My mom is having some major health issues...so much so that I'm not going to be able to post here for another couple of days while we get it straightened out.
Note to all my readers: If you have high blood pressure, make damn sure you take your medication or 20 years later you'll have congestive heart failure and wham, bam goes your quality of life.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Irishwoman who discovered the 'lighthouses of the universe'
From the Irish Times: Irishwoman who discovered the 'lighthouses of the universe'
Heroes of Irish Science In the first of an occasional series on the life and work of outstanding individuals in the world of science, RONAN McGREEVY looks at Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, who discovered pulsar stars
THE ASTRONOMER Jocelyn Bell-Burnell is one of Ireland’s most accomplished scientists. While still a research student she discovered pulsars and went on to become a distinguished scientist who made important astronomical discoveries.
She is a true hero of Irish science for her many accomplishments and for her ongoing contribution to a better public understanding of science. Her discovery of pulsars is one of the famous stories in science and it is also one of the most infamous.
In 1967 Jocelyn Bell was a 24-year-old PhD student from Belfast, reading radio astronomy at Cambridge University and examining newly-discovered quasars (quasi-stellar radio sources), incredibly bright and incredibly compact structures of light and energy at the centre of galaxies. She spent months reviewing print-outs from a radio telescope when she noticed small rhythmic blips on the paper one night in July.
The blips turned out to be signals from a radio source which had never been conceived before, let alone discovered. At first it was called – half in jest, half with a nod to the remote possibility that they might be signals from intelligent alien life forms – Little Green Man 1 (LGM-1).
On December 21st that year, Bell, as she was then, discovered a similar pulse, this time radiating from a different part of the galaxy. There couldn’t be two alien life forms radiating similar but different frequency pulses from opposite ends of the universe. It had to be a natural phenomenon.
The signals turned out to be pulsars (pulsating radio stars). The announcement was made to an astonished scientific world in Nature magazine in 1968. Six years later Prof Bell-Burnell (she married fellow scientist Martin Burnell in 1968), was denied a Nobel Prize for the discovery. Instead, her supervisor, Prof Antony Hewish, became the first astronomer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, which he shared with Martin Ryle, the then Astronomer Royal and pioneer of radio telescope technology.
It remains a cause célèbre of modern science. Here was a young scientist and a woman in a male-dominated profession, denied the ultimate prize in science. Though many took up the cudgels on her behalf, Bell-Burnell has always been admirably philosophical about it. Research students do not usually win Nobel Prizes, however noteworthy their discoveries.
Hewish himself described it as crediting the discovery of the New World to the look-out who first spotted land on Christopher Columbus’s expedition, though Bell-Burnell had a part in designing the experiment.
The decision was not fair, she says, but a lot of things in life are not fair and besides, she has had a successful career, Nobel Prize or No-Bell Prize, as it was deemed at the time. “It is an awful waste of time and energy to be grieving over something that you can’t do anything about,” she says.
Bell-Burnell had already moved several times after leaving Cambridge by the time the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1974. After a spell at the University of Southampton, she joined the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London working on the Ariel 5 satellite which was launched in 1974 to study X-ray astronomy. “I was very, very lucky. It ( Ariel 5 ) was hugely successful. I found myself wishing somebody would invent a Lord’s Day observant satellite so we could get a day off. It was phenomenally exciting.”
There have been many compensations, not least a slew of honours, most notably when she was made a Dame in 2008 for her work in science.
It was followed by her becoming the first female president of the Institute of Physics, which operates in the UK and Ireland. She has been a recipient of the Oppenheimer Prize and the Michelson Medal and holds several honorary doctorates.
She is also known for her championing of women in science and for her Quaker faith, which remains unmoved by the appliance of science. She has always been an advocate for the idea that science and faith can, as she put it, sit “lightly with each other” and it is part of the Quaker faith to believe that you can get closer to God by observing his creation.
She is critical of the well-known atheistic scientist Richard Dawkins saying he has a “fundamentalist view” of the subject.
“He believes science can prove anything. If it is not amenable to scientific proof, it doesn’t exist. If you care for a young child, for instance, is that science?”
