List Archives - Page 22 of 24

September 29, 2014September 29, 2014

12 Black Scientists You Should Know Who Are Making an Impact Today

Aprille Ericsson

Aerospace Engineer,  NASA

Aprille Ericsson was the first female to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University. She was the first African-American female to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and earned her bachelor’s in aeronautical/astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lisa Stevens

Giant Panda Curator, National Zoo

Lisa Stevens became a familiar face, manning the giant panda program in 2005 when panda cub Tai Shan was born at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Before joining the zoo’s staff, she held positions as a field research assistant, in pet and aquarium retail, veterinary clinic operations and insect zoo husbandry and interpretation. She has a bachelor’s degree in zoology and pre-veterinary medicine from Michigan State University and attended the AZA School for Professional Management Development for Zoo and Aquarium Personnel.

James West

Acoustician and Inventor

James West was born in 1931 in Prince Edward County, Virginia, and studied physics at Temple University. After graduating, West worked in tech, specializing in microphones, and went on to author 200 patents. In 1962, with Gerhard Sessler, West developed the foil electret microphone. West was a research professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. West also founded the Association of Black Laboratory Employees.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

September 25, 2014September 25, 2014

8 Blerds From the Past Who Deserve Recognition

Ralph J. Bunche

Detroit native Ralph J. Bunche was born Aug. 7, 1903, to Fred Bunche, a barber, and Olivia Agnes, an amateur musician. Bunche was a very intellectual student and brilliant debater, graduating valedictorian from his high school and going on to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating summa cum laude. He also received his doctorate in political science from Harvard University. After graduation, he taught at Howard University and went on to do postdoctoral research at the London School of Economics and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He worked abroad during World War II with the CIA and United Nations. Bunche and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt were considered instrumental in the creation and adoption of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. After his involvement in an attempt at resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. He was the first African-American to receive the prize.

Jack Johnson

John Arthur “Jack” Johnson was born March 31, 1878, in Galveston, Texas. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion in 1908, continuing his reign through 1915. Johnson was arrested in 1912 for violating the Mann Act, a law used to prevent Black men from traveling with white women. According to David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum, while in prison, Johnson conceptualized and diagrammed a tool to help tighten loosening fastening devices. On April 18, 1922, he patented improvements to the wrench.

Elmer Simms Campbell

St. Louis native Elmer Simms Campbell was born on Jan. 2, 1906. Campbell saw success early when he won a nationwide cartoon contest in high school. After graduation, he attended the University of Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago to further his studies. During his stint as a railroad dining-car waiter, he drew caricatures of the train riders. One passenger took notice and gave him a job in a St. Louis art studio. Campbell went on to contribute artwork to Esquire, The Chicagoan, Cosmopolitan, Ebony, The New Yorker, Playboy and Redbook. He was the first African-American cartoonist and paved the way for Blacks in the field.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Born Rebecca Davis Lee in Delaware on Feb. 8, 1831, she was raised by her aunt in Pennsylvania and eventually moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, to accept a position as a nurse. She worked as a nurse until she was accepted into the New England Female Medical College in 1860. Crumpler graduated in 1864 and was the first African-American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. and the only African-American woman to graduate from the New England Female Medical College.

Pages: 1 2

September 24, 2014September 25, 2014

5 Things Black Nerds May Have to Deal With Growing Up

Finding a Group of Friends Who Can Relate to You

Oftentimes, as a Black nerd, it’s hard to find a group of people you totally relate to. This is especially true for Black kids in school. Far too often, you were never fully accepted by any social group because the Black kids mislabeled you as “acting white” and the other kids couldn’t relate to your cultural background. This all made for a very lonely experience.

Being Different From Everyone Else in Your Family

Although family is always supposed to be a sanctuary, that wasn’t always the case if you were a Blerd. Your family members may have always meant well, but they didn’t quite relate to all your “nerd” interests when they were busy concerning themselves with sports and music. However, in the end, your family still loved you, and this became particularly true when your “nerdiness” subsequently led you to be one of the most successful people in family history.

