Meet NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir
Jessica Meir dreamed of the day she would make it to space since the age of five. That dream became a reality Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019, as she left Earth on her first spaceflight – later floating into her new home aboard the International Space Station. Jessica lifted off from Kazakhstan in the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft at 9:57 a.m. EDT (1357 GMT) alongside spaceflight participant Ali Almansoori, the first United Arab Emirates astronaut, and Oleg Skripochka, a Russian cosmonaut.
As an Expedition 61 and 62 crew member, Jessica will spend six months in the vacuum of space – conducting research on a multitude of science investigations and participating in several Human Research Program studies.
While Jessica’s new home is about 200 miles over the Earth, this astronaut is no stranger to extreme environments. She’s studied penguins in Antarctica and mapped caves in Italy, all of which prepared her for the ultimate extreme environment: space. Get to know astronaut and scientist, Jessica Meir.
Antarctic Field Researcher
For her Ph.D. research, Jessoca studied the diving physiology of marine mammals and birds. Her filed research took her all the way to Antarctica, where she focused on oxygen depletion in diving emperor penguins. Jessica is also an Antarctic diver!
Geese Trainer
Image Credit: UBC Media Relations
Jessica investigated the high‐flying bar-headed goose during her post‐doctoral research at the University of British Columbia .She trained geese to fly in a wind tunnel while obtaining various physiological measurements in reduced oxygen conditions.
Wilderness Survival Expert
In 2013, Jessica was selected as an Astronaut Candidate. While training to be a full-fledged astronaut, she participated in three days of wilderness survival training near Rangeley, Maine, the first phase of her intensive astronaut training program.
Mission Control Flight Controller
In the astronaut office, Jessica has extensive mission control experience, including serving as the Lead Capsule Communicator (CapCom) for Expedition 47, the BEAM (Bigelow expandable module on the International Space Station) mission, and an HTV (Japanese Space Agency cargo vehicle) mission. The CapCom is the flight controller that speaks directly to the astronaut crew in space, on behalf of the rest of the Mission Control team.
She’s reconnecting with her best friend… in space!
Following a successful launch and six hour journey to the space station, NASA astronaut Christina Koch tweeted this image of Jessica and the crew arriving to the orbital lab in a Soyuz spacecraft. Excitement was high as Christina tweeted, “What it looks like from @Space_Station when your best friend achieves her lifelong dream to go to space. Caught the second stage in progress! We can’t wait to welcome you onboard, crew of Soyuz 61!”
We know. #FriendshipGoals.
Follow Jessica on Twitter at @Astro_Jessica and follow the International Space Station on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep up with all the cool stuff happening on our orbital laboratory.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com
What advice do you have for Hispanic boys and girls who see themselves in you and are inspired by your achievements?
ICYMI: We’ve been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month over on @action by reblogging some of the best HHM posts on Tumblr—like this question from an out of this world Answer Time with @nasa astronaut Dr. Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor.
Want your art featured? Tag your post Hispanic Heritage Month and we just may reblog it on @action.
Kate Marvel is a climate scientist at Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. She received a PhD in theoretical physics from Cambridge University and has worked at Stanford University, the Carnegie Institution, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her writing has appeared in Scientific American, On Being, and Nautilus Magazine, and she's given talks in places as diverse as comedy clubs, prisons, and the TED main stage.
ive been reading a book that basically explains how so-called “brain differences” between the genders is the result of gendered socialization and not the cause of it. i honestly expected the book to be very cis-centric but its actually the opposite, the author stresses that testimony from trans ppl is actually indispensable because we’ve, in a sense, “lived both experiences”
more cis feminists should have this mindset
one of the first examples that she uses to introduce her point about how perception by others can shape a person’s performance actually uses a trans woman. it explains that as a certain trans woman became to be seen as a woman more and more frequently, the ppl arond her eventually started viewing her as being ill equipped for tasks that they did not bother her about pre-transition. eventually she even found herself underperforming in these tasks herself.
whats the name of the book
Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine
I knew it was this book before I’d finished reading the first two lines. Honestly this book is indispensible if you want to debunk any gender determinism people claim is science. I can’t recommend it enough.
She’s written a new one! It won the Royal Society prize for science book of the year, and it’s called Testosterone Rex, and it is excellent.
(Bonus: it’s making old white men really really mad.)
(Bonus bonus: I am myself a neuroscientist, and the old white men mentioned above – who are not – could not have missed the point harder if they’d actively tried. Which. Maybe?)
Thanks to moon-boob for providing a PDF, but please, buy the book if you have the disposable income. SUPPORT THIS AUTHOR!!
“At just 8 years old, Xóchitl has designed and constructed a solar-powered device to heat water, using only recycled materials, Cultura Colectiva reports.
For many, this device may seem totally unnecessary. But, in Xóchitl’s community, where resources are scarce, “people don’t have the money to buy heaters, so they chop down trees to get firewood [to heat the water],” says Xóchitl.
Her device not only functions to provide hot water to low-income families in her community, it also saves trees!
Xóchitl’s family helped her set the device up on their roof and have been using it to heat water to bathe. Xóchitl says she always bathes quickly though, “so [the hot water] will last for my little brother.”
Read the full piece here
BLESS. THIS. CHILD.
After 20 painstaking years of research, Eva Ramon Gallegos, a Mexican scientist has finally developed a cure to eliminate 100 percent human papillomavirus and prevent the spread of cervical cancer among women. (x) (x) (x) Y’all they cured HPV
Yet Trump’s America wouldn’t want you to hear about this nor help it go mainstream
🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️