Before Christmas she gave a lecture in Trinity College Dublin about the former planet Pluto. By her admission she was no expert on the subject of this cold and remote world when she was asked to chair a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in 2006 at which Pluto was downgraded to a minor planet.
Several hundred people turned up to hear her recount the often farcical circumstances in which delegates made the decision on the last day of the conference when many of the planetary scientists had gone home. However, with the benefit of hindsight, she still believes it was the right decision taken for the wrong reasons.
As perhaps the most famous living Irish astronomer, Bell-Burnell has been invited to chair several events at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 meeting taking place next July in Dublin. She will host discussions on exoplanets and black holes, a subject very close to that of pulsars. She will also give a keynote address on a topic yet to be decided.
Pulsars: Strange small stars that weigh the same as the Sun
Pulsars are some of the strangest objects in the universe. They are a reminder of the often quoted saying that the universe is not queerer than we suppose, but is queerer than we can suppose.
Every star has a life. Moderately-sized stars like the Sun become small white dwarves, about the size of a planet, at the end of their lives. At the other end of the scale, super-red giants become supernovae.
If the original star had a mass more than 25 times the mass of our Sun then the core will collapse to a density so great that it may form a black hole which is usually located at the centre of a galaxy.
In between there is a class of star between eight and 25 times the mass of the sun. At the end of their lives they condense into an incredible entity called a neutron star.
The extreme pressure at the centre of this star forces the electrons and protons together to form neutrons. The resulting star is mind-blowingly compact. The entire mass of the star, which could be several million miles in diameter, is condensed into an area no bigger than the island of Manhattan.
“‘Incredible’ is the word I used to describe them,” says Bell-Burnell who discovered them. “They are terribly hard to comprehend with the human brain, but somehow we’ve got to believe them,” she said.
“They are stars that are about 10 miles about, they weigh the same as the Sun which does not make a lot of sense. My analogy for that is that you take a sewing thimble and you jam the population of the world into the sewing thimble. It weighs the same as the stuff that is from one of those stars.”
They spin at the same rate as the original star though they are infinitesimally smaller and some can spin hundreds of times a second. These are known as milli-pulsars and some are as regular as atomic clocks.
They also have incredibly strong magnetic fields and as they spin, they emit a radiation beam across the universe at precise intervals. It is this that is detected by Earth telescopes.
They are known as the “lighthouses of the universe” because the signal is only detected when the radiation beams point towards the Earth, like a lighthouse beacon visible to a ship at sea.
Since the first were discovered in 1967, nearly 1,000 have been found, predominantly in our Milky Way galaxy.
Heroes of Irish Science In the first of an occasional series on the life and work of outstanding individuals in the world of science, RONAN McGREEVY looks at Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, who discovered pulsar stars
THE ASTRONOMER Jocelyn Bell-Burnell is one of Ireland’s most accomplished scientists. While still a research student she discovered pulsars and went on to become a distinguished scientist who made important astronomical discoveries.
She is a true hero of Irish science for her many accomplishments and for her ongoing contribution to a better public understanding of science. Her discovery of pulsars is one of the famous stories in science and it is also one of the most infamous.
In 1967 Jocelyn Bell was a 24-year-old PhD student from Belfast, reading radio astronomy at Cambridge University and examining newly-discovered quasars (quasi-stellar radio sources), incredibly bright and incredibly compact structures of light and energy at the centre of galaxies. She spent months reviewing print-outs from a radio telescope when she noticed small rhythmic blips on the paper one night in July.
The blips turned out to be signals from a radio source which had never been conceived before, let alone discovered. At first it was called – half in jest, half with a nod to the remote possibility that they might be signals from intelligent alien life forms – Little Green Man 1 (LGM-1).
On December 21st that year, Bell, as she was then, discovered a similar pulse, this time radiating from a different part of the galaxy. There couldn’t be two alien life forms radiating similar but different frequency pulses from opposite ends of the universe. It had to be a natural phenomenon.
