                  Rishon
Sabri, 2024To contact the author, please e-mail: rishonsabri@gmail.com |
Case Study: Inspiring scientists
 Dr Mae Jemison is an American engineer, physician and former NASA astronaut, who also appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was also the first African American woman to go into space with the U.S. space programme. She is a great example of the influence of science fiction on people's career paths. This is because at a young age she knew that she wanted to study science and go into space, a decision heavily influenced by Star Trek: The Original Series and the African American actress Nichelle Nichols' portrayal of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. Astronaut Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to go into space with the U.S. space program, In her opening speech at the Department of African and African American Studies' "Race in Space" conference in 2013, she noted how much Star Trek inspired her. "As a little girl growing up on the south side of Chicago in the '60s I always knew I was going to be in space." In a 1994 interview with C-SPAN, she noted how Star Trek was the first American television series that depicted an African-American woman who worked in a technical field and how she strongly identified with Nichols. The character of Lieutenant Uhura was such a heavy influence on Dr Mae Jemison due to how she was an African woman with a scientific role, giving the message that anyone, no matter what ethnic group or gender can go into a scientific career if they want to. Furthermore, Nichelle Nichols' work helped many other people going into scientific careers, "She also was very instrumental in recruiting the first women and minority astronauts for NASA" Jemison said in the C-SPAN interview. It should be noted that Dr Mae Jemison is not the only eminent scientist who has appeared in a science fiction show. Stephen Hawking, a massively influential physicist, appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation playing a game of poker on the holodeck with the series' famed android Commander Data. Two other well-known scientists, Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared as themselves in an episode of Stargate Atlantis. The latter also portrayed himself in an episode of the science fiction animation series futurama. This further indicates that many scientists, such as these acknowledge science fiction as an effective way to reach out to the public about science, helping to spark interest in and understanding of scientific concepts and issues.
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