Björk   Guðmundsdóttir has formed a powerful creative collaboration for her new album Biophilia.  With her current efforts she seeks to “define humanity’s relationship with sound and the universe; to pioneer a musical format that will smash industry conventions; and to make good on an ambition that, at the age of 45, she has harboured for more than three decades.”  She is pushing the boundaries of music, video, and technology. Read an in depth story from Wired Magazine U.K. about her most recent work here (thanks to Mary Joe Stockton for the link). Hear Björk explain her work and explore biophilia in more detail here.  Find her Youtube channel here.View  the video for her newest track Moon below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br2s0xJyFEM[/youtube]

Tavi Gevinson, fifteen year old creator of  the blog Style Rookie and the newly launched online magazine for teens Rookie, discusses her interests, her work, and her burgeoning feminism with NPR. Listen to the story here.

Anna Holmes, columnist for the Washington Post, discusses the difficulties facing women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  Her argument is that it starts young:  “Although girls have achieved meaningful parity with boys in test scores and college degrees in math and science, they are also being sent a message that embracing these subjects is anathema to what it means to be female. (Mainstream Hollywood movies about technology innovation that relegate females to sexualized-accessory status don’t help matters. Neither do sexist comments from Ivy League university presidents or pink T-shirts for ’tweens with phrases such as “Allergic to Algebra.”) Read the full story here.

Wired magazine features a story about a new fandom of men who love My Little Ponies.  The nationwide network of men who call themselves “bronies” say they’re man enough to admit they love “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic,” The Hub television network’s newest generation of the children’s brand first popularized in the 1980s.  You can also read a more detailed piece on a particular group of bronies in Portland, Oregon here.

Catherine Hakim, a sociologist at the London School of Economics, has been all over the place discussing her new book this past month. Her arguments is one I think we should exam further. See an interview with her from Slate here and listen to her, and an economist who works on the economics of beauty, on the Thinking Allowed podcast here.

Research by Mark McCormac finds that British secondary school boys are far less restrictive in their behavior than they used to be. It is okay to use conditioner, comment on someone’s clothes, and even give each other a hug. Listen to the discussion on Thinking Allowed.

Women played key, though often unacknowledged, roles in enlightenment science. This piece addresses women who produced scholarly research in their own right, some who served as university lecturers, some who worked alongside men in their family to produce significant bodies of work, and many who were the translators of science across language and educational barriers. Listen to this interesting podcast from the BBC program .

A new Guttmacher study, entitled “The World at Seven Billion: Global Milestone a Reflection of Individual Needs,” found that empowering women and couples is imperative to addressing the economic, developmental, environmental, and social challenges that will be present when the world’s population reaches seven billion. The United Nations estimates that by the end of this year, the world’s population will be seven billion and by the middle of the century, it will grow to be over nine billion.

Sociological Images provides an interesting analysis of gender, power, politics, and popular cutlure. You can find the story here.

The Chronical of Higher Education blog makes some interesting points about the Harry Potter films.  View the article here.