The signals turned out to be pulsars (pulsating radio stars). The announcement was made to an astonished scientific world in Nature magazine in 1968. Six years later Prof Bell-Burnell (she married fellow scientist Martin Burnell in 1968), was denied a Nobel Prize for the discovery. Instead, her supervisor, Prof Antony Hewish, became the first astronomer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, which he shared with Martin Ryle, the then Astronomer Royal and pioneer of radio telescope technology.
It remains a cause célèbre of modern science. Here was a young scientist and a woman in a male-dominated profession, denied the ultimate prize in science. Though many took up the cudgels on her behalf, Bell-Burnell has always been admirably philosophical about it. Research students do not usually win Nobel Prizes, however noteworthy their discoveries.
Hewish himself described it as crediting the discovery of the New World to the look-out who first spotted land on Christopher Columbus’s expedition, though Bell-Burnell had a part in designing the experiment.
The decision was not fair, she says, but a lot of things in life are not fair and besides, she has had a successful career, Nobel Prize or No-Bell Prize, as it was deemed at the time. “It is an awful waste of time and energy to be grieving over something that you can’t do anything about,” she says.
Bell-Burnell had already moved several times after leaving Cambridge by the time the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1974. After a spell at the University of Southampton, she joined the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London working on the Ariel 5 satellite which was launched in 1974 to study X-ray astronomy. “I was very, very lucky. It ( Ariel 5 ) was hugely successful. I found myself wishing somebody would invent a Lord’s Day observant satellite so we could get a day off. It was phenomenally exciting.”
There have been many compensations, not least a slew of honours, most notably when she was made a Dame in 2008 for her work in science.
It was followed by her becoming the first female president of the Institute of Physics, which operates in the UK and Ireland. She has been a recipient of the Oppenheimer Prize and the Michelson Medal and holds several honorary doctorates.
She is also known for her championing of women in science and for her Quaker faith, which remains unmoved by the appliance of science. She has always been an advocate for the idea that science and faith can, as she put it, sit “lightly with each other” and it is part of the Quaker faith to believe that you can get closer to God by observing his creation.
She is critical of the well-known atheistic scientist Richard Dawkins saying he has a “fundamentalist view” of the subject.
“He believes science can prove anything. If it is not amenable to scientific proof, it doesn’t exist. If you care for a young child, for instance, is that science?”
Before Christmas she gave a lecture in Trinity College Dublin about the former planet Pluto. By her admission she was no expert on the subject of this cold and remote world when she was asked to chair a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in 2006 at which Pluto was downgraded to a minor planet.
Several hundred people turned up to hear her recount the often farcical circumstances in which delegates made the decision on the last day of the conference when many of the planetary scientists had gone home. However, with the benefit of hindsight, she still believes it was the right decision taken for the wrong reasons.
As perhaps the most famous living Irish astronomer, Bell-Burnell has been invited to chair several events at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 meeting taking place next July in Dublin. She will host discussions on exoplanets and black holes, a subject very close to that of pulsars. She will also give a keynote address on a topic yet to be decided.
Pulsars: Strange small stars that weigh the same as the Sun
Pulsars are some of the strangest objects in the universe. They are a reminder of the often quoted saying that the universe is not queerer than we suppose, but is queerer than we can suppose.
Every star has a life. Moderately-sized stars like the Sun become small white dwarves, about the size of a planet, at the end of their lives. At the other end of the scale, super-red giants become supernovae.
If the original star had a mass more than 25 times the mass of our Sun then the core will collapse to a density so great that it may form a black hole which is usually located at the centre of a galaxy.
In between there is a class of star between eight and 25 times the mass of the sun. At the end of their lives they condense into an incredible entity called a neutron star.
The extreme pressure at the centre of this star forces the electrons and protons together to form neutrons. The resulting star is mind-blowingly compact. The entire mass of the star, which could be several million miles in diameter, is condensed into an area no bigger than the island of Manhattan.
“‘Incredible’ is the word I used to describe them,” says Bell-Burnell who discovered them. “They are terribly hard to comprehend with the human brain, but somehow we’ve got to believe them,” she said.
“They are stars that are about 10 miles about, they weigh the same as the Sun which does not make a lot of sense. My analogy for that is that you take a sewing thimble and you jam the population of the world into the sewing thimble. It weighs the same as the stuff that is from one of those stars.”
