Day 5 - 257 -- Women in Science

Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) have been highlighted in film and media recently. The number of female scientists increased in the past few decades, but it still has a ways to go. Movies such as Hidden Figures celebrate the African American female mathematicians involved in the NASA program. Social media posts have highlighted the work of other space program female scientists and most recently a female astrophysicist, Jocelyn Bell Burnell. This woman discovered the first pulsars -- neutron stars that emit pulsating radiation -- in 1967. While her doctoral supervisor received a Nobel Prize for the discovery, last week Bell Burnell received a $3 million dollar prize for that and subsequent work, the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

Dr. Bell Burnell dscribed the difficulties she encountered while in university from undergraduate to doctoral studies. As the only woman in honours physics in her undergraduate work, she dealt with cat calls and inappropriate remarks  from her male classmates. While things have improved over the decades, women in science still have a long row to hoe. This most recent prize money will support students from under-represented groups to study physics. How perfect is that? A fitting way to promote expansion of ideas and life views in a key area of science.

The song included here deals with a theoretical aspect of physics. Sadly, all scientists involved are male. Enjoy!

Lyrics found here 

The Quantum World -- Symphony of Science