Science for Girls (aka "Science") | Tania Browne

In honor of Ada Lovelace day, Tania Browne offers a client detailing his own on-again, off-again love affair with science, and how the role of women in science stream principal has changed over the years

When I was 10, I fell in love with a man who showed me the stars. But it was not Doctor Who, and there was a set of instability for BBC. The show was Cosmos and man was Carl Sagan.

Although the son of parents who work without class qualification, science came to me at an early age. I wore a white shirt unbuttoned my clothes on the school other than lab coat. I would get rolls of toilet paper and light bulbs to turn them into telescopes and microscopes, as well as bracelets and tiaras (my internship coincided with my scientific Linda Carter - Wonder Woman-as-phase). Deliberately crystals pop a couple of plastic sunglasses, so I could look all smart and intelligent.

As a kid, science was my chemical X Factor, Strictly Come my Forecast. The future is a utopia, we had the World Tomorrow team and tell us. There was even some amazing things to discover, because I knew Sagan took me to the stars. Science was fun huge, because I knew Wilf Lunn Heinz Wolff and made me laugh. Science had enough of a grip on the public imagination for a girl of 8 years in a large urbanization Brighton want to be part of it.

And it was not just for kids. Judith Hann, Maggie Philbin and Marian Davies were there, front and center of our television screens, showing that women were also interested in STEM than men. There is no obstacle. Everything was possible.

While I'm away from science? Puberty was much to blame. Not only menstrual cramps, terrible haircuts incurred strange agitations and George Michael. Suddenly, I felt the pressure to fit in and be, well ... women. The girls were beautiful, did not disagree too strongly with the kids or make a fuss, stood in front of her mirror breaks reapply lip gloss and, especially, they did not seem too smart. The boys are not like that. At least, not cold.

To make matters worse, the gender balance in STEM in my class seemed terribly uneven. I found myself literally the only girl among 30 boys in both computer science and physics. It was hard enough to be the only Goth in a school full of mullets and Lacoste, but when genuine scientific question asked was what size bra she wore, I could not m ' help but feel a little unique.

is fair to say that the atmosphere surrounding my teenage years, is that if you were a girl, you can do science - they just could not wait to have a boyfriend too. You would be condemned to a lonely life RBI single, perhaps many cats climbing on his body and biting her eyelids when she had been dead for three weeks and nobody came. I gave up a life in science and life rather heat - is currently working as Head

But science has not given to me for now. Although the content of the science of traditional television goes beyond the pelvis and newspapers on the history of health science has found a new home online democracy. A place where ordinary people like me can catch the latest theory, find articles relevant to our interests, and blogs in every field imaginable. Sex story duck chain theory of science, the Cochrane Collaboration, everything is there. The friends I've made online have inspired me, and at 41, I decided to pursue a degree in health sciences with the Open University. The formal scientific education has opened to me, and I love it.

also made me look at my own daughter, almost 10, and I wonder if someone will be your Carl Sagan. Unfortunately, even more likely, a man who inspires. Only regular presenter of the BBC pre-watershed women in science is enormous Liz Bonnin. (Very limited) CBBC content of science is dominated by men, with the exception of the sadly underused Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Most women scientists on television are back out of sight of the children to talk about their areas of expertise on the horizon, after my daughter is in bed.

Not that aren 't brilliant women out there, but they are only in the grooves of the populist media. Where is our Julia Bradbury, our Kate Humble, Mary Beard our scientific knowledge? I love to see the children, but I want my daughter to see women in science too, dammit! I know you're there. I'm on Twitter, read his blog and listen to podcasts. So why not take it beyond the Internet?

can not draw figures on television, but women scientists are increasingly recognized elsewhere. Tuesday is Ada Lovelace Day, dedicated to raising the profile of women working in STEM careers and to provide girls and young women with role models they so desperately need. On 19 October, the Royal Society will host a Wikipedia "Edit-a-thon" where fans can get the skills they need to improve few embarrassing entries covering science.

October 18 sees achieve our own Calendar Girls as Science Grrl project, the fruit of Heather Williams and Louise Crane, start your calendar. Many scientists have reacted angrily to the European Commission published the video in June that featured women parading in high heels, waving test tubes and ... uh, do not do science. The video was taken on the same day. Schedule, a direct reaction, serves to illustrate the diversity of women in science, and to raise funds for projects that promote women scientists of the future. I've already ordered my copy and proudly displayed for my daughter and son to see.

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