Being the Only Black Kid in the Classroom

Many Blerd kids who worked their way into gifted programs find themselves in a dilemma when they end up being the only Black kid in the class. It’s another time that Blerds end up being lonely and not having anyone to relate to fully, especially when they have to deal with the fact that their teachers are white as well.

Having Your Exceptional Work Be Insulted by Being Called a ‘Quota’

Anyone who understands the way systems work understands that there’s no truth to this accusation. However, the truth isn’t always enough to ease the sting of this perception. While the stereotype is definitely something that needs to go away, all most Blerds can do in the meantime is continue being exceptional and continue to set more examples for future Blerds so that they feel less ostracized down the road.

Having to Code-Switch Between Your White and Black Friends

When being a minority in the classroom but still being in a Black family and neighborhood, the way to possibly fit in is to toe the line between both very distinct cultures. Code-switching can be defined as alternating between different language styles to fit the particular social setting that you’re faced with. Most Blerds had to learn how to do this to some degree in order to have any semblance of a social life in each different environment.

September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

11 African-American Medical Pioneers Who Will Make You Proud

As African-American advancements are continuously brought to the forefront, Black people in the medical field are hailed and admired for their accomplishments. They often achieved great success in the face of great adversity.

Dr. Ben Carson

Revolutionized Neurosurgery

Dr. Ben Carson is one of the most famous and respected doctors in the world. Since the 1980s, his surgeries to separate conjoined twins have made international headlines, and his pioneering techniques have revolutionized the field of neurosurgery. Carson also has become a role model for people of all ages, especially children. He went from the inner-city streets of Detroit to the halls of Yale University, to director of pediatric neurosurgery at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the United States. In 2004, Carson was awarded the Healthcare Humanitarian Award because he has “enhanced the quality of human lives … and has influenced the course of history through ongoing contributions to health care and medicine.”

Dr. Charles Drew

Plasma Researcher

Dr. Charles Drew, a physician, researcher and surgeon, forged a new understanding of blood plasma that allowed blood to be stored for transfusions. As World War II began, Drew received a telegram request: “Secure 5,000 ampules of dried plasma for transfusion.” That was more than the total world supply. Drew met that challenge and found himself at the head of the Red Cross blood bank — and up against a narrow-minded policy of segregating blood supplies based on a donor’s race.

Dr. Regina Benjamin

First Black Woman to be Elected to the Medical Association of the State of Alabama

After Dr. Regina Benjamin received her medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she returned to her Gulf Coast hometown, Bayou la Batre, and opened a small rural health clinic; for 13 years, she was the town’s only doctor. In 1995, at the age of 39, Benjamin became the first Black woman, and the first person under the age of 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees, and in 2002, she became the first Black female president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama. She was chosen “Person of the Week” by ABC World News Tonight, and “Woman of the Year” by both CBS This Morning and People magazine. Benjamin won a $500,000 MacArthur “genius” award in 2008, and was appointed the 18th surgeon general by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Pages: 1 2 3

September 23, 2014September 23, 2014

Blerd Bookstore Struggle: Science Fiction vs. African-American Literature

Visiting a bookstore can sometimes be a struggle for a Black nerd, simply because of the way books are categorized. Whenever I step inside of a bookstore, my first stop is always the science fiction section. Routinely, I’ll do a scan for my favorite Black science fiction authors, and nine times out of 10, Octavia Butler, Tananarive Due, Samuel Delany and other popular Black science fiction authors have been placed on the African-American literature shelves. This seems to send a very clear message to readers: Black authors who write science fiction are somehow “other.” These stories are not considered traditional science fiction or aren’t really science fiction at all; it belongs, instead in the special interest, ethnic, or diversity categories of the bookstore. The categories that usually take up the least amount of space in the room, as if we have fewer stories to tell.

