{"id":467,"date":"2011-10-07T16:22:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T20:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=467"},"modified":"2012-11-20T17:08:58","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:08:58","slug":"happy-ada-lovelace-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire. This international day of celebration helps people learn about the achievements of women in STEM, inspiring others and creating new role models for young and old alike.<\/p>\n

Ada Lovelace is widely held to have been the first computer programmer. Close friends with inventor Charle Babbage, Lovelace was intrigued by his Analytical Engine and in 1842, she translated a description of it by italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea. Babbage asked her to expand the article, \u201cas she understood [it] so well\u201d, and this was when she wrote several early \u2018computer programs\u2019. Ada Lovelace died of cancer at 36, her potential tragically unfulfilled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bloggers are encouraged to feature a woman who set your scientific or mathematical imagination on fire, and, for me, there\u2019s an obvious choice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that Magic School Bus<\/em> was my favorite tv show as a kid (and second-place went to Bill Nye the Science Guy<\/em>). Ms. Frizzle didn\u2019t make science a far-away, totally abstract discipline\u2014something practiced by an arcane priesthood. For her students, science was just the task of wading into the unknown and trying to figure out what the heck was going on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That\u2019s what science is. All the statistics and methodology are just trying to make sure you interpret your observations as accurately as possible. When it comes to relative probability, Homo sapiens<\/em> is not a very well-calibrated instrument.<\/p>\n

The trouble is, a lot of science curricula are focused only on the techniques and methods and never let you get a taste of discovery. Students in these classes can only apply statistical tests iff the problems they come across look enough like the ones in their textbook. They can\u2019t tell you why they\u2019re using them or imagine how someone could have invented them in the first place.<\/p>\n

Ms. Frizzle\u2019s rallying cry, \u201cTake chances, make mistakes, get MESSY!\u201d spurred her students to be adventurous observers, interested in following the truth wherever it leads \u2013 a great starting point for a scientist.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019ll admit I feel a little bad picking a fictional<\/em> woman as my role model on Ada Lovelace day. I do think that fictional women also help challenge stereotypes, and that fiction is a great way to do an end run around your assumptions and carry out philosophy by other means<\/a>. But when I look at PZ\u2019s post explaining that most of his students can\u2019t name a single living female scientist<\/a>, I have to throw in a plug for Sarah Flannery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

She\u2019s a Irish mathematician and the author of In Code: A Mathematical Journey<\/a><\/em>. In 1999, she was recognized as Ireland\u2019s Young Scientist of the Year for her work on cryptography. Her memoir is warmly written and infectiously enthusiastic. It\u2019d be a great gift for a teen and has the high-level details of her work in appendices if a particularly geeky reader wants to take a crack at it.<\/p>\n

Oh, and for bonus science book recommendations (because I can\u2019t stop once I get started), I always have to throw in a plug for Rebecca Skloot\u2019s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks<\/a><\/em>. It\u2019s a brilliant portrait of one of science\u2019s biggest blindspots \u2013 remembering to treat experimental subjects as human. And, apropos of my statistics rant above, you might find a remedy in\u00a0The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century<\/a><\/em> by David Salsburg. He does a great job illustrating the disputes and failures that produced modern statistical methods instead of treating them as laws mysteriously dispensed from on high. Now, to close out this post properly:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OG3ieifrqyQ<\/a>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire. This international day of celebration helps people learn about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,8],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epistemologyphilosophy","category-reviewsrecommendations","tag-math"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy Ada Lovelace Day!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-07T20:22:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-20T22:08:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/files\/2011\/10\/Ada_lovelace-223x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html\",\"name\":\"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-07T20:22:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-20T22:08:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!","description":"Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!","og_description":"Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html","og_site_name":"Unequally Yoked","article_published_time":"2011-10-07T20:22:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-11-20T22:08:58+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/files\/2011\/10\/Ada_lovelace-223x300.jpg"}],"author":"Leah Libresco","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Leah Libresco","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html","name":"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-07T20:22:15+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-20T22:08:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464"},"description":"Man, did I pick an auspicious time to transition to Patheos; it\u2019s Ada Lovelace Day. Ada Lovelace Day aims to raise the profile of women in science,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/10\/happy-ada-lovelace-day.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Happy Ada Lovelace Day!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/","name":"Unequally Yoked","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464","name":"Leah Libresco","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Leah Libresco"},"description":"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. Her further writing can be found at leahlibresco.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/author\/leahlibresco"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}