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I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize for It

oceansize

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Women are still under-represented and their work under-appreciated in the sciences. Not only has Jocelyn Bell done excellent work in astrophysics, but donating a multimillion dollar prize to set up a scholarship fund to help others speaks volumes about her character as a person.
 

fpitas

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There have been a lot of unsung women astronomers that made important discoveries. The men do seem to get all the press.
 

Somafunk

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There have been a lot of unsung women astronomers that made important discoveries. The men do seem to get all the press.

Men have fragile egos that need control of the narrative such is their desire to massage personal self importance at the cost of others, always has been and probably always will be, which is to the detriment of society.
 

fpitas

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Men have fragile egos that need control of the narrative such is their desire to massage personal self importance at the cost of others, always has been and probably always will be, which is to the detriment of society.
Not sure it's all down to ego, although that has something to do with it of course. First, science and especially engineering is still a sausage-fest. But more subtly we've been ingrained by society to picture men as the doers and achievers, and women the nurturing child bearers. That's the result of thousands of years of men being dominant. I see things changing slowly.
 

phoenixdogfan

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Her story is very similar to Henrietta Leavitt whose work with Cepheid variables as a "standard candle" for determining distance was a universe altering discovery, and the primary tool Edwin Hubble used in 1920 to prove that the "nebula" astronomers were observing were not part of the Milky Way, but were galaxies in their own right and were many times more distant than any of the stars in our own galaxy.

Sadly Ms Leavitt's contributions went unrecognized in her own time, and she died an early death in 1921 at age 53, long before anyone in the scientific establishment acknowleged her immense addition to the field of astronomy.

 

Jim Shaw

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I once reported to a company president in a high-tech industry who refused to employ female engineers. Publicly, he stated that "male engineers would be distracted by women and be less productive."

Privately (where he couldn't be quoted and maybe sued), he said that he felt that neither he nor his male employees could properly hire or fire women engineers and didn't know how to supervise them. He said he'd tried and failed before, and that improperly supervised female engineers became 'short-timers' and soon left the company. Easy to believe with him at the helm.

He has passed from this world, and the company is gone, so I guess any NDA has lapsed.

True or false, we had zero female engineers at that company, which employed at least 50 degreed engineers. Many of them had worked alongside women engineers and would have been glad to, again.

The world is a funny place, often funny peculiar, not so much funny haha.
 

fpitas

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I once reported to a company president in a high-tech industry who refused to employ female engineers. Publicly, he stated that "male engineers would be distracted by women and be less productive."

Privately (where he couldn't be quoted and maybe sued), he said that he felt that neither he nor his male employees could properly hire or fire women engineers and didn't know how to supervise them. He said he'd tried and failed before, and that improperly supervised female engineers became 'short-timers' and soon left the company. Easy to believe with him at the helm.

He has passed from this world, and the company is gone, so I guess any NDA has lapsed.

True or false, we had zero female engineers at that company, which employed at least 50 degreed engineers. Many of them had worked alongside women engineers and would have been glad to, again.

The world is a funny place, often funny peculiar, not so much funny haha.
We get very very few female engineers in RF. On the other hand, software seems to have a fair number. Maybe women aren't into the old black magic of RF ;)
 

RayDunzl

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Sadly Ms Leavitt's contributions went unrecognized in her own time, and she died an early death in 1921 at age 53

According to this chart...

If it is supposed to be used with the birth year - 1868 - the life expectancy was around 39 years.

In 1920, it had increased to 53 years, her age at death in 1921.

1669232486190.png
 

LTig

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We get very very few female engineers in RF. On the other hand, software seems to have a fair number. Maybe women aren't into the old black magic of RF ;)
We recently hired a young female EE for electronics development (FPGA design), and several EEs in our hardware service are women. Around a quarter of our software developers are women.
 

fpitas

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We recently hired a young female EE for electronics development (FPGA design), and several EEs in our hardware service are women. Around a quarter of our software developers are women.
Yeah, we have a few doing FPGAs. Not sure I'd call that electronic design...
 

LTig

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Women are still under-represented and their work under-appreciated in the sciences. Not only has Jocelyn Bell done excellent work in astrophysics, but donating a multimillion dollar prize to set up a scholarship fund to help others speaks volumes about her character as a person.
Yep. Reminds me of Rosalind Franklin whose import work to detect the structure of DNA was ignored as well when the Noble price went to Crick, Watson and Wilkins.
 

oceansize

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Yep. Reminds me of Rosalind Franklin whose import work to detect the structure of DNA was ignored as well when the Noble price went to Crick, Watson and Wilkins.
Yes, Rosalind Franklin was very much in my thoughts when I made that post, but she had tragically died at a young age before that Nobel was awarded. There's no doubt that her contribution was downplayed by some concerned. Whether she'd have shared in the prize if she'd lived longer is a moot point.
 

Inner Space

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According to this chart...

If it is supposed to be used with the birth year - 1868 - the life expectancy was around 39 years.

In 1920, it had increased to 53 years, her age at death in 1921.

View attachment 245593
Thanks for the chart, Ray. Really. My birthdate and the blue line cross at ... my current age exactly. See you later ... I hope.
 

fpitas

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Thanks for the chart, Ray. Really. My birthdate and the blue line cross at ... my current age exactly. See you later ... I hope.
Lol! Me too. Luckily, I plan to follow the family tradition: dodder around until 100, getting more cantankerous and perverse, scaring young women everywhere.
 
OP
amirm

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How many women are there on the forum? Does anyone know? maybe amirm? 0,1,2 ?
Big brother Google says 13% of audience is female! So better than expected and what I have seen in managing another forum.
 

GeorgeWalk

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I was thinking about Lise Meitner. She devised and ran the first experiment that discovered nuclear fission in 1938. She and Otto Hahn were trying to create heavy elements by bombarding them with neutrons. The results didn't make sense; they didn't always get the heavier elements they expected. Then Lise did the analysis and math and proved to Hahn that they were splitting atoms and not fusing them. Otto Hahn got the Nobel Prize for fission, Lise got ignored.
 
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