Integrrl

Welcome to Integrrl, a math and science blog with a focus on outreach and women in STEM. I am a math MA with a bachelor's degree in math and physics, now working as a data analyst. If there's a topic you'd like to see covered here, drop me an ask!

[darenttodoourduty-deactivated20]

@ science people who get bad scores on exams but love learning their subject. I have some words of wisdom from my theoretical mechanics professor to you:

“The universe not only has an inexhaustible supply of wonder and excitement, it also has an inexhaustible supply of problems… and those problems are one of our great sources of joy as scientists. I know college is hard and this class is hard. But I hope that all of you students finish your classes this semester, no matter your grades and keep learning and keep doing what you love.”

[cognitive-surplus]

The Research Series: Pocket Notebook packs of 4 for field notes. 

https://cognitive-surplus.com/pages/research

[contemplatingchicken]

oh lordy oh Lordy

[elodieunderglass]

(whispering quietly) fuck. fuck

[bisexual-bifurcations]

Women: we need to support girls in stem early White Man: we need to just say everyone is welcome and support everyone together Women: but that doesnt work, minority groups need extra attention because there are societal issues from infancy telling them they aren’t expected in stem White Man: *continues to argue*

[drawingwhatever]

Show an example of teachers or faculty of schools telling minorities they aren’t welcome.in stem or discourage it. You won’t find.much. why??? *whispers* because there is nothing holding you back except your self.

[neilarmstrong]

Nobody is going to directly tell you that you are not welcome in STEM because *whispers* it’s against the law. But its very short-sighted to think that direct interpersonal discrimination is the only kind that can affect minorities in STEM. There definitely are, as op said, societal issues from infancy telling women and minorities that they are not expected in STEM. For example, high schools that serve higher percentages of minority students are less likely to offer college prep curriculum and even though Black and Latino students make up 37 percent of all high school students, they only make up 27 percent of students taking AP classes and 18 percent of students passing AP exams. This matters. High school prep matters for STEM students. In 2009, 37.5% of white and Asian-American students completed their STEM degrees after 5 years, while the average completion rates for Black/African-American, Latino/a, and Native American students were 22.1, 18.4 and 18.8%, respectively. If you think the only think holding minorities back is themselves then you are suggesting that minorities are inherently less capable than their white classmates. and thats part of the problem.

here are the sources for all the numbers I gave.

x x x

[millyclaire]

Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Theorems:

1. The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus

2. The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra

3. The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic

and probably a few others.

Now available in T-shirt form

[integrrl]

Hypatia of Alexandria looking cool in pastels.

Hypatia is perhaps the first female mathematician. She was born around 350 AD and served as the head of the Neoplatonist School in Alexandria where she taught philosophy and astronomy. Alongside her father, Theon of Alexandria, she translated and provided commentary on classical mathematical works. 

[millyclaire]

Matrices are, in short, the bees knees.

John Derbyshire, Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra (via millyclaire)

[integrrl]

Book Rec: From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty

This is one that I saw recommended so many places, I had to give it a try. 

Caitlin Doughty, a mortician who owns her own funeral home and runs The Good Death non-profit, travels the world to explore how death is treated by various cultures.

She also explores the environmental impact of how the dead are treated. Cremation uses a lot of fossil fuels, and even if you sprinkle ashes in the ground, they give no nutrients back to the earth. Natural burials, without vaults, coffins, or embalming fluids, are one ‘green’ option she discusses in the book.  If you’re curious about the grieving habits of other cultures, wondering what funeral and burials options are out there, or interested in the scientific and environmental advances of the funeral industry, this is the book for you.

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death

[integrrl]

The U.S. Will Be The Only Country Not In The Paris Agreement. Now What?

The U.S. will be the only country not in the Paris agreement. What role will it play in fighting climate change?

Thousands of delegates from around the world are meeting in Bonn, Germany this month to hash out more details on how nations will reduce carbon emissions under the Paris Climate Accord, the international effort to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius or less. Syria, once the last nation to hold out, announced this week that it will also sign on. This leaves the United States, which is intending to draw out as soon as legally feasible, alone in rejecting the agreement.

[Need to talk to a climate change denier? Try these tips.]

Manjana Milkoreit, a political scientist at Purdue University, and Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist at Texas Tech, talk about the role of the United States in combating climate change. They also discuss a new report released—and ignored—by the Trump administration finding that the world is warming faster and with worse consequences than previously expected.

Plus, an aging fleet of military satellites has provided data about polar ice coverage since 1979. David Gallaher, National Snow and Ice Data Center senior associate scientist, explains why maintaining this record is both vital and threatened by a lack of new satellites.

Listen Here

[sciencefriday]

Astronomers detect an interstellar visitor for the first time.

