"How Being Ignored Helped A Woman Discover The Breast Cancer Gene"

29 March 2014: While running lots of errands this morning, I heard this story on the NPR "Story of the Day" podcast. In it, Mary-Claire King, a geneticist, talks about her work discovering the breast cancer gene. It's a terrific interview, full of cool scientific information and a kick-ass lesson/reminder for women. When asked about being a woman in a field where women have historically been ignored or dismissed, she explains: "When one is a child of affirmative action one needs to anticipate that people, particularly those who didn't benefit from affirmative action, won't take you seriously for a while. But there's a wonderful phrase from Simone de Beauvoir: For a woman to be taken as seriously as a man she must be three times as effective. Happily this is not difficult." Awesome.