Nerd alert: Elizabeth Blackburn and feminists in Nerdfighteria

It’s time for me to make a not particularly shocking announcement, dear Feministing readers.

I am a Nerdfighter. 

Like many of you, I suspect, I’m dedicated to the decreasing of world suck, and I try very hard not to forget to be awesome. Like a lot of people who spend a lot of time online and are deeply invested in social justice, I think a lot about how those two things can be combined. How can we harness this technology, and the many new opportunities it provides, to solve problems and make the world a better place? Here at Feministing, we think about that a lot, and our work here is part of that large and varied project. Nerdfighteria is, too. Which is why, if I had to guess, I’d say that in the Venn diagram of Feministing readers and Nerdfighters, there’s quite a large overlap.

I’m not a science-y person, but of late I’ve gotten hooked on Hank Green’s series SciShow (if you’re not a Nerdfighter, you might know about it from the YouTube ads). And I’m particularly taken with the miniseries Great Minds, which is doing a great job of highlighting women in the sciences, and not just the “hard” sciences, either. There should be more women on the list. There should be fewer obstacles between women and this list.

But I’ll be damned if this video on Elizabeth Blackburn (shout out to Tasmania!) didn’t give me goosebumps.

If anyone has time to write up a transcript in the comments, we’d greatly appreciate it!