Episodes

  • Open science: hope is other people
    Dec 10 2024

    Much like open source software, open science is a path to distributed collaboration. By sharing the data from experiments and investigations open and available, scientists can multiply impact and discovery for teams they've never even met.

    Our guest, Saskia de Vries, talks to us about her work at the Allen Institute, including accelerating the pace of discovery by making scientific data available to everyone who wants it.

    Credits
    Saskia de Vries, guest
    Ashley Juavinett, host + producer
    Cat Hicks, host + producer
    Danilo Campos, producer + editor

    You can learn more about the Allen Institute on their website: https://alleninstitute.org/

    Read some of Saskia's recent thoughts on sharing data in neuroscience here: https://elifesciences.org/articles/85550

    The CRCNS open data repository that Saskia mentions: https://crcns.org/

    Read about the FAIR principles for scientific data management and stewardship: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201618

    Learn more about Ashley:

    • https://ashleyjuavinett.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley
    • analog-ashley.bsky.social


    Learn more about Cat:

    • https://www.drcathicks.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina
    • grimalkina.bsky.social
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    37 mins
  • What really matters in software?
    Nov 11 2024

    Can creativity mean more for software than productivity? Do we need to let go of “hardcore developer stuff”? Will getting more people to major in computer science fix everything? Ashley and Cat chat with Change, Technically’s first guest star SUE SMITH about developer learning and the future of software teams as technology changes.

    Credits
    Sue Smith, guest
    Ashley Juavinett, host + producer
    Cat Hicks, host + producer
    Danilo Campos, producer + editor

    While not mentioned in the episode, we would be remiss if we did not link you to Sue's illustrated collections of HTTP status codes:

    - Golden Girls variant
    - Keanu Reeves variant

    Cat mentioned this paper by Dr. Natasha Quadlin as an example of how the same achievement information can be interpreted very differently by biased viewers during hiring:

    Quadlin, N. (2018). The mark of a woman’s record: Gender and academic performance in hiring. American sociological review, 83(2), 331-360.

    https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0003122418762291

    Dr. Quadlin has many fascinating projects on inequality and a book with Brian Powell tackling questions about inequality and college: https://www.russellsage.org/publications/who-should-pay

    Learn more about Ashley:

    • https://ashleyjuavinett.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley
    • analog-ashley.bsky.social


    Learn more about Cat:

    • https://www.drcathicks.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina
    • grimalkina.bsky.social
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • What’s neuroscience got to do with it?
    Sep 6 2024

    Neuroscience is the hottest STEM field. Why? What does a neuroscientist actually do? Is the brain some mechanically deterministic box configured at birth? Cat knows Ashley has the answers, and now you will, too.

    Credits
    Ashley Juavinett, host + producer
    Cat Hicks, host + producer
    Danilo Campos, producer + editor

    For an incisive breakdown of “the crimes against dopamine” please read the piece of that title by Mark Humphries.

    The myth of mental illness book that Ashley mentioned was written in 1961 and we don’t really think it’s worth reading.

    The longitudinal fMRI study that Ashley contributed to while in graduate school: Stewart JL, Juavinett AL, May AC, Davenport PW, Paulus MP (2015) Do you feel alright? Attenuated neural processing of aversive interoceptive stimuli in current stimulant users. Psychophysiology 52:249–262.

    This is the Twitter/X account that highlights when a study happens IN MICE: https://x.com/justsaysinmice. And here’s the creator’s motivation: https://jamesheathers.medium.com/in-mice-explained-77b61b598218

    The study that recorded from someone’s brain while they died is Vicente et al. (2022) Enhanced Interplay of Neuronal Coherence and Coupling in the Dying Human Brain. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 14. See also this commentary about their claims.

    We once again mentioned field-specific ability beliefs. Here’s Cat’s blogpost on her own research.

    This study explores the basic dynamics of field-specific ability beliefs and shows their connection to gender inequities in academic disciplines: Leslie, S. J., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M., & Freeland, E. (2015). Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines. Science, 347(6219), 262-265.

    Learn more about Ashley:

    • https://ashleyjuavinett.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley
    • analog-ashley.bsky.social


    Learn more about Cat:

    • https://www.drcathicks.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina
    • grimalkina.bsky.social
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • Who's technical?
    Aug 30 2024

    What makes someone technical? What are our preconceptions about "technical" skills? How do those beliefs influence outcomes, and the success of who we include? Ashley and Cat dig in.

