Inspiring to speak out - two physicists who changed the world

2017 is to be the year advocacy. In January, millions took to the streets in the worldwide women’s marches. The new US president’s executive order which brought about a visa ban for citizens of a number of countries led to a number of airport protests. And now scientists are pushing back. Marches are being planned for 22nd April (Earth day). But, this move is not without its critics, some scientist would prefer for us all to keep our heads down in such times.

There’s no escaping that scientist are embedded into society (whether we like it or not) and I do rather feel for my climate science colleagues who are watching as we sleepwalk into future strife. This is of course is only one issue that relies heavily on scientific endeavours, and those who think science operates in a vacuum are deluding themselves.

In times such as these it can seem dangerous to put your head above the parapet, so I thought I would take a bit of a historical perspective and look for inspiration in those who have raised their voices. The two people I immediately think of, Kathleen Lonsdale and Ursula Franklin, are far from ‘rogue’ – Dame Prof Lonsdale was a fellow of the Royal Society and Prof Franklin held a prestigious chair at University of Toronto. But both did raise their voices against world and local events in their time.

‘Does the police come for one or do I just have to go to prison myself?’

In 1943 Kathleen Lonsdale, was convicted to a month in Holloway prison for her consciences objection to work supporting World War II activities. At this time she had already undertaken perhaps her most famous research, showing through the crystal structure of Hexamethylbenzene that the benzene molecule was flat, a controversial finding at the time. Understandably, she was reticent to go to prison, but to all accounts it turned out to be a pivotal event in her life.

Kathleen Lonsdale in 1968. Smithsonian Institution from United States

Senior colleagues petitioned for her to be allowed her scientific papers while interred, and she remarked it turned out to be a most productive time. She left prison writing to the governor with suggestions on improving the lighting and cleanliness, and followed up on her points by regularly returning (as a visitor). Her experiences led her to advocate for women prisoners in later years and it can’t be said that her researcher career suffered. In 1945, along with Marjory Stephenson, Kathleen Lonsdale was elected one of the first female fellows of the Royal Society.

Her seniority within the field of crystallography also meant that Kathleen Lonsdale became very well connected with international colleagues, and used those connections in her advocacy against atomic weapons and to break down cultural barriers. She strove to welcome Soviet and Chinese colleagues in a time where political distrust was at its highest, visiting Moscow in 1951 and the People’s Republic of China in 1955. One thing I find particularly inspiring was her determination that those scientists from developed countries had a duty to assist those in developing economies.

Ursula Franklin, who passed away last year, was a pioneer in archeometry and the first women to be appointed University Professor at University of Toronto. But it was her experiences of being interned in a Nazi labour camp as a young adult drove her passionately to passivism. Perhaps her biggest contribution was when she used her scientific expertise to into a strong passion for pacifism.

Ursula Franklin in 2006. Martin Franklin

It was as a member of the Voices of Women group, that she coordinated the collection of baby teeth in Canada in the 1960’s. The subsequent analysis that was undertaken of these teeth, showed that they contained radioactive Strontium 90, a result of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. This emotive piece of research was one of the key pieces of evidence that lead to the 1963 ban on atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.

Being a women researcher in the post-war period, she broke ground fighting to stay in her job after the birth of her children.

‘They had that bloody committee, and they went on deliberating. They didn’t appoint anybody, so I kept on working’

Even when retired Franklin kept on campaigning, joining a group of emeritus professors who filed a class action against the university of Toronto in 2001 citing that their female academic staff had been underpaid for years. They won.

In 2017, as we have to stand up and make our voices heard, I find the legacies of Prof Franklin and Lonsdale incredibly inspiring. Here are two physicists who use their scientific position and research to further a cause – I’d be interested in finding others who’ve inspired you.


Helen Maynard-Casely, Instrument Scientist, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Be curious! Introducing Prof Catalina Curceanu our 2016 Women in Physics Lecture

We’re getting very excited about the arrival of Prof Catalina Curceanu to deliver the 2016 Women in Physics lectures.  She’ll be kicking off the tour of the 8^th August in Tasmania and talking in each state and territory during her stay.  Check out when she is speaking in your state on the AIP events calendar.  

To get to know our 2016 lecturer a bit more, we’ve asked her a few questions about her life and work:

Q:What inspired you to become a physicist?

A: I was born in Transilvania (Romania), close to the Dracula’s castle. During holidays I visited my grandmother, who lived in the Medias town, in a house far from the city centre, rather isolated and without electricity. This was exciting for me as a child – we had light from gas-lamps, from the Moon and from… the stars! I was amazed by the stars and by the immensity of space since I was a little child and used to wonder how they work; why they are so bright? How far are they and “what’s life” over there? Physics is the perfect instrument to answers these questions and to discover the amazing Universe. This is what inspired me as a child and still does as a physicist. Of course, meanwhile I learned many things, I got fascinated also by other inspiring items, but the wonder of the night-sky is still genuine and the thrill the same as when I was 7!

Q: Who would you say your Physics hero is?

A: I do not have a hero, but I admire many physicists. Newton, Einstein and Feynman are on the top of the list, together with Nicola Cabibbo, Adam Riess and John Bell.

Heroes are those physicists who are facing extremely difficult conditions and even threats, in many countries, to do their work ad to contribute to the understanding of Nature, using science.

Q: What do you think has been the most exciting discovery of the last 10 years?

