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Adoption fraud trial begins
Sixteen people accused of falsifying papers for adoption went on trial in Vietnam yesterday, in a case that raised fears of international human trafficking.
Among the accused are two directors of social welfare centres in northern Nam Dinh province,Thanh Nien newspaper reported. Doctors, nurses and local officials are also on trial, it said.
They are accused of "abuse of power in the exercise of their public missions",a court official in Nam Dinh said.
The accused allegedly manufactured false documents of abandonment to permit the adoption of 266 infants by foreigners between 2005 and 2008,according to reports.
The arrests of the two key suspects came in July last year, three months after the US embassy in Hanoi detailed endemic baby-selling and graft in Vietnam's adoption system.
That US report led Vietnam to suspend a bilateral adoption agreement. The US probe found that some American adoption agencies had paid $10,000(337,000 baht)"donations" per child to orphanages after officials had forged birth certificates and wrongly identified the infants as abandoned.
In some cases, the natural parents had been cheated into giving up their babies, while other infants had been procured from illegal centres that paid pregnant women to give up their newborns, the US investigation found.
Vu Duc Long, head of the Vietnamese Justice Ministry's International Adoptions Department, said then that most children sent for overseas adoption from the two Nam Dinh centres had ended up in France and Italy, and some in the US.The children came from a disabled children's home and a social protection centre.
The trial is scheduled to last until Monday.
Among the accused are two directors of social welfare centres in northern Nam Dinh province,Thanh Nien newspaper reported. Doctors, nurses and local officials are also on trial, it said.
They are accused of "abuse of power in the exercise of their public missions",a court official in Nam Dinh said.
The accused allegedly manufactured false documents of abandonment to permit the adoption of 266 infants by foreigners between 2005 and 2008,according to reports.
The arrests of the two key suspects came in July last year, three months after the US embassy in Hanoi detailed endemic baby-selling and graft in Vietnam's adoption system.
That US report led Vietnam to suspend a bilateral adoption agreement. The US probe found that some American adoption agencies had paid $10,000(337,000 baht)"donations" per child to orphanages after officials had forged birth certificates and wrongly identified the infants as abandoned.
In some cases, the natural parents had been cheated into giving up their babies, while other infants had been procured from illegal centres that paid pregnant women to give up their newborns, the US investigation found.
Vu Duc Long, head of the Vietnamese Justice Ministry's International Adoptions Department, said then that most children sent for overseas adoption from the two Nam Dinh centres had ended up in France and Italy, and some in the US.The children came from a disabled children's home and a social protection centre.
The trial is scheduled to last until Monday.
US man discovers co-worker is lost brother
Seven years into his tenure as a furniture mover for a bedding retailer, Gary Nisbet was joined by a new colleague, Randy Joubert, who looked so much like him that customers asked whether they were brothers.
"We thought they were just trying to razz us," Mr Joubert said.
Turns out the customers were on to something: they really are brothers. And the attention they got after finding each other also has turned up a sister.
The two men were given up for adoption as babies about 35 years ago, then attended rival high schools and even lived in neighbouring towns on the Maine coast before working together at Dow's Sleep Center in tiny Waldoboro and uncovering their relationship.
"This kid could have been anywhere in the world, and here I am riding in a Dow furniture truck with him," Mr Joubert said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Mr Joubert's adoptive mother,Jacqueline Joubert, said she and her late husband raised him with four sisters.She said he knew from a young age he was adopted and she wasn't surprised that he would try to find his siblings.
"But when he said he was driving a furniture truck with him, that really surprised me," she said."I think it's great."
Soon after Dow's hired Randy Joubert,co-workers began commenting on how similar he and Mr Nisbet looked.
"Customers would ask if we were brothers more often than not," he said.Mr Joubert had already found out the names of his biological parents, who had already died. He asked Mr Nisbet if he'd been adopted while the two were making deliveries about three weeks ago.
Mr Nisbet, who also knew his biological parents' names, was "star-struck and blown away" when his long lost brother revealed that he too was adopted and had the same mother and father.
"We thought they were just trying to razz us," Mr Joubert said.