They spin at the same rate as the original star though they are infinitesimally smaller and some can spin hundreds of times a second. These are known as milli-pulsars and some are as regular as atomic clocks.
They also have incredibly strong magnetic fields and as they spin, they emit a radiation beam across the universe at precise intervals. It is this that is detected by Earth telescopes.
They are known as the “lighthouses of the universe” because the signal is only detected when the radiation beams point towards the Earth, like a lighthouse beacon visible to a ship at sea.
Since the first were discovered in 1967, nearly 1,000 have been found, predominantly in our Milky Way galaxy.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Introducing the Miss Atom Bomb blog
I just found this today. It's not available on the Kindle, but it is available on the Web.
http://missatomicbomb.blogspot.com/
Here's the bio of the woman who writes the site - an actual nuclear scientist.
http://missatomicbomb.blogspot.com/
Here's the bio of the woman who writes the site - an actual nuclear scientist.
I'm a postdoc in low energy nuclear astrophysics, currently doing research in collaboration with groups across the northern hemisphere. I have a PhD in Applied Physics and a BS in Engineering Physics from well-renowned college in Colorado, have performed with several semi-professional orchestras, once was a park ranger, and read voraciously. Oderint dum metuant (did I mention I also studied Latin?).
Tracing a Nobel venture
From the HIndu: Tracing a Nobel venture
The Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, is located in the former Stock Exchange Building in Gamla Stan. This museum stands testimony to Nobel laureates and their achievements as well as to Alfred Nobel.
Early October last year saw Sweden erupting in joy as the Nobel Prize for Literature was conferred on a Swedish poet. After nearly three decades, the coveted gold medallion had found its way back to the homeland of the man who started it all.
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was a cosmopolitan Swede and an innovative inventor, who had lived in St Petersburg, Stockholm and Paris. As the story goes, he was appalled by the destructive utilisation of his invention, dynamite. He wished instead that his enduring legacy be a celebration of the innovation and genius of humankind. In his will, Nobel wrote that physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature and peace would each year receive a part of the revenues of his fortune.
This original will, among other things, can be found at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm.
To reach Nobelmuseet (as it is called in Swedish) you need to find your way through the Old Town of Gamla Stan, a delightful maze of cobbled paths lined with quaint shops selling Swedish knick-knacks and souvenirs (Potter fans, think Diagon Alley).
From the moment you pass through the glass doors frosted with the Nobel medallion, you realise the truth of the museum's stated aim to “spread knowledge as well as to create interest and discussion around the natural sciences and culture through creative learning and exhibition techniques, modern technology and elegant design.” The reception area has a huge image of the Nobel medallion on the floor, radiating in all directions.
Further ahead, a multimedia timeline maps ten decades of development through the Nobel Prizes, against the backdrop of history. Touchscreens take you through the winners in each category in each year of the decade. On the floor, screens project historic visuals from those times.
The winners were truly products of their times: the scope and focus of achievements and discoveries being driven by the spirit of the age. The 2000's have been titled the ‘Decade of Globalisation and Terrorism': one wonders what the current decade will be remembered for.
The spirit of Nobel literally pervades from top to bottom — a unique cableway in the ceiling presents each Laureate in a random order through a portrait and Prize citation. We spotted Rabindranath Tagore, C.V. Raman and Amartya Sen, our national Nobel Laureates.
Fact file
Location: Stortorget, Gamla Stan, Stockholm
www.nobelmuseum.se
Life and tools of Laureates
One of the most exciting areas of the Museum features articles used by Nobel Laureates in their prize-winning efforts. These include Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen's X-ray machine (Physics, 1901), Joseph Brodsky's typewriter (Literature, 1987), Alexander Fleming's penicillin samples (Medicine, 1945), first insulin needles used by Frederick G. Banting and John Macleod (Medicine,1921) and the famous Nansen passports introduced for WWI refugees by Fridtjof Nansen(Peace, 1938). Also occupying pride of place: Amartya Sen's bicycle, which he used to travel around in Calcutta to get data, and Tagore's slate.
