The sex lives of plants
The biology of sex determination has come to the forefront of the culture wars, but if you’re a plant biologist, the idea that sex determination is complex is old news. Jennifer Blake-Mahmud’s The Secret Sex Lives of Plants spent time last Fall improving Wikipedia articles on these topics. A student in the class made major improvements … Continued
Science communication and equity on Wikipedia
The American Physical Society (APS) sponsors instructional courses through Wiki Education to help increase the accessibility of physics information and research online. Their dedication to communicating science with the public is easily supported by the Wikipedia platform and Wiki Education courses, which invite scholars and scientists to take part in increasing the quality of information … Continued
Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day with Wikipedia
Today is Ada Lovelace Day, honoring women in STEM. Named after Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, who is widely considered to be one of the first computer programmers. Improving Wikipedia’s coverage of women in STEM has been an ongoing theme around Ada Lovelace Day. In the 10 years we’ve been supporting student editors through our Wikipedia Student … Continued
How a Wiki Scholar improved a Nobel laureate’s biography
We awoke this morning to the exciting news that the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded today to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their work on CRISPR. It’s exciting to see this amazing discovery recognized, and it’s great to see the prize go to women, but I was especially pleased that a participant in one … Continued
Another Wikipedian is cultivated
Dr. Pratima Gupta (she/her/hers) is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist. She recently completed one of our Wiki Scholars courses sponsored by the Society of Family Planning, in which she learned how to add content to Wikipedia pages in her area of expertise. She practices in California with a professional emphasis on medical education and reproductive health rights, justice, and … Continued
What kind of source is Wikipedia?
Emma Oxford is a PhD Candidate in experimental high energy physics at Carnegie Mellon University. After taking our Wiki Scientists course sponsored by the American Physical Society, she has thoughts about how we might view Wikipedia as a “source”. Read what she means. As an APS member, I was fortunate to be able to enroll … Continued
Students document workplace health risks on Wikipedia amidst global pandemic
Are you familiar with occupational epidemiology? It’s the study of whether working conditions are safe for workers. As workplaces determine whether or not it’s safe to open up facilities again and resume “normal” work amidst a global pandemic, organization leaders are ideally making these important decisions with science and employee safety in mind. Public health … Continued
Family planning doesn’t stop during a pandemic, so neither do the experts
We’re all quickly learning that in a global pandemic, non-COVID-related healthcare looks very different from what we were accustomed to. This is a new age of telehealth, where people access health services through communication technologies rather than in-person visits. As we hear from our Society of Family Planning (SFP) Wiki Scholars, a group of reproductive … Continued
When a student’s pride in their work lives on
Andrew Oh was drawn to the Wikipedia assignment even before taking Dr. Joan Strassmann’s class at Washington University in St Louis. “In fact, I signed up for the class because its course listing description talked about how we’ll be writing for Wikipedia,” Andrew tells us in an interview. “No other class on the listing had … Continued
Join the second cohort of WITH Wiki Scientists
This is a republishing of a WITH Foundation blog from May 7, 2020. As many of you know, the WITH Foundation and our grantees are working toward inclusive and transformative healthcare. A facet of this work involves making information about disability and healthcare accessible for people who are looking for it. which is why we’re … Continued