Katherine Johnson – an inspiring mathematician who inadvertently challenged our views of gender and race

I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Katherine Johnson, yesterday.  She was a female, African-American mathematician who worked for NASA and was an integral member of the team there in the 1950s and 1960s, when the first American astronauts went into space.  She calculated rocket trajectories and the orbit of the Earth for Nasa’s early space missions.  Her calculations were vital for ensuring these astronauts were able to return to Earth.

For more information, here are a few links you may like to explore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2gCsxUGkNs   Biopic about Katherine Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EiZe6WONWY   Hidden Figures – 3 African-American women who worked at NASA

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51619848

Is there something simple that you could do to help look after the future of our planet?  There are lots of things that you do already, such as ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, but have you thought about eating insects?  This could make a big impact too!

Entomophagy is the eating of insects, which is something that we’ve done for thousands of years, if not from the time of the first hominid.  Why are they not very popular in British diets?  Over 2 billion people around the world eat them regularly!

Insects are rich in vitamins and minerals, as well as essential fatty acids like Omega-3.  Some of them are also low in fat and are a good source of protein.

Farming for meat, particularly beef, uses about one third of our available land, including land used to produce the food that livestock eat, and has resulted in water shortages and deforestation, as well as creating about one fifth of our greenhouse gas emissions.  Farming edible insects uses smaller amounts of land, water and feed and produces far fewer greenhouse gases.

Why not give it a try?

Look at the links below, if you want to find out more, including some delicious recipe ideas!

http://www.bugsfeed.com/are_insects_better_than_meat

Bugsfeed website – read it for recipe ideas, links to other sites focusing on insects and more detailed information about the nutritional values of various insects

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/eat-insects-save-the-world.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlcisiujk5wIVTLDtCh0cyQ00EAAYASAAEgKPZfD_BwE 

Natural History Museum website

BBC Two – Tomorrow’s Food – This series is currently available on BBCiPlayer