Turns out the customers were on to something: they really are brothers. And the attention they got after finding each other also has turned up a sister.
The two men were given up for adoption as babies about 35 years ago, then attended rival high schools and even lived in neighbouring towns on the Maine coast before working together at Dow's Sleep Center in tiny Waldoboro and uncovering their relationship.
"This kid could have been anywhere in the world, and here I am riding in a Dow furniture truck with him," Mr Joubert said in a telephone interview on Monday.
Mr Joubert's adoptive mother,Jacqueline Joubert, said she and her late husband raised him with four sisters.She said he knew from a young age he was adopted and she wasn't surprised that he would try to find his siblings.
"But when he said he was driving a furniture truck with him, that really surprised me," she said."I think it's great."
Soon after Dow's hired Randy Joubert,co-workers began commenting on how similar he and Mr Nisbet looked.
"Customers would ask if we were brothers more often than not," he said.Mr Joubert had already found out the names of his biological parents, who had already died. He asked Mr Nisbet if he'd been adopted while the two were making deliveries about three weeks ago.
Mr Nisbet, who also knew his biological parents' names, was "star-struck and blown away" when his long lost brother revealed that he too was adopted and had the same mother and father.
Aussie quadriplegic starves himself to death
Quadriplegic dead: An Australian quadriplegic who won a landmark legal battle to starve himself to death by refusing food fied yesterday, his family said, ending an existence he described as "living hell."
An Australian quadriplegic who won a landmark legal battle to starve himself to death by refusing food died yesterday, his family said, ending an existence he described as "living hell".
Christian Rossiter, 49, who was paralysed from the neck down, died in a nursing home in Perth early yesterday after developing a chest infection, his brother Tim Rossiter said in a statement.
"I thank all those who have made Christian's life, in his final years, as comfortable and as dignified as possibly," he said.
Lawyer John Hammond, who five weeks ago won a court battle allowing Rossiter to refuse food and medication, said his client had welcomed death and empowered all severely ill people who wanted to die on their own terms. "He wanted to die and it will be some relief that he is now dead because he underwent so much pain in his final years," Hammond told the ABC TV channel.
In the historic ruling, a court said that Rossiter, a former stockbroker and outdoor adventurer who became a quadriplegic following two accidents, had the right to refuse to be fed.
"This is a living hell," he told reporters through a tracheotomy tube during the court case. "I'm Cristian Rossiter and I'd like to die. I am a prisoner in my own body. I can't move, I have no fear of death - just pain. I only fear pain."
An Australian quadriplegic who won a landmark legal battle to starve himself to death by refusing food died yesterday, his family said, ending an existence he described as "living hell".
Christian Rossiter, 49, who was paralysed from the neck down, died in a nursing home in Perth early yesterday after developing a chest infection, his brother Tim Rossiter said in a statement.
"I thank all those who have made Christian's life, in his final years, as comfortable and as dignified as possibly," he said.
Lawyer John Hammond, who five weeks ago won a court battle allowing Rossiter to refuse food and medication, said his client had welcomed death and empowered all severely ill people who wanted to die on their own terms. "He wanted to die and it will be some relief that he is now dead because he underwent so much pain in his final years," Hammond told the ABC TV channel.
In the historic ruling, a court said that Rossiter, a former stockbroker and outdoor adventurer who became a quadriplegic following two accidents, had the right to refuse to be fed.
"This is a living hell," he told reporters through a tracheotomy tube during the court case. "I'm Cristian Rossiter and I'd like to die. I am a prisoner in my own body. I can't move, I have no fear of death - just pain. I only fear pain."
Gates helps bring banking to the poor
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, best known for its work combating malaria, AIDS and other diseases, announced an effort this week to bring banking, including savings accounts, to the poor.
It may be hard to understand how savings are even an issue for the people who live on less than $2 a day, said Bob Christen, who directs the Gates Foundation's financial services initiative. However, access to a safe place to store money is a top priority of poor people around the world, he said.
That's why the world's richest charitable foundation announced a$35-million (1.18-billion-baht) grant to help facilitate agent banking services already being developed in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.
