Music and Astronomy

Listening to the whispers from the stars

Wilson Gonzalez-Espada's picture
Dr. Wanda Díaz
Dr. Wanda Díaz Merced has created a system that lets her "listen" to the stars (Credit: William Leibman)

Frequently, science teachers ask their students to draw a scientist so that they can get a sense of what students think and imagine about scientists. Thousands and thousands of drawings show the same stereotypical characteristics: a male scientist, white, dressed in a lab coat, usually a chemist mixing liquids and generating explosions, and a person that does not have any physical limitations. 

No student has ever drawn a scientist like Dr. Wanda Díaz Merced.  This young woman from Gurabo embodies the scientific anti-stereotype. Not only is she a woman and Puerto Rican, but also she completed her doctoral work in astrophysics, and without being able to use her sight.

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