I think a lot around optical communications and encrypting data transfer. If you can harness circular polarizations of light, you can multiplex the way you send data. I'm really excited about using chiral structures to be able to detect really weak magnetic fields. And maybe we don't need it right now for the types of things that we're going to need to do. But quantum computing is far away from being societally relevant or useful.
Jessica Wade is a physicist at Imperial College London who, while spending her day working on special carbon-based materials that can be used as semiconductors, has spent her nights writing nearly 2,000 Wikipedia entries about underrepresented figures in science. That, along with numerous other forms of public engagement—including writing a children’s book about nanotechnology—is all in an effort to actually do something productive to correct gender and racial biases in STEM.
She joined Tyler to discuss if there are any useful gender stereotypes in science, distinguishing between productive and unproductive ways to encourage women in science, whether science Twitter is biased toward men, how AI will affect gender participation gaps, how Wikipedia should be improved, how she judges the effectiveness of her Wikipedia articles, how she’d improve science funding, her work on chiral materials and its near-term applications, whether writing a kid’s science book should be rewarded in academia, what she learned spending a year studying art in Florence, what she’ll do next, and more.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Recorded February 21st, 2023
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