Mr Christen said the Gates grant will provide assistance to numerous organisations through the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, whose efforts are historic in the world of banking, and will help people climb out of poverty, save for their children's education, build their businesses and plan for the future.
The ideas for bringing savings accounts, insurance and other financial services to the poor include transferring money by way of mobile phones and setting up banking kiosks in markets and post offices.
The Gates Foundation has invested a total of $350 million (11.80 billion baht)so far in other financial services for the poor, including micro-credit, which involves small loans for poor entrepreneurs.
Mr Christen says savings accounts are a more basic need of many people.An estimated 2.5 billion people - more than half the world's adult population - do not have access to savings accounts and other financial services.
People are forced to buy and pawn jewellery or make other poor investments to keep their money safe.
Foundation research identified this as an area that is not getting investment dollars and turned its attention in this direction.
"It became very obvious that the single service that is least developed that most people need is savings," Mr Christen said."People really want to be able to save in a safer place."
The Gates Foundation is providing an infusion of cash to facilitate the sharing of ideas among the innovators and to make sure the new systems offer a wide range of financial services.
Alfred Hannig, executive director of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, said banking innovation is happening in developing countries without the foundation's help, but the money will help speed implementation.
The alliance has a goal of reaching 50 million of the world's "unbanked" by 2012.
In a phone call from Nairobi, Kenya,where the alliance was hosting a meeting for representatives of 42 countries, Mr Hannig said that plans are being made for a delegation from Kenya to go to Brazil to learn about that country's efforts to bring banking services to small villages along the Amazon River.
"People were waiting for this," said Mr Hannig, who works for the German Technical Corporation and is based in Thailand.
"This was very timely. They have been waiting for such a mechanism for such a long time."
Mr Hannig said 60% of the money from the Gates Foundation will be redistributed in smaller grants to groups like the delegation fromKenya to Brazil,and the Bank of Thailand, which wants to measure banking access around the world through a survey.
It may be hard to understand how savings are even an issue for the people who live on less than $2 a day, said Bob Christen, who directs the Gates Foundation's financial services initiative. However, access to a safe place to store money is a top priority of poor people around the world, he said.
That's why the world's richest charitable foundation announced a$35-million (1.18-billion-baht) grant to help facilitate agent banking services already being developed in Africa, Asia and South and Central America.
Mr Christen said the Gates grant will provide assistance to numerous organisations through the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, whose efforts are historic in the world of banking, and will help people climb out of poverty, save for their children's education, build their businesses and plan for the future.
The ideas for bringing savings accounts, insurance and other financial services to the poor include transferring money by way of mobile phones and setting up banking kiosks in markets and post offices.
The Gates Foundation has invested a total of $350 million (11.80 billion baht)so far in other financial services for the poor, including micro-credit, which involves small loans for poor entrepreneurs.
Mr Christen says savings accounts are a more basic need of many people.An estimated 2.5 billion people - more than half the world's adult population - do not have access to savings accounts and other financial services.
People are forced to buy and pawn jewellery or make other poor investments to keep their money safe.
Foundation research identified this as an area that is not getting investment dollars and turned its attention in this direction.
"It became very obvious that the single service that is least developed that most people need is savings," Mr Christen said."People really want to be able to save in a safer place."
The Gates Foundation is providing an infusion of cash to facilitate the sharing of ideas among the innovators and to make sure the new systems offer a wide range of financial services.
Alfred Hannig, executive director of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, said banking innovation is happening in developing countries without the foundation's help, but the money will help speed implementation.
The alliance has a goal of reaching 50 million of the world's "unbanked" by 2012.
In a phone call from Nairobi, Kenya,where the alliance was hosting a meeting for representatives of 42 countries, Mr Hannig said that plans are being made for a delegation from Kenya to go to Brazil to learn about that country's efforts to bring banking services to small villages along the Amazon River.
"People were waiting for this," said Mr Hannig, who works for the German Technical Corporation and is based in Thailand.
"This was very timely. They have been waiting for such a mechanism for such a long time."
Mr Hannig said 60% of the money from the Gates Foundation will be redistributed in smaller grants to groups like the delegation fromKenya to Brazil,and the Bank of Thailand, which wants to measure banking access around the world through a survey.
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