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free radicals Her Free Radical Research Group has Math + Motherhood Women are shunning academic careers in maths-intensive fields because the lifestyle is incompatible with motherhood, researchers at Cornell University found in a study. Universities have long been criticised for hiring and evaluation policies that discriminate against women, but the findings of this new study point to the female biological clock as the main reason why so few women end up as professors in fields such as maths, engineering, physics and computer science. Source: Reuters "It was a very stimulating time for me. Professor Carrell was prepared to ask the big questions and there was a sense of creativity and freedom of scientific inquiry.'' "Professor Carrell always said there was no reason why we couldn't make remarkable discoveries in New Zealand and that made a big impression on me. I still think that." With Carrell, Christine did make some remarkable early discoveries in the field of free radical research. "We were studying haemoglobin, the red blood pigment that carries oxygen around the body. We were looking at a patient whose haemoglobin contained a genetic mutation and we were interested in understanding why this caused her to be anaemic. We found that her protein converted some of the oxygen to superoxide radicals, to a much greater extent than normal haemoglobin. This was one of the first demonstrations that free radicals are generated in cells. It helped open the realisation that free radicals are continually being generated in our bodies and that we need protective anti-oxidants to control them. This discovery stimulated my interest in what superoxide radicals do, and set the direction of my subsequent research." Christine's research over the years has made a major contribution to knowledge about how free radicals and other reactive oxidants are produced in the body, what damage they cause and how the body protects against them. 28 | www.hermagazine.co.nz developed tests to detect production of oxidants in different diseases. For example, superoxide radicals and chlorine bleach are produced by white blood cells to kill microbes that enter the body. Christine and her colleagues have characterised how this occurs, and shown that the bleach can sometimes damage host tissue. One situation where they have demonstrated this occurs is in the immature lungs of premature babies who need to be on ventilators, with greater oxidative damage being associated with poorer lung function. Assessment of how different treatments affect the level of injury enables the development of procedures that improve the outcome for the infants. Christine says, "Nowadays, free radicals and anti-oxidants are terms many people are familiar with because we are told to eat our fruit and vegetables because they are rich in anti-oxidants and they protect against free radicals. When I first started work on free radicals the term was common in chemistry, but the idea that free radicals might have an important role in health and disease was relatively untouched." Another transformation over Christine's career is the presence of far more women in science and senior research positions. In her acceptance speech Christine summed up why she felt it had taken 20 years for a woman to receive the Rutherford Medal. "I thought about why it has taken this long, as people often bring up discrimination – but I don't think it's really that. There are obstacles for women to overcome, but a lot of it is statistical. Obviously, the recipients are fairly mature individuals, and started their careers when women scientists were Photo courtesy of The University of Otago Bird Flu Botch Up Bird flu may be far less lethal to people than the World Health Organisation's assessment of a death rate topping 50 per cent, scientists said in a finding that adds fuel to the heated controversy over publication of bird flu research. Scientists from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York argue in an analysis published in the online edition of the journal Science that the WHO, a UN agency, is calculating the death rate using an estimate of human bird flu cases that is simply too low. Source: Reuters "We are entering the second industrial revolution. The pace of scientific and technological change is accelerating and an increasing number of people want new goods and services to enable them to respond to the enormous and challenging problems of our age. The answers will come from work in areas such as genetics, life sciences, robotics, energy, health, education, virtual reality, nanotechnology, transport, water use, biotechnology, information technology – to name a few." Source: Massey University Vice-Chancellor, Steve Maharey much the minority. For example in my MSc chemistry class, we were four of about 30. It is very different now, and I am sure I'll be the start of a trend. "Probably what was more of an issue for me in the early days was being a scientist in the medical world. Back then it was usual for the Medical Research Council (which later became the Health Research Council)