On the one hand, it makes sense to put Black science fiction beside other Black literature because it is Black literature and it caters to people who identify themselves culturally or racially as Black. It can also function as a powerful message to others who may not be aware that yes, we, Black people, do in fact write science fiction. For a person of color who might otherwise not bother to stroll over to the sci-fi section, thinking that there would be nothing relevant to him or her, a sci-fi novel shelved with other Black novels could easily dispel that notion.

On the other hand, this sort of categorization and marketing scheme allows for devaluation of Blackness as “otherness,” and in its otherness, less than, in both value and quality, the normal pool of science-fiction novels. For that nerdy Black kid who may be browsing the sci-fi shelves, not seeing a Black face on any of the covers of the novels feeds the belief that we do not belong in future worlds. That lack of reflection on the shelves does a disservice to their imaginative potentials, and it somehow diminishes the infinite possibilities that have been bestowed upon them as a birthright.

I have a vision that when I walk into a bookstore in future times, I am no longer going through the Black nerd struggle. In these future bookstores, no one is forced to make a choice between illusory duality of Blackness and science fiction, because there is no conflict between the two. Ideally in this future world, perhaps Black sci-fi is shelved with other sci-fi, or perhaps there is a section exclusively for Black sci-fi. The genre will have evolved in such a way that all of the artists and authors currently creating sci-fi will have found a place in the global market and on mainstream commercial bookshelves.

Then again, with the current surge in the popularity of e-books, bookshelves themselves may become obsolete. In that future world, then, a search term for a sci-fi novel will turn up Black authors with the same frequency as any other author of sci-fi, without even having to enter the term Black. But if you in this future world choose to search the e-book database specifically for Black sci-fi for an experience you can identify with, you can do so, just as easily. Until that future vision manifests, below are 10 anthologies of Black speculative fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and Afrofuturism.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

September 19, 2014September 19, 2014

10 Important Things You Should Know About Intellectual Property to Protect Your Ideas

What is intellectual property?

The term “intellectual property rights” refers generally to the ownership rights over a creative work such as musical, literary and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress, and, in some jurisdictions, trade secrets.

Copyright vs. Patent vs. Trademark

The most common types of intellectual property are trademarks, patents and copyrights.

Owning the copyright means you control how your creative, intellectual, or artistic works are copied and distributed. Copyright does not cover ideas and information themselves, only the form or manner in which they are expressed, and usually for a limited time.

A patent grants an inventor the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell and importing an invention (product or a process) for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention. A patent may be applied for only in the name of the inventor or group of inventors.

A trademark is a recognizable sign, design or expression that distinguishes products or services of a particular trader from the similar products or services of other traders. Trademarks last in perpetuity and can help to establish a company’s perceived value.

How can intellectual property help your business?

Businesses can use copyright laws to protect creative works or use patent law to protect inventions or ornamental product designs. Many businesses can use the law of trade secrets to protect confidential information. Every business can use trademark law to create and protect its brand.

When is a copyright created and how long does it last?

There are two basic requirements to create a copyright. First, the work must be original. Originality only requires that you, the author, contributed something more than a trivial variation. Second, the work must be tangible so that it can be perceived, reproduced or communicated.

The copyright begins when the work is created (not published) and lasts 70 years after the death of the creator. If the creator is a corporation, then the copyright lasts 120 years from the time created or 95 years from its publication, whichever is shorter.

Who owns a copyright, and what rights does the copyright owner have?

The person or entity who creates the creative, intellectual or artistic work is usually the copyright owner.

An employer automatically owns the copyright to any works created by an employee as part of employment. This is known as the “Work Made for Hire” doctrine and is an exception to the general rule that the creator owns the copyright. A written agreement between the parties is not needed for the employer to own the copyright under this doctrine. However, if the material was created by a consultant, a written agreement is usually necessary.

The copyright owner has the exclusive right to use and give others permission to use the work. The copyright owner can also assign or transfer the rights of ownership in the copyright to a third party.

Pages: 1 2