#* jocelyn bell burnell is an astrophysicist who discovered radio pulsars :)

[vimbry]

they call it storm jocelyn cause it's gonna be jocelyn things about

[teachersource]

Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born on July 15, 1943. An astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. Though she was not one of the prize's recipients, in 1977, Bell Burnell commented, "I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them." In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. She decided to use the $3 million prize money to establish the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund to help female, minority, and refugee students to become physics researchers. The fund is administered by the Institute of Physics.

[afrotumble]

Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born on July 15, 1943. An astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. Though she was not one of the prize's recipients, in 1977, Bell Burnell commented, "I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them." In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. She decided to use the $3 million prize money to establish the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund to help female, minority, and refugee students to become physics researchers. The fund is administered by the Institute of Physics.

[maaarine]

MBTI & Scientists Jocelyn Bell Burnell: INTP

“Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP (born 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, co-discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967.

She was credited with "one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century".

The discovery was recognised by the award of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics, but despite the fact that she was the first to observe the pulsars, Bell was not one of the recipients of the prize.

The paper announcing the discovery of pulsars had five authors. Bell's thesis supervisor Antony Hewish was listed first, Bell second.

Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with the astronomer Martin Ryle. 

Many prominent astronomers criticised Bell's omission, including Sir Fred Hoyle.”

Sources: video, wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell. Screencaps: transcript.

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland, who was the first to discover radio pulsars. Despite the fact that it was her research that led to the first observation and analysis of the pulsars, it was her supervisor, Antony Hewish, who received the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for the breakthrough discovery.

Jocelyn was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2018, and used all of the £2.3 million to help female, minority and refugee students become physics researchers.

[quantum-questions]

Some of the Great Women Scientists

Marie Curie

Pioneering work in radioactivity and nuclear physics and chemistry. Developed techniques to isolate radioactive isotopes and discovered two elements, polonium and radium. Two Nobel Prizes, one in physics, and another in chemistry. 

Rosalind Franklin

Research in the field of X-ray crystallography in physical chemistry. Used x-ray crystallography to find the structures of DNA, RNA, coal, graphite, and viruses.

Lise Meitner

Research on radioactivity and nuclear physics. Discovered and studied nuclear fission of Uranium when an additional neutron is added. Won the Max Planck Medal and many other awards.

Emmy Noether

Mathematician who made significant contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Particularly known for her work on rings, fields, and algebraic invariants in algebra. In physics, developed what is now known as Noether’s Theorem relating symmetry to conservation laws.

Barbara McClintock

Significant work on cytogentics, particularly that of maize or corn. Cytogenetics deals with the relation between chromosomes and cell behavior. Discovered transposition to explain how genes control physical characteristics. Won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Rachel Carson

Marine biologist and conservationist. Her books and writings like Silent Spring helped advance the global environmental movement.

Grace Hopper

Computer scientist, Navy rear admiral, and one of the first to program the Harvard Mark I computer which was a computer used during World War II. Major contributions important to modern programming such as compiler technology and the idea of machine-independent programming languages.

Katherine Johnson

NASA mathematician who made crucial calculations in orbital mechanics for the first United States manned spaceflights. Helped pioneer the use of computers to help preform these calculations. Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Astrophysicist who, in her postgraduate work, discovered the first radio pulsars. Won the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2018. Former president of the Royal Astronomical Society(2002-2004) and the Institute of Physics (2008-2010).

Jane Goodall

Goodall is a primatologist and anthropologist. She held a 55 year long study in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania on chimpanzees and their social interactions.

...and many more!

In honor of International Women’s Day.

[qqueenofhades]

50 Awesome Women To Know: Part 7

 Halloween is a great time, because why not, to learn more about awesome women. Previous entries are here.

Alba Alonso de Quesada (1924 -- ): Honduran, lawyer and academic, long-term advocate of women, children, the working poor, and organized labor, campaigner against corruption, feminist and reformer, still fighting the global good fight at the age of 94.

Amina of Zazzau (? -- 1610): Nigerian, African warrior queen and conqueror, heroine of many legends and folk tales, who bested male rivals and collected tribute across several regions.

