Field of Science

The Future of Botany

The Phactor has seen the future of botany, and it's young women. This the my 39th year in the botanical society, and never before have so many young people been in attendance, the result of so many supporting members contributing to student travel funds. A great deal of scientific talent was on display and it was most impressive. When you see undergraduates speaking to an audience of 60 or so professional botanists, and with great poise and confidence, you just know what kind of potential they have. Botany has always had the largest percentage of women of any of the sciences, upwards of 40% in recent history, and it's possible that botany will become the first female majority science, and nothing is wrong with that. The Phactor has always had a thing for smart women.

2 comments:

Mrs Phactor said...

I am going to assume that includes me.

Anonymous said...

aaaaaaaaaayuh as they say up here in Maine. When I was young (an unimaginable time ago) there were the "guys" and they were in engineering and stuff and everything else was "the soft sciences". Now I read magazines like New Scientist and some great journals and I too am delighted with the number of women represented and the amazing work being done. I hope that all the young people that I infected with the botany bug no longer feel put down by the hard-science guys.