On October 19, researchers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy caught sight of our first ever visitor from outside our solar system. It wasn’t an alien spacecraft, but it was interstellar—a piece of space rock speeding through like a stranger through town. And unlike our own meteorites, which orbit our sun, this object, named A/2017 U1, is a one-time visitor. Meenakshi Wadhwa, director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University, joins Ira to discuss how this object could come from a far-off star system and what scientists could have learned while it was here. Listen here to learn more.

Animation by NASA/JPL-Caltech

[sciencefriday]

In a recent gerrymandering case, Supreme Court justices wrestle with basic math.

Last month the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments for a case concerning gerrymandering in the state of Wisconsin. The democratic plaintiffs proposed a simple metric for determining whether the boundaries of a district had been fairly drawn. It’s called the “efficiency gap.” To calculate it, you take the difference between each party’s “wasted” votes—votes for losing candidates and votes for winning candidates beyond what the candidate needed to win—and divide that by the total number of votes cast. Simple arithmetic.

Not according to the justices. Justice John Roberts called the formula “sociological gobbledygook.” Justice Neil Gorsuch compared the metric to his steak rub recipe: “I like some turmeric, I like a few other little ingredients, but I’m not going to tell you how much of each. And so what’s this court supposed to do? A pinch of this, a pinch of that?” Even Justice Breyer, who is expected to vote with the court’s liberal bloc, generalized the details of the plaintiffs argument as all that “computer stuff.”

So is it possible that these Ivy League-educated Supreme Court justices really don’t understand the math of this case? Oliver Roeder, senior writer for FiveThirtyEight joins Ira to discuss whether the Supreme Court is allergic to math, and what that means for future cases. And Moon Duchin, associate professor of mathematics at Tufts University, discusses the best math to use for rooting out gerrymandering. Listen here.

Photo by GovTrack.us

[badscienceshenanigans-deactivat]

::science majors shrieking in the background:: THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO STOP LETTING MATH-PHOBES FAIL UP INTO THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND MAKE DECISIONS THEY CAN NEVER UNDERSTAND that arithmetic’s so basic it got a dreamcatcher tattoo in an apple orchard and keeps saying “everything happens for a reason”

[integrrl]

Mathematicians, statisticians, and data scientists: Here are some calculations and this is what it tells us.

Supreme Court: Is this witchcraft??

The good news is the trial courts have a better record of accepting scientific consensus than the supreme court, and the supreme court accepts the facts proven in the lower courts. Also, their claims of confusion might be just a cover for their partisan disagreement with what the plaintiffs are trying to prove.

[integrrl]

With the explosion of digital data, statisticians can earn $125,000 in their first year after getting a doctorate.

Regardless of your major, statistics classes can really give you a boost in the job market. If you’ve already graduated, there are plenty of online courses available, too! 

“We’re rapidly entered a world where everything can be monitored and measured,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Digital Business. “But the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyze and make sense of the data. “

Keep reading

[integrrl]

What is the mathematically correct way to divide a cake evenly between three people? Wonder no longer!

[integrrl]

I made a video! How to Study Math! Tips from an experienced math student, teacher, and tutor. Studying math is a little different from other subjects, but these seven steps will help you find the right approach! 

[integrrl]

Household Chores for Mathematicians

Need a babysitter? Ask a combinatorialist. Baseboards dirty? A number theorist won't mind cleaning them. And other highly scientific recommendations for mathematicians to handle the housework

Analysis is the closest to my branch of math, and I am pretty good at sweeping and vacuuming, if I do say so myself!

Find your best chores based on your discipline. Or, better, yet, find the chores you’re best at to discover your best area of math.

[integrrl]

Emergency Kittens on Twitter

“Cathmatics.”

When squaring cats, please remember to follow the order of operations.

[millyclaire]

Matrices are, in short, the bees knees.

John Derbyshire, Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra (via millyclaire)

[sciencefriday]

Three mathematicians give us a peek into their abstract and beautiful world.

We’ve all heard about CRISPR, the groundbreaking gene-editing tool, or LIGO and gravitational waves, the latest frontier in astronomy. But what about the cutting-edge research in math?

Ask anyone what a scientist looks like and expect the cliched answer: someone in a lab coat, looking at a specimen under a microscope. But what does a mathematician look like? How do they do research? What does it even take to be a mathematician in the first place?

Mathematicians Rebecca Goldin, Eugenia Cheng, and Emily Riehl join Ira to give us a peek into their abstract, complicated, and beautiful world. They’ll tell us about studying higher dimensions that you can’t even see, coming up with a new way of defining what mathematical proofs look like, and what it’s like to be women in math. Listen to the conversation here.