Today marks the release of a cover of Thomas Dolby’s 1982 hit She Blinded Me With Science  by a Cambridge academic and an "army of ScienceGrrls" to promote women in science.

The song is performed by the band Violet Transmissions, whose lead singer Tim Bussey is also a Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, a Fellow and Director of Studies in Natural Sciences at Pembroke College.

The song was released today and is available to buy on iTunes, with all proceeds going to ScienceGrrl, an organization which supports and celebrates the achievements of women in science.

It begins with a quote from the British scientist Magnus Pyke, who first brought science to a lay audience in the mid-20th century, in which Pyke remarks that “as a known scientist, it would be surprising if a girl blinded me with science”.

Five ‘ScienceGrrls’ appear in the video, such as structural engineer Roma Agrawal, laser physicist Lia Ling Yi and epidemiologist Suzi Gage. The video also includes footage of fictional scientists from the hit BBC series Orphan Black, a female-led series which explores the consequences of human cloning.

It is hoped that the collaboration will raise awareness of the dearth of women in science-related disciplines. Bussey himself commented that “it’s shocking that most of the faces at my level of career progression are male”

“Clearly women are being put off science somewhere along the way,” he continued, “We’ve released this cover of Thomas Dolby’s hit as way of celebrating women in science and helping raise awareness of some of the issues they face.”

A recent report from ScienceGrrl highlighted cultural stereotypes which discourage girls from pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), whilst a Welcome Trust, the UK’s largest charitable funder of medical research, revealed in a report last year that a lack of female role models further alienates women from STEM subjects and careers.

Recently the University of Cambridge was awarded an institutional Athena SWAN Silver Award in recognition of its commitment to advancing women's careers in STEM employment in higher education and research.

Anne Davis, Professor of Mathematical Physics and a Gender Equality Champion at the University of Cambridge, said: “The University is keenly aware of the need to retain women as they progress through their careers into senior levels.”

She was optimistic, saying that the situation is “changing”, but emphasised that more must be done to encourage girls to get involved with science-based careers; “There is still a lot more we must do to change the thinking of both men and women, to foster female scientists and ensure those recruiting academics have the right skills. To be a world class University we must recruit and retain the best candidates - from every sector of society.”