I heard a story about a scientist– who happened to be a trans man– attending a conference to give a talk. Someone was overheard saying “his work is so much better than his sister’s.
But there was no work from his sister. That was work from before he transitioned under his old name.
And it wasn’t just a story.
Today’s Moment of Science… Dr. Ben Barres, pioneering neurobiologist.
Born in 1954, Barres spent the first 43 years of his life presenting as a female. His experiences with sexism were legendary. In college he was able to solve a math problem that most boys in his class couldn’t, and was accused of having a boyfriend solve it. He saw scholarships and awards go to measurably less qualified male students.
Before someone inevitably pops into the comments and asks if we’re sure he wasn’t just a bad student prone to complaints? Yeah. Pretty darn. Barres went to Dartmouth for medical school. If that’s not enough for the intellectual dick waving olympics, he also snagged a PhD in neurobiology from Harvard. Like it’s hard.
After transitioning in 1997, it’s funny how so many of these little sexism problems vanished. Having a newfound (and deeper) voice that he noticed people were listening to far more now, alongside his pioneering research into glial cells he continued to vocally advocate for women in science.
Within his lectures at scientific conferences, he would sneak in a few minutes about the very real issue of sexism, having experienced it. In one lecture he said “I’m aware in a way few people are just how differently men and women are treated just based on their gender identity. It’s made me very aware and, frankly, very angry about the many barriers that talented women still face in every profession, not just science.”
Barres’ interest in studying glial cells was piqued when he noticed an association between irregular glial cell patterns and neurodegenerative diseases. Glial cells hadn’t been entirely ignored, but compared to neurons they were a bit under seasoned. Roughly translating to ‘nerve cement,’ they were first described in the 1850s and thought to be more or less cerebral support. Since neurons are doing the shit we think of as braining like making fun chemicals and sending out electrical signals, it’s understandable why other brain stuff may have been mistaken for little more than connective tissue.
But the glial cells make up about half the volume of our brains. Which seemed like a lot of structure for very little function.
Barres’ and his lab had countless breakthroughs in understanding the roles of all three types of glial cells. A 2017 paper his lab published in Nature suggests that neurodegenerative diseases start with “reactive” astrocytes causing inflammation. He called it the “most important discovery” his lab made, on top of a small mountain of important discoveries before that.
Unfortunately, that’s where his story ends. He passed away later that year of pancreatic cancer at the age of 63.
In facing his terminal diagnosis, he said “I stood up for what I believed in and I like to think I made an impact, or at least opened the door for the impact to occur. I have zero regrets and I’m ready to die. I’ve truly had a great life.”
This has been your Moment of Science, missing my own brother just a bit more than usual tonight.
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