Ángela Acuña Braun (1888-1983): Costa Rican, another Central American woman and lawyer. Specialist in international human rights law, founder of many feminist and legal advocacy organizations, diplomat and ambassador.

Ashani Weeraratna (1971 -- ): Sri Lankan/South African, pioneering cancer researcher and director of the PhD cancer biology program at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

Barbara Sanguszko (1718-1791): Polish, prominent figure of the Polish Enlightenment, poet, society hostess, translator, sponsor of artists, politicians, and intellectuals, philanthropist and religious patron.

Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi (1858-1921): Iranian, one of the first women’s rights activists in the modern history of Iran; educator, author, mother of seven children who also went on to distinguished careers in the public sector.

Brita Tott (c. 1498): Danish/Swedish, had an almost ludicrously colorful career as a major landowner, spy, forger, counterfeiter, administrator, and suspected traitor, who escaped the charges against her and lived into retirement.

Cheryl Dunye (1966 -- ): Liberian-American, highly decorated filmmaker, activist, and college professor, who studies the African-American lesbian and queer experience through film, art, and other mediums.

Diane de Poitiers (1499-1566): French, mistress of King Henry II of France and de facto queen of France for much of his reign (in which she competed with fellow Badass Lady Catherine de Medici). Well-educated, beautiful, and widely influential.

Ekaterina Karavelova (1860-1947): Bulgarian, suffragist, educator, author, and diplomat, instrumental in the development of women’s access to university education in Bulgaria and Eastern Europe.

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684): Italian, the first woman known in history to receive a PhD degree, which she did in 1678, in philosophy, from the University of Padua. She dazzled academics from all the distinguished Italian universities (Rome, Perugia, Bologna, and Naples) in a public hearing. 

Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012): African-American, the grandchild of slaves, artist and sculptor who represented the twentieth-century black experience in her work and received many awards and recognitions.

Elizabeth Montagu (1718-1800): British, socialite and social reformer who donated large amounts of her fortune to the poor; founder of the Blue Stockings Society for educated women, and probably a lesbian, as she was reported to have had “no interest in men or marriage” and kept a female companion.

Fawziyya Abu Khalid (1955 -- ): Saudi Arabian, poet, social critic, feminist, one of the most prominent Saudi female poets and outspoken political advocate for the rights of women in the Kingdom.

Frances Kirwan (1959 -- ): British, mathematician, current Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford (a position once held by Edmond Halley, among others) and first female holder of the title. Distinguished researcher and teacher of mathematics and fellow of several Oxbridge positions.

Freddie and Truus Oversteegen (1925-2018 and 1923-2016): Dutch, Resistance activists during WWII, who seduced Nazis by luring them out to remote locations for their compatriots (or the sisters themselves) to kill them. Their family hid Jews too, and both sisters lived long lives and died of old age.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943 -- ): Northern Irish, astrophysicist who helped discover radio pulsars (described as “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century”). Was then excluded from the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics given to her colleagues in the discovery. Finally received a £2.3 million award for distinguished physics research in 2018, and gave ALL OF IT to help women, minorities, and refugees pursue careers in STEM.

Justina Szilágyi (c. 1455-c.1497): Hungarian, cousin of Matthias Corvinus (the Raven King) and second wife of the notorious Vlad the Impaler (yes, that Vlad). Outlived him and successfully pursued her claim to lands in Transylvania.

Katharine McCormick (1875-1967): American, philanthropist, suffragist, heiress, who went to MIT in the 19th century, and who funded the research necessary for the modern birth control pill. A pioneering advocate of reproductive freedom, who also donated a great deal of money to ensure women’s continued scholarship at MIT.

Khurshidbanu Natavan (1832-1897): Azerbaijani, poet and musical lyricist, social and cultural patron of the Karabakh region who funded civic improvement projects, founder and sponsor of literary societies.

Kittur Chennamma (1778-1829): Indian, Rani (ruler) of the state of Kittur, who led an armed rebellion against the British East India Company and who, while eventually defeated, has become a folk heroine and symbol of resistance against the Raj.