    Credits
    Ashley Juavinett, host + producer
    Cat Hicks, host + producer
    Danilo Campos, producer + editor

    On Communities of Practice, Ashley has published a paper on the impact of the program she co-directs:

    Zuckerman, A. L., Juavinett, A. L., Macagno, E. R., Bloodgood, B. L., Gaasterland, T., Artis, D., & Lo, S. M. (2022). A case study of a novel summer bridge program to prepare transfer students for research in biological sciences. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 4(1), 27. Available here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s43031-022-00067-w

    On Ambient Belonging, here is a great representative article that includes the evidence Ashley was sharing about the impact that stereotypical cues can have for women in technical spaces:

    Cheryan, S., Plaut, V. C., Davies, P. G., & Steele, C. M. (2009). Ambient belonging: how stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science. Journal of personality and social psychology, 97(6), 1045. PDF here:

    https://sparq.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj19021/files/media/file/cheryan_et_al._2009_-_ambient_belonging.pdf

    The cogsci paper Cat mentioned is this one: Fendinger, N. J., Dietze, P., & Knowles, E. D. (2023). Beyond cognitive deficits: how social class shapes social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27(6), 528-538.

    Here's an article that's a good introduction to Alison Gopnik's Child as Scientist work:
    Gopnik, A. (2012). Scientific thinking in young children: Theoretical advances, empirical research, and policy implications. Science, 337(6102), 1623-1627.
    https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.1223416

    Cat mentioned Contest Cultures in tech and Field-specific ability beliefs. Here’s Cat’s blogpost on her own research.

    This is a study that explores how Contest Cultures lead to exclusion: Vial, A. C., Muradoglu, M., Newman, G. E., & Cimpian, A. (2022). An emphasis on brilliance fosters masculinity-contest cultures. Psychological Science, 33(4), 595-612.

    And this study explores the basic dynamics of field-specific ability beliefs and shows their connection to gender inequities in academic disciplines: Leslie, S. J., Cimpian, A., Meyer, M., & Freeland, E. (2015). Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines. Science, 347(6219), 262-265.

    Learn more about Ashley:

    • https://ashleyjuavinett.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley
    • analog-ashley.bsky.social


    Learn more about Cat:

    • https://www.drcathicks.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina
    • grimalkina.bsky.social
    Show More Show Less
    40 mins
  • You can do it, too
    Aug 23 2024

    What does it take to make STEM work more accessible and effective? Ashley and Cat introduce their work and their values by answering this question.

    Credits
    Ashley Juavinett, host + producer
    Cat Hicks, host + producer
    Danilo Campos, producer + editor

    Ashley on teaching coding to neuroscientists:

    Juavinett, A. L. (2022). The next generation of neuroscientists needs to learn how to code, and we need new ways to teach them. Neuron, 110(4), 576-578.

    Zuckerman, A. L., & Juavinett, A. L. (2024, March). When Coding Meets Biology: The Tension Between Access and Authenticity in a Contextualized Coding Class. In Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1 (pp. 1491-1497). PDF here: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3626252.3630966

    Sense of Belonging is a widely-studied concept across the psychological sciences. Cat’s work on Developer Thriving includes a measure of Belonging on software teams:

    Hicks, C. M., Lee, C. S., & Ramsey, M. (2024). Developer Thriving: four sociocognitive factors that create resilient productivity on software teams. IEEE Software. PDF here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10491133

    This recent article provides a helpful commentary, summarizing an impressive collaboration across 22 campuses and 26k+ students: Walton, G. M., Murphy, M. C., Logel, C., Yeager, D. S., Goyer, J. P., Brady, S. T., ... & Krol, N. (2023). Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college?. Science, 380(6644), 499-505. PDF here: https://www.greggmuragishi.com/uploads/5/7/1/5/57150559/walton_et_al_2023.pdf

    Mark Appelbaum, Cat’s first stats teacher, had a positive impact on many, many students. You can read about his life here: https://psychology.ucsd.edu/people/profiles/mappelbaum-in-memoriam.html

    Schools, Technology and Who gets to Play?

    Rafalow, M. H. (2014). The digital divide in classroom technology use: A comparison of three schools. International Journal of Sociology of Education, 3(1), 67-100.

    Rafalow, M. H., & Puckett, C. (2022). Sorting machines: digital technology and categorical inequality in Education. Educational researcher, 51(4), 274-278.

    Learn more about Ashley:

    • https://ashleyjuavinett.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@analog_ashley
    • analog-ashley.bsky.social


    Learn more about Cat:

    • https://www.drcathicks.com/
    • https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina
    • grimalkina.bsky.social
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    38 mins