Cold Heat: An Excerpt from my Science Fiction Unpublished Book

On the occasion of the International Day for Women and Girls, I would like to share some snippets from a book I've written in 2021 but haven't published.

The hero of the book is about Fatima de Madrid, a mathematician and astronomer, who was from the Golden Age of Andalusian time, most known for inventing the astrolabe - a complex astronomical device used for multiple functions up to this day. It is also thought of being the first smartphone that humanity ever experienced.

This is an except from the preface of an unpublished science fiction book titled "Cold Heat" to honor industrial cultural heritage and innovation.

Happy reading!

Preface:

A Word on This Book

Can you idenfy a well-known female IT, science, or tech leader? Alexa and Siri are not included.

When asked this queson in a 2018 poll, approximately 92% of people replied they couldn't think of one. Only around 4% of the 8% who claimed to be able to really did so. A fih of them called their daughters Siri and Alexa instead of actual women.

Women are underrepresented at all levels of leadership in sectors involving science, technology, engineering, and mathemacs across the world (STEMM).

According to a 2018 study from the Naonal Scienfic Board, although accounng for half of the enre college-educated workforce in 2015, women only made up 28% of the total science and engineering workforce.

Furthermore, women abandon STEMM areas at a higher rate than males during the course of their careers. According to one research, new women are more likely than new dads to quit full-me STEMM professions following the birth or adopon of their first child. Women engineers are typically disadvantaged due of their gender, according to another research, notably during internships, career possibilies, or team-based training acvies.

According to a study of women working in science-related fields, 91% indicated gender discriminaon is sll a barrier to their careers, and 100% stated self-doubt and lack of confidence are also barriers. These results are not unexpected, given that data reveals that women academics earn less, get less support at the outset of their careers, and are menoned less oen than males.

It is evident that we need to develop more inclusive and varied sengs in all aspects of STEMM. We can do this by aracng, supporng, and retaining women and girls in STEMM fields.

Diversity improves science. Gender diversity, according to data

may widen researchers' perspecves, ideas, and areas of invesgaon, allowing for more new discoveries. Without the contribuons of women and other underrepresented groups in science, the world may lose out on vital invenons and ideas that come from different viewpoints.

STEMM jobs grow each year.

The employment market of the future will need a high level of competence, and automaon and arficial intelligence will be used to replace many of the current ones.

STEMM occupaons are among the most rapidly expanding. They will connue to be in high demand in the future as we need them to address environmental and other challenges. As a consequence, STEMM occupaons will be among the most in-demand, as well as among the highest-paying.

Despite this upward tendency, STEMM occupaons remain difficult to fill. Only one competent expert is available for every two STEMM employment opportunies. Every present STEMM specialist seems to be already employed.

If the current paern connues, the excess will only increase. As a result, a scarcity of STEMM workers may have a detrimental impact on the future of science and engineering.

Meanwhile, we know that girls' interest in STEMM is strong in middle school but declines as they go to high school. Furthermore, as we progress, their numbers connue to decline. Only a small percentage of young women pursue STEMM degrees. Even if they work in STEMM fields, they are quite likely to leave.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that the number of guys in STEMM fields is increasing, we connue to have a lack of STEMM experts.

We only have around half of the STEMM workers we need since women make up about half of the world's populaon. As a result, the soluon to the STEMM skills gap is simple: more women in STEMM fields.

More Women in STEMM fields will help to boost the global economy.

More women in STEMM fields are needed not just for social and moral reasons, but also to meet the labor shortage. According to research, boosng the amount of women in STEMM fields might result in a $12 trillion increase in global GMP by 2025.

In reality, more women are required in all sectors of the labor market. The research looked at a "full potenal" scenario. In it, women play the same role as their male counterparts in all industries across the world. This indicated that the global GMP might expand by up to $28 trillion.

Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathemacs (STEMM) are crical for innovaon.

For the sake of innovaon, greater focus on gender equality and more women in STEMM fields are required.

Despite accounng for half of the populaon, women's demands are seldom considered. Males have essenally constructed the world for men.

In the 1960s, sciensts, for example, determined the average office temperature. They calculated it using an average male's metabolic resng rate. However, sciensts have recently discovered that female metabolic rates differ from male metabolic rates. In reality, it's around 30% greater for females than for men.

As a result, women find the typical workplace temperature to be overly cool. As a consequence, feeling uneasy at work may lead women to be less producve since their fundamental needs aren't being sasfied.

Another research found that women are more likely than males to have work-related injuries. It was shown that although improvements in the area of work safety reduced the incidence of injuries for males, they rose for women.

Surprisingly, both genders had the same proporon. This suggests that research and enhancements were predominantly carried out by men without regard for the female body.

Furthermore, the majority of personal protecon equipment is designed for the ordinary guy. As a result, it is unsuitable for the majority of women. Only 5% of women who need it at work said they had never had any problems with ill-fing equipment such as dust, hazmat, and eye masks, body armor, and stab vests. The ramificaons of this might be deadly.

Men are the primary users of modern technology. According to some reports, Google's speech recognion algorithms is more likely to disnguish male voices than female voices. When Apple's Siri inially debuted, there was a similar paern. It was noted by early users that it was more likely to react to inquiries posed by males than by women.

While they may not seem to be as important as road safety, they are. Women, however, had a 47% greater chance of severe injury and a 17% higher risk of mortality in vehicle accidents than males. This is due to the fact that safety test dummies are designed to reflect an ordinary guy.

The data shows that we need to transform the STEMM culture. In society, we need to rethink what a scienst looks like. When girls have female role models to inspire them and help them see themselves in these situaons, the number of girls interested in STEMM grows. We need to inspire more girls into pursing STEMM careers if we are to ever stand a chance of all being equal – and who knows what discoveries the world coulhd have missed, and be acvely missing out on today?

There’s no me to waste.