Lama Abu-Odeh (1962 --): Palestinian-American, lawyer, feminist, and professor who currently teaches at Georgetown University, scholar and advocate for Muslims in a post-9/11 world. 

Laura Bassi (1711-1778): Italian, physicist and academic; earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Bologna (1732) and subsequently became professor of physics there. First woman to hold a university chair in the sciences, instrumental in the study and spread of Newtonian physics.

Leona Vicario (1789-1842): Mexican, heroine of the Mexican War of Independence, feminist, one of the first female Mexican journalists, honored as “Distinguished and Beloved Mother of the Homeland.” 

María Abella de Ramírez (1863-1926): Uruguayan, another South American feminist and social reformer, advocate for sex workers’ rights and new divorce laws, founder of South American suffragist organizations, who fought the all-consuming power of the Catholic Church.

[matthewschiavello]

Please check out this really interesting project and consider supporting it or sharing it with those you think may be interested. This is not my project, but one I think is a really great idea.

The Wonder Women Project is a series of collectible enamel pins celebrating amazing women and their accomplishments. These women are role models for people of any gender and should be recognized for their contributions to the world. 

The Pins include:

Ursula Burns  - A mechanical engineer by education, Burns rose to become CEO of Xerox, making her the first African American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company, and the first woman to succeed another woman as head of a Fortune 500 company.

Mary Wells Lawrence -  a retired American advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells Rich Greene, an advertising agency known for its creative, innovative, and revolutionary work. (You can thank her for “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.”)  Lawrence was the first female CEO of a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Cathleen S. Morawetz - a Canadian mathematician who spent much of her career in the United States. Morawetz’s research was mainly in the study of the partial differential equations governing fluid flow, particularly those of mixed type occurring in transonic flow. (How air moves over a foil to create a boom!)

Flossie Wong-Staal -  a Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist. She was the first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS.  In 2007, The Daily Telegraph heralded Dr. Wong-Staal as #32 of the “Top 100 Living Geniuses.”

Patricia Bath - an American ophthalmologist, inventor, and academic. She has broken ground for women and African Americans in a number of areas. Before her, no woman had served on the staff of the Jules Stein Eye Institute, headed a post-graduate training program in ophthalmology, or been elected to the honorary staff of the UCLA Medical Center. Before her, no African-American person had served as a resident in ophthalmology at New York University and no African-American woman had ever served on staff as a surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center. Bath is the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical purpose.

Lydia Villa-Komaroff - a molecular and cellular biologist who has been an academic laboratory scientist, a university administrator, and a business woman. She was the third Mexican American woman in the United States to receive a doctorate degree in cell biology at MIT. She is a co-founding member of The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. She was part of a team that discovered how bacterial cells could be used to generate insulin.

Mae Carol Jemison- is an American engineer, physician and NASA astronaut. She became the first African American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on September 12, 1992. After medical school and a brief general practice, Jemison served in the Peace Corps from 1985 until 1987, when she was selected by NASA to join the astronaut corps. She also made a brief appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Jocelyn Bell Burnell -  an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who was credited with “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th Century”. As a postgraduate student, she discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. She was President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and was interim president following the death of her successor, Marshall Stoneham, in early 2011.

cheers!

[crowley1990]

Do you have any other astrophysicist or scientific heroes ?

I’ve never really been much one for heroes so he was the only obvious one that I would definitely consider a hero but if I was to think about it, others would include Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Northern Irish Astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars in the 60s, Sally Ride, first American woman in space and only known LGBT astronaut, Carl Sagan, and his great outreach as a science communicator and also his work with NASA on missions like Pioneer and  Voyager and the influence he had on what should go on the Pioneer Plaque and the Voyager Golden Disc.

To name a small few.