Besides the permanent installations, there was also a special exhibition on the life, times and discoveries of Madame Marie Curie. Mme Curie's story has features common to all Nobel Laureates — hard work, persistence and a dash of genius.
The exhibition area recreates the scientific lab of the Curies, including some real instruments used by them. Also exhibited is radium in its ore form, an element central to their work on radioactivity. Radium was apparently first thought of as a beauty-enhancing element, until its hazardous nature was confirmed. Cosmetics with radium and advertisements promoting the same are also exhibited here. Being a woman in the male-dominated area of scientific research did not make things easy. There is a telling exhibit of Mme Curie at work in her lab, with her young daughter Irène (who later won the Nobel herself), tugging at her skirts demanding attention. Also featured are anecdotes on how she almost didn't receive her first Nobel — because it was unheard of for women to win such honours; Pierre Curie refused to accept the Nobel unless his wife was awarded the same — and how she was almost denied her second one — because the widowed Mme Curie was reportedly having an affair with a younger, married assistant, something the Swedish academy found unpalatable. What shines through nevertheless is the indomitable spirit of genius and hard work, triumphing over the hurdles placed by social and cultural limitations.
The nature of genius
What does it take to win the coveted Nobel medallion? You can watch footage on the process of choosing a Laureate, carried out by the Swedish Academy. Or else, head to the two film rooms that flank the central area. One features eight-minute long films on the Laureates. Notable biographies included that of a Japanese Physics laureate, whose grandfather was a Samurai. You can watch footage of Nobel Peace Laureate, the 14th Dalai Lama, being welcomed into India by then-President of India S. Radhakrishnan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A proud moment, reflecting India's inclusiveness. The second room screens films about milieus that foster Nobel winners. Along with Paris, Cambridge and a few others, is Shantiniketan. It was a thought-provoking film that juxtaposed Tagore's visions and ideals, with shots of contemporary Shantiniketan. There are some tongue-in-cheek moments: a teacher waxes eloquent on how Tagore would doodle or scribble continuously on any piece of paper available; the next shot features placid cows chewing their way through swathes of paper.
The Nobel Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, is located in the former Stock Exchange Building in Gamla Stan. This museum stands testimony to Nobel laureates and their achievements as well as to Alfred Nobel.
Early October last year saw Sweden erupting in joy as the Nobel Prize for Literature was conferred on a Swedish poet. After nearly three decades, the coveted gold medallion had found its way back to the homeland of the man who started it all.
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) was a cosmopolitan Swede and an innovative inventor, who had lived in St Petersburg, Stockholm and Paris. As the story goes, he was appalled by the destructive utilisation of his invention, dynamite. He wished instead that his enduring legacy be a celebration of the innovation and genius of humankind. In his will, Nobel wrote that physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature and peace would each year receive a part of the revenues of his fortune.
This original will, among other things, can be found at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm.
To reach Nobelmuseet (as it is called in Swedish) you need to find your way through the Old Town of Gamla Stan, a delightful maze of cobbled paths lined with quaint shops selling Swedish knick-knacks and souvenirs (Potter fans, think Diagon Alley).
From the moment you pass through the glass doors frosted with the Nobel medallion, you realise the truth of the museum's stated aim to “spread knowledge as well as to create interest and discussion around the natural sciences and culture through creative learning and exhibition techniques, modern technology and elegant design.” The reception area has a huge image of the Nobel medallion on the floor, radiating in all directions.
Further ahead, a multimedia timeline maps ten decades of development through the Nobel Prizes, against the backdrop of history. Touchscreens take you through the winners in each category in each year of the decade. On the floor, screens project historic visuals from those times.
The winners were truly products of their times: the scope and focus of achievements and discoveries being driven by the spirit of the age. The 2000's have been titled the ‘Decade of Globalisation and Terrorism': one wonders what the current decade will be remembered for.
The spirit of Nobel literally pervades from top to bottom — a unique cableway in the ceiling presents each Laureate in a random order through a portrait and Prize citation. We spotted Rabindranath Tagore, C.V. Raman and Amartya Sen, our national Nobel Laureates.
