TODAY IN SCIENCE: Ada Lovelace Day

TODAY IN SCIENCE: Ada Lovelace Day

TODAY IN SCIENCE: Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, math, and all related STEM fields.

The celebration is named in honor of English mathematician Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), Countess of Lovelace, known colloquially as Ada Lovelace. Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron, is sometimes considered the world’s first computer programmer for the algorithm she wrote for Charles Babbage’s analytical engine, one of the world’s first mechanical computers. Over the years there have been historical disagreements over the extent of Lovelace’s knowledge of the subject and the originality of the work she published in her article, “Sketch of the Analytical Engine, with Notes from the Translator,“ but Babbage himself seemed to dismiss such future claims in his memoir.

Check out the collection Science NetLinks put together for Women’s History Month for related resources to help all students understand the role women historically have played in the history of STEM development and those they play in current STEM fields.

Learn more.

Image Credit: Alfred Edward Chalon [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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Follow @the-future-now


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8 years ago
Yoshinori Ohsumi wins Nobel prize in medicine for work on autophagy
Japanese cell biologist is named 2016 laureate for his discoveries on how the body’s cells break down and recycle their own components

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Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Monday, Ohsumi said: “As a boy, the Nobel Prize was a dream, but after starting my research, it was out of my picture.”

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Ohsumi, who was in his lab when he received the phone call from Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Committee, admitted to being in a “slight state of shock” about the news.

Continue Reading.


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8 years ago
The Multiverse Might Not Be Madness After All.

The multiverse might not be madness after all.

Alternate realities, parallel dimensions, and multiple universes. Whatever you call it, the notion of other versions of existence is one of the most popular tropes in science fiction. In some other universe, you’re not reading this sentence but skydiving. In another, you’re nothing but a cockroach. In yet another, not only is life impossible, but atoms don’t even exist.

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8 years ago
Feeling A Little Small? Well In The Context Of The Cosmos, We Are Small. We May Just Be Little Guys Living
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8 years ago
A Brand-New Human Organ Has Been Identified
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7 years ago

CRISPR in Animals- Simplified. CRISPR is a breakthrough that makes genetic editing easier than ever before. How does it work, and what can it do? You can learn the basics in under 5 minutes from this animation.


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8 years ago
The Blue Lava Of Kawah Ijen Volcano. The ‘blue Lavas’ Are A Rare Phenomenon, Only Visible On The
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8 years ago
Archbishop Ussher’s Chronology Was Taken As Gospel In The Western World. Until We Turned To Another
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9 years ago

Steve Gentleman, a neuropathologist, demonstrates the process of brain dissection and preservation for research. 


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8 years ago

Most cones don’t really see color

We see color because of specialized light-sensing cells in our eyes called cones. One type, L-cones, sees the reds of strawberries and fire trucks; M-cones detect green leaves, and S-cones let us know the sky is blue. But vision scientists have now discovered that not all cones sense color (see video). The finding was made possible because, for the first time, scientists were able to look at individual photo-sensing cells.


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contradictiontonature - sapere aude
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A pharmacist and a little science sideblog. "Knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world." - Louis Pasteur

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