[marciamattos]

This seems like a great way to round of our posts yesterday - how many of these names do you recognize? Image by Megan Lee Studio. • Mary Anning was a British fossil collector and paleontologist. • Ada Lovelace is considered to be the world’s first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage’s analytical engine. • Marie Curie was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry. Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. • Lise Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. In 1997, element 109 was named meitnerium in her honor. • Emmy Noether, was a mathematician known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. She was described by Albert Einstein as the most important woman in the history of mathematics. • Cecelia Payne was a British astronomer and astrophysicist. She was the first person to discover that the universe is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. • Barbara McClintock produced groundbreaking research in cytogenetics and demonstrated that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off. • Grace Hopper was a computer scientist who developed the COBOL computer programming language. She popularized the term “debugging” for fixing computer glitches after being motivated by an actual moth removed from the computer. • Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, conservationist, and author known for advancing the environmental movement. • Dorothy Hodgkin was a biochemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography, a method used to determine the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules. She became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. • Hedy Lamarr was both a popular Hollywood actress and an inventor. Her most significant contribution to technology was her co-invention of an early technique for frequency-hopping spread spectrum communications which paved the way for today's wireless communications. • Rosalind Franklin was a biophysicist whose work on X-­ray diffraction images of DNA led to her discovery of DNA double helix and her data was used to formulate Crick and Watson’s 1953 hypothesis. • Esther Lederberg was a microbiologist who devised the first successful implementation of replica plating and helped discover and understand the genetic mechanisms of specialized transduction. • Jane Goodall is an anthropologist and primatologist known for her extraordinary 55-year study of the interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. • Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars. • Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to travel in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Post via Not an Exact Science Show.

[the-open-future]

Okay, I realize this is out of nowhere but these are the kinds of things I think about so I've gotta ask: what's Alira's middle name?

This is an excellent question and thank you for asking!

Her middle name is Jocelyn.

Alira’s scientist mother, Hallie, named her after one of her own personal heroes: the twentieth century astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who as a graduate studentdiscovered the first radio pulsars.

[teachersource]

Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born on July 15, 1943. An astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. Though she was not one of the prize’s recipients, in 1977, Bell Burnell commented, “I believe it would demean Nobel Prizes if they were awarded to research students, except in very exceptional cases, and I do not believe this is one of them.” In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. She decided to use the $3 million prize money to establish the Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund, to help female, minority, and refugee students become physics researchers. The fund is administered by the Institute of Physics.

[muh-alazzeh]

Do u know one of them .. ??

.

.

• Mary Anning was a British fossil collector and paleontologist.

• Ada Lovelace is considered to be the world’s first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage’s analytical engine.

• Marie Curie was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry. Her achievements included a theory of radioactivity, techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium.

• Lise Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. In 1997, element 109 was named meitnerium in her honor.

• Emmy Noether, was a mathematician known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. She was described by Albert Einstein as the most important woman in the history of mathematics.

• Cecelia Payne was a British astronomer and astrophysicist. She was the first person to discover that the universe is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium.

• Barbara McClintock produced groundbreaking research in cytogenetics and demonstrated that genes are responsible for turning physical characteristics on and off.

• Grace Hopper was a computer scientist who developed the COBOL computer programming language. She popularized the term “debugging” for fixing computer glitches after being motivated by an actual moth removed from the computer.

• Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, conservationist, and author known for advancing the environmental movement.

• Dorothy Hodgkin was a biochemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography, a method used to determine the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules. She became the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

• Hedy Lamarr was both a popular Hollywood actress and an inventor. Her most significant contribution to technology was her co-invention of an early technique for frequency-hopping spread spectrum communications which paved the way for today's wireless communications.

• Rosalind Franklin was a biophysicist whose work on X-­ray diffraction images of DNA led to her discovery of DNA double helix and her data was used to formulate Crick and Watson’s 1953 hypothesis.

• Esther Lederberg was a microbiologist who devised the first successful implementation of replica plating and helped discover and understand the genetic mechanisms of specialized transduction.

• Jane Goodall is an anthropologist and primatologist known for her extraordinary 55-year study of the interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.

• Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars.