Fact file
Location: Stortorget, Gamla Stan, Stockholm
www.nobelmuseum.se
Life and tools of Laureates
One of the most exciting areas of the Museum features articles used by Nobel Laureates in their prize-winning efforts. These include Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen's X-ray machine (Physics, 1901), Joseph Brodsky's typewriter (Literature, 1987), Alexander Fleming's penicillin samples (Medicine, 1945), first insulin needles used by Frederick G. Banting and John Macleod (Medicine,1921) and the famous Nansen passports introduced for WWI refugees by Fridtjof Nansen(Peace, 1938). Also occupying pride of place: Amartya Sen's bicycle, which he used to travel around in Calcutta to get data, and Tagore's slate.
Besides the permanent installations, there was also a special exhibition on the life, times and discoveries of Madame Marie Curie. Mme Curie's story has features common to all Nobel Laureates — hard work, persistence and a dash of genius.
The exhibition area recreates the scientific lab of the Curies, including some real instruments used by them. Also exhibited is radium in its ore form, an element central to their work on radioactivity. Radium was apparently first thought of as a beauty-enhancing element, until its hazardous nature was confirmed. Cosmetics with radium and advertisements promoting the same are also exhibited here. Being a woman in the male-dominated area of scientific research did not make things easy. There is a telling exhibit of Mme Curie at work in her lab, with her young daughter Irène (who later won the Nobel herself), tugging at her skirts demanding attention. Also featured are anecdotes on how she almost didn't receive her first Nobel — because it was unheard of for women to win such honours; Pierre Curie refused to accept the Nobel unless his wife was awarded the same — and how she was almost denied her second one — because the widowed Mme Curie was reportedly having an affair with a younger, married assistant, something the Swedish academy found unpalatable. What shines through nevertheless is the indomitable spirit of genius and hard work, triumphing over the hurdles placed by social and cultural limitations.
The nature of genius
What does it take to win the coveted Nobel medallion? You can watch footage on the process of choosing a Laureate, carried out by the Swedish Academy. Or else, head to the two film rooms that flank the central area. One features eight-minute long films on the Laureates. Notable biographies included that of a Japanese Physics laureate, whose grandfather was a Samurai. You can watch footage of Nobel Peace Laureate, the 14th Dalai Lama, being welcomed into India by then-President of India S. Radhakrishnan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A proud moment, reflecting India's inclusiveness. The second room screens films about milieus that foster Nobel winners. Along with Paris, Cambridge and a few others, is Shantiniketan. It was a thought-provoking film that juxtaposed Tagore's visions and ideals, with shots of contemporary Shantiniketan. There are some tongue-in-cheek moments: a teacher waxes eloquent on how Tagore would doodle or scribble continuously on any piece of paper available; the next shot features placid cows chewing their way through swathes of paper.
That Time Some Chauvinists Rejected Marie Curie’s Application to the French Academy of Sciences
From The Mary Sue: That Time Some Chauvinists Rejected Marie Curie’s Application to the French Academy of Sciences
It’s probably hard to believe that a two-time Nobel Prize winner for her work in both physics and chemistry, a person who discovered and created the word “radioactivity,” was rejected for membership by the French Academy of Sciences on this date [Jan 23] in 1911. We are talking about the one and only Marie Skłodowska-Curie, pioneer for not just women in science, but in the field of radioactivity. And when she applied for membership, she was rejected by a margin of two votes — because she was Polish, maybe-Jewish (not that it matters, but she wasn’t), and a woman. Yup. Marie Curie — rejected by the French Academy of Sciences for having a vagina. If they weren’t already dead, they’d probably be kicking themselves in the most French way imaginable.
Let’s review what Curie had achieved leading up to her application in 1911:
Discovered the new elements polonium (named after her native country, Poland) and radium.
One Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 (shared with her husband, Pierre Curie) for isolating radium. She was the first female winner of the prize.
Head of the physics laboratory in Sorbonne.
Obtained a doctorate in science and a professorship at the Faculty of Sciences (the first woman to do so).