• Mae Jemison was the first African American woman to travel in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

[euroman1945-blog]

The Daily Tulip

The Daily Tulip – News From Around The World

Monday 10th September 2018

Good Morning Gentle Reader….  Heavy clouds cover the morning sky, and I hear rumbles of thunder in the far distance, but it’s that time of day so out into the darkness we go, Bella my black Labrador eager to discover what new smells are just around the corner as she trots from tree to tree, each one imparting information that she and other dogs would know.. or come to that would want to know… I watch the clouds roiling above us, making incredible shapes as the wind pushes the water laden moisture bearers towards the nearby mountains.. with Bella having completed her ablutions and eager to return home to breakfast, and me eager for my first cup of coffee we pick up speed as clap of thunder shatters the silence and large drops of rain splatter against the pavements and cobbles..

ASTROPHYSICIST WINS $3 MILLION FOR DECADES-OLD PULSAR DISCOVERY…. Better late than never? Decades after her supervisor won the 1974 Nobel Prize for their collaborative work on spinning neutron stars called pulsars, British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. As a Cambridge graduate student in 1967 she was the first to notice pulsars’ mysterious radio waves — one of the most consequential astronomical discoveries of the 20th century. Now an Oxford professor, Bell Burnell is donating the prize to the U.K.’s Institute of Physics to fund scholarships for under-represented students.

JAPAN CONFIRMS FIRST FUKUSHIMA RADIATION DEATH…. For the first time since a devastating tsunami sparked a meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant more than seven years ago, the government has acknowledged that a worker died of lung cancer after being exposed to radiation. The man, who was not named, was responsible for measuring radiation levels at the plant and continued working there until 2015, but it’s unclear exactly when he died. Health officials say his family will be provided compensation — the fifth government payout to a Fukushima worker following the disaster.

NASA ENCOURAGED TO ESCALATE SEARCH FOR ALIENS…. The truth is out there. A congressionally mandated study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine urges the U.S. space agency to prioritize the search for exoplanets and extraterrestrial life. The Exoplanet Science Strategy suggests astronomers focus on examining how planets form and predicting their habitability. Over the next decade, the authors say, NASA should develop a powerful new space telescope and invest in Earth-based observatories — and it should make those tools available to other researchers. NASA will now take the study’s recommendations to Congress to secure funding.

RUSSIA: SPACE STATION LEAK CAUSED BY DRILL…. According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the 2-millimeter hole discovered last week in their Soyuz spacecraft, which was docked at the International Space Station, was drilled from the inside by a “wavering hand” either on Earth or in space. While agency chief Dmitry Rogozin said it’s “too early to say definitely what happened,” he also hasn’t ruled out “deliberate interference.” Experts previously believed a meteorite had caused the non-life-threatening leak, which astronauts sealed with tape. Roscosmos has created a commission to investigate the incident.

WEST MIDLANDS SAFARI PARK LION JILIANI 'RECOVERING'…. A "stiff and sore" lion attacked in front of safari park visitors in a fight over some meat is recovering, bosses at the attraction have said. Footage showed a group of lionesses pouncing on Jiliani in the animals' enclosure at West Midlands Safari Park Keepers at the venue near Bewdley, Worcestershire, sprayed the big cats in a bid to break up the tussle. Jilani and his brothers are currently "resting" away from the females, the safari park said. He was checked over by a vet and given pain relief, it added.  Jilani and his two brothers usually stick together and keep the lionesses in order, but on this occasion the other females became involved first, the safari park said. The park said the males were only introduced last year, and the pride was still "settling in". They will rejoin the other lions over the weekend. "Lions are very tough animals and disputes similar to this are very common in the wild," a spokesperson added. Park visitor Mya Beverstock, from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, filmed the dispute on Wednesday. She said: "Most of what we saw was captured in the footage. "It was a very natural way to see the lions." The park has thanked everyone who has asked about Jilani's health.

Well Gentle Reader I hope you enjoyed our look at the news from around the world this, morning… …

Our Tulips today are stunning.....