Seemed like a lock, doesn’t it? But alas, the men in charge of accepting her application for membership into the French Academy of Sciences were not interested in having a woman as a peer. As Academy member Emile Hilaire Amagat put it, “Women cannot be part of the Institute of France.” (Which is adorable, considering his name looks so much like “Emily Hilary.”) Instead, they inducted radio pioneer Edouard Branly, because the French were really annoyed by another popular and successful Italian radio guy you may have heard of: Guglielmo Marconi. But mostly, Branly was a devout Catholic with the endorsement of the Pope himself. And also a dude.
While the religious factor is dirty enough by itself, the possibility of Curie being Jewish as an excuse for not accepting her application sounds like just that — an excuse. (In fact, her mother was also Catholic and her father was not religious at all.)
As Wired notes, this snub by the Academy did not go over well with everyone in France; the progressive press stood up for Curie, putting a spotlight on the sexist, bigoted decision. However, it being 1911 and all, there was plenty of conservative support for Branly (and opposition to Curie) that the decision stood.
So in response, Curie did what any of us would have done — she threw herself into her work on radioactivity and won a second Nobel Prize for Chemistry later that same year. (This one was all hers.) That made her the only person to date — let alone the first woman — to have been recognized for her achievements in more than one field of science.
Curie was never inducted into the French Academy of Sciences, and it took them until 1962 to finally induct a woman — Marguerite Perey, a French physicist who discovered the element francium, and a student of none other than Marie Curie.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Radioactive: A graphic novel about Marie Curie
From KTVQ.com: http://www.ktvq.com/news/5-graphic-novels-you-ll-love/
Radioactive
Though National Book Award nominee "Radioactive" is ostensibly a biography of Madame Curie, its real allure is romance. Twenty-four-year-old Marie Sklodowska travels to Paris from Warsaw and finds work in the laboratory of Pierre Curie, studying the relationship between heat and magnetism. The attraction is not just between molecules, however, and soon the scientists fall in love and marry. They go on, of course, to make incredible leaps and bounds in the world of science, discovering the elements polonium and radium.
In this poignant tale of discovery and passion, Lauren Redniss also examines the greater question of nuclear proliferation through the lens of the couple's work, proving that their research is more than relevant today. A collage of different media, the artwork in the book includes drawings, as well as an electric blue background wash created by a process called cyanotype printing, in which light-sensitive chemicals soaked into paper become intensely bright when subjected to UV rays from the sun. Redniss feels the technique "captured on the page what Marie Curie called radium's 'spontaneous luminosity.'"Rad
Radioactive
Though National Book Award nominee "Radioactive" is ostensibly a biography of Madame Curie, its real allure is romance. Twenty-four-year-old Marie Sklodowska travels to Paris from Warsaw and finds work in the laboratory of Pierre Curie, studying the relationship between heat and magnetism. The attraction is not just between molecules, however, and soon the scientists fall in love and marry. They go on, of course, to make incredible leaps and bounds in the world of science, discovering the elements polonium and radium.
In this poignant tale of discovery and passion, Lauren Redniss also examines the greater question of nuclear proliferation through the lens of the couple's work, proving that their research is more than relevant today. A collage of different media, the artwork in the book includes drawings, as well as an electric blue background wash created by a process called cyanotype printing, in which light-sensitive chemicals soaked into paper become intensely bright when subjected to UV rays from the sun. Redniss feels the technique "captured on the page what Marie Curie called radium's 'spontaneous luminosity.'"Rad
CDC study: Many teen moms didn’t think they could get pregnant, didn’t use birth control
This is not a story specifically about Girl Scientists, but rather presents one of the reasons why there are so few women scientists - percentage wise - is because they're not too bright. (Harsh, I know, but come on! How can girls these days not know that if they don't use birth control they'll get pregnant? Or at the very least, use condoms so they don't get AIDS or a sexually transmitted disease?) Of course, any survey has to allow for the fact that the respondents don't tell the truth. Perhaps these girls did know they'd get pregnant, but didn't want people to believe that????? Or is it because they see so many women having unprotected sex on TV without getting pregnant?)
CDC study: Many teen moms didn’t think they could get pregnant, didn’t use birth control
ATLANTA — A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.
In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third who didn’t use birth control said the reason was they didn’t believe they could pregnant.
Why they thought that isn’t clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey didn’t ask teens to explain. [And this is ridiculous. WHY didn't they ask??? That's the most important question!]
But other researchers have talked to teen moms who believed they couldn’t get pregnant the first time they had sex, didn’t think they could get pregnant at that time of the month or thought they were sterile.
“This report underscores how much misperception, ambivalence and magical thinking put teens at risk for unintended pregnancy,” said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Other studies have asked teens about their contraception use and beliefs about pregnancy. But the CDC report released Thursday is the first to focus on teens who didn’t want to get pregnant but did.
The researchers interviewed nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 19 states who gave birth after unplanned pregnancies in 2004 through 2008. The survey was done through mailed questionnaires with telephone follow-up.
About half of the girls in the survey said they were not using any birth control when they got pregnant. That’s higher than surveys of teens in general, which have found that fewer than 20 percent said they didn’t use contraception the last time they had sex.
“I think what surprised us was the extent to which they were not using contraception,” said Lorrie Gavin, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.
Some of the teen moms were asked what kind of birth control they used: Nearly 20 percent said they used the pill or a birth control patch. Another 24 percent said they used condoms.
CDC officials said they do not believe that the pill, condoms and other forms of birth control were faulty. Instead, they think the teens failed to use it correctly or consistently.
Only 13 percent of those not using contraception said they didn’t because they had trouble getting it.
Another finding: Nearly a quarter of the teen moms who did not use contraception said they didn’t because their partner did not want them to. That suggests that sex education must include not only information about anatomy and birth control, but also about how to deal with situations in which a girl feels pressured to do something she doesn’t want to, Albert said.
The findings are sobering, he added. But it’s important to remember that the overall teen birth rate has been falling for some time, and recently hit its lowest mark in about 70 years.
Albert said it would be a mistake to come away from the report saying, “They can’t figure this out?” ‘’Most of them are figuring it out,” he said.
CDC study: Many teen moms didn’t think they could get pregnant, didn’t use birth control
ATLANTA — A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant.
In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third who didn’t use birth control said the reason was they didn’t believe they could pregnant.
Why they thought that isn’t clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey didn’t ask teens to explain. [And this is ridiculous. WHY didn't they ask??? That's the most important question!]
But other researchers have talked to teen moms who believed they couldn’t get pregnant the first time they had sex, didn’t think they could get pregnant at that time of the month or thought they were sterile.
“This report underscores how much misperception, ambivalence and magical thinking put teens at risk for unintended pregnancy,” said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Other studies have asked teens about their contraception use and beliefs about pregnancy. But the CDC report released Thursday is the first to focus on teens who didn’t want to get pregnant but did.
The researchers interviewed nearly 5,000 teenage girls in 19 states who gave birth after unplanned pregnancies in 2004 through 2008. The survey was done through mailed questionnaires with telephone follow-up.
About half of the girls in the survey said they were not using any birth control when they got pregnant. That’s higher than surveys of teens in general, which have found that fewer than 20 percent said they didn’t use contraception the last time they had sex.
“I think what surprised us was the extent to which they were not using contraception,” said Lorrie Gavin, a CDC senior scientist who co-authored the report.
Some of the teen moms were asked what kind of birth control they used: Nearly 20 percent said they used the pill or a birth control patch. Another 24 percent said they used condoms.
CDC officials said they do not believe that the pill, condoms and other forms of birth control were faulty. Instead, they think the teens failed to use it correctly or consistently.
Only 13 percent of those not using contraception said they didn’t because they had trouble getting it.
Another finding: Nearly a quarter of the teen moms who did not use contraception said they didn’t because their partner did not want them to. That suggests that sex education must include not only information about anatomy and birth control, but also about how to deal with situations in which a girl feels pressured to do something she doesn’t want to, Albert said.
The findings are sobering, he added. But it’s important to remember that the overall teen birth rate has been falling for some time, and recently hit its lowest mark in about 70 years.
Albert said it would be a mistake to come away from the report saying, “They can’t figure this out?” ‘’Most of them are figuring it out,” he said.
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