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Monday 10th September 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus #Spain #Tulips #Travel #Coffee

[newsotu]

WOMEN IN STEM 

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943-) is an Irish astrophysicist who discovered pulsars, a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. As a child, Bell Burnett was interested in science and her passion was fueled by her parents who encouraged her with books and trips to a nearby observatory. Despite her desire for knowledge, Bell Burnell originally had difficulty in grade school and failed an exam that intended to measure her readiness for higher education. Bell Burnell later attended the University of Glasgow where she earned a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1965. Later that year, Bell Burnell started her graduate studies in radio astronomy at the University of Cambridge. Over the next two years she helped build a radio telescope designed to monitor quasars. In 1967 when the radio telescope was operational, Bell Burnell analyzed the data it produced and she eventually found some anomalies. With her team, they were able to deduce that the radio pulses were made by neutron stars. In 1974, only Hewish and Ryle (the main scientists on the team) received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work. While a large group of the scientific community raised their objections, Bell Burnell humbly rejected the idea that she was cheated out of winning the Nobel Prize. In recognition for her contributions, Bell Burnell has been awarded Commander and Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 1999 and 2007 and many other prestigious awards.

Quote: “Scientists should never claim that something is absolutely true. You should never claim perfect, or total, or 100% because you never ever get there.”

Read more at: https://www.biography.com/people/jocelyn-bell-burnell-9206018

[drubblernews-blog]

New Post has been published on http://drubbler.com/2017/02/25/jocelyn-bell-burnell-astrophysicist-says-women-in-science-need-culture-change/

Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Astrophysicist says women in science need culture change

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Image caption Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell was speaking at an event in Belfast Metropolitan College

There is still a need for a ‘culture change’ to enable more women to work in science, according to one of the world’s leading astrophysicists.

Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell was speaking at an event in Belfast Metropolitan College (BMC) to encourage more girls to study STEM subjects.

The Lurgan-born scientist is credited with the discovery of radio pulsars.

The breakthrough is considered one of the most significant in astronomy and physics.

Speaking to the BBC at the seminar on Friday, she said: “If you look at other countries, you’ll find lots of girls doing physics, engineering and science.

“It’s something to do with the kind of culture we have in the English-speaking world, about what’s appropriate for each of the two sexes.”

Over 100 post-primary schoolgirls attended the BMC event to take part in a number of workshops in science, technology, engineering and maths – collectively known as the STEM subjects.

Image caption Over 100 post-primary schoolgirls attended the BMC event

They sampled classes ranging from plumbing and motor mechanics, to virtual reality and app design.

There has been a gradual increase in the number of girls taking STEM subjects at GCSE and A-level in recent years, although the subjects are still much more popular among boys.

Prof Bell Burnell, who is currently a visiting professor at the University of Oxford, also told the BBC a more diverse science workforce would be better for society.

“The more diverse a research group or a business, the more robust it is, the more flexible it is and the better it succeeds,” she said.

Prof Bell Burnell was overlooked for the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974, even though the award went to two male academics who worked alongside her.

She did not put that down to sexism, but says there is still a “stereotype” that science, technology and engineering are male careers.

She also recalled her own battle to study science as a schoolgirl at Lurgan College in the late 1950s.

Image caption The girls sampled classes ranging from plumbing and motor mechanics, to virtual reality and app design

“When I started secondary school, it was assumed that the girls would do domestic science and the boys would do science, and I wasn’t too happy with that,” she said.

“When I told my parents, they hit the roof.”

Her parents protested and the school relented, but she faced a similar struggle in the early stages of her academic career in the early 1970s.

“When I got engaged to be married, it was assumed that I would quit science and be a housewife,” she said.

“It was considered shameful if a married woman had to work – it implied that her husband couldn’t earn enough to keep her.”

Melinda Fernando from Methodist College in Belfast was one of the schoolgirls who spent the day at BMC.

She said Prof Bell Burnell’s visit gave her an important role model to follow.

Image caption There has been a gradual increase in the number of girls taking STEM subjects at GCSE and A-level in recent years

“If you look at history, there are few accounts of women ever discovering anything,” she said.

“There aren’t very many role models in science for women to look up to – to think ‘I want to be like that, I want to do what they do’.

“It’s so male dominated.”

Girls from a number of schools, including Methodist College, Bloomfield Collegiate, St Genevieve’s High School, Victoria College and Colaiste Feirste attended the event.

Prof Bell Burnell is also speaking at Queen’s University in Belfast as part of the NI Science Festival on Sunday.

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