A: The detection of the gravitational waves emitted by collapsing black holes. This is the beginning of a new era: the gravitational waves astronomy and, since I was inspired by stars, I see it as a new opportunity to uncover the mysteries of the Universe. Why not, even to get an insight into the fascinating Black Holes. Moreover, the technology developed to measure these gravitational waves is amazing: LIGO measured stretches and squeezes of its arms by less than a thousandth the width of a proton! This is for me extremely exciting also because I am leading a team of scientists in the framework of the SIDDHARTA-2 collaboration aiming to study at the DAΦNE collider in Frascati processes involving the “strange” quark which might help understanding the inner structure (the heart) of neutron stars. Since binaries of neutron stars are emitting gravitational waves, it is expected they will be soon measured by gravitational antennae. So one can bridge the particle world with the gravity and learn more in both fields! The future will certainly be exciting.

Q: In your research you take on the 'big challenges' in physics - how do you approach such large and difficult questions?

A: Big challenges in physics should not scare us! I am working both in the field of particle and nuclear physics (see the question before and the research to understand the neutron stars) and in quantum mechanics – foundational issues, investigating fascinating physics items. In this last case I am leading a group of researchers crazy enough to try to discover “impossible atoms” (violating the Pauli Exclusion Principle) and modifications of the “standard quantum mechanics” (which has to do with the famous Schrodinger’s cat). In order to do this I proposed projects in various frameworks and won two important awards, one from the John Templeton Foundation and the other from the Foundational Question Institute, allowing to me and my team to pursue the research. Big challenges and questions are all around us – and even inside us, one only needs to carefully look and be curious. In the future I would love to be able to extend the items which I investigate to the “matter with life, matter with consciousness”.

Q: One question you ask in your lectures is 'Quo Vadis the Universe' - where do you think the Universe is going?

A: I do not know – that’s the reason for which I need the “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”. Fantastic book! Being serious, the Universe is expanding, with an accelerated expansion, the reason of which being assigned to the “dark energy”. We need to understand what dark sectors (matter and energy) in the Universe are made of to be able to dare answering the question. This might happen in the coming 10 years! But we also need to better understand the intimate structure of space and time, which has also to do with the quantum gravity (if any).

Q: Based on your experiences do you have any advice for aspiring young scientists?

A: Be curious! Explore the world and don’t be ashamed or shy to ask questions – there are no stupid questions (while stupid answers might sometimes happen). Be yourself and never give up. When failures happen (and they do happen), learn the lesson and go on. Follow your dreams, only they can bring you far. And, of course, study!

I would like to close with a poetry written by Feynman (The Value of Science, 1955) :

There are the rushing waves

 mountains of molecules

 each stupidly minding its own business

 trillions apart

 yet forming white surf in unison

Ages on ages

 before any eyes could see

 year after year

 thunderously pounding the shore as now.

 For whom, for what?

 On a dead planet

 with no life to entertain.

Never at rest

 tortured by energy

 wasted prodigiously by the Sun

 poured into space.

 A mite makes the sea roar.

Deep in the sea

 all molecules repeat

 the patterns of one another

 till complex new ones are formed.

 They make others like themselves

 and a new dance starts.

 Growing in size and complexity

 living things

 masses of atoms

 DNA, protein

 dancing a pattern ever more intricate.

Out of the cradle

 onto dry land

 here it is

 standing:

 atoms with consciousness;

 matter with curiosity.

Stands at the sea,

 wonders at wondering: I

 a universe of atoms

 an atom in the Universe.

New year, new challenges for Women in Physics

Gender issues are set to take centre stage in 2016, already this January we have seen strides taken to address sexual harassment within the Astronomy community. It is my hope that what has happened (mainly in the US at present) will send waves through other communities – and persuade them to revisit their policies and procedures when dealing with it. I urge you all to look up the procedure for dealing with sexual harassment complaints in your own department, and hope dearly that you never need them but you may be able to help someone who does.

So, onward from that somber note, 2016 will see the pilot members of Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) forum put together their applications for the equivalent of the Athena Swan Awards. With the awards due to be handed out in 2018, this will set the new standard for policies of gender equity across science institutions in Australia. Elsewhere, WiSENet have merges with Women in Science AUSTRALIA – hopefully making for a louder voice in advocating women in STEM subjects.

Looking forward, in December we have the joint 13th Asian Pacific Physics Conference and 22nd Australian Institute of Physics Congress happening in Brisbane from the 4th-8th December. We are hoping to have a similar program of Women in Physics sessions, and are looking for suggestions of invited speakers for these. It’s a really exciting opportunity to discuss our issues with our colleagues from Asia.

Other articles of interest Meg Urry’s comment in Nature on Science and gender – why we all must work harder for gender equity. 

The University of Arizona has put together an information sheet about how to avoid gender bias in reference writing. Find that at this link.

An interesting paper in Physical review special topics – physics education research, on 'Factors that affect the physical science career interest of female students.'

And this just made me smile.

My 5-year old's best friend has a science lab in her house. Not pictured: wash station, balance, microscope pic.twitter.com/5BbeIA37hR

— Andrew D. Steen (@drdrewsteen) January 20, 2016

Articles of interest 17/03/15

Canada’s Perimeter institute recently had a feature on the ‘Pioneering women of Physics’ - including a former AIP Women in Physics Lecturer Jocelyn Bell Burnell. A great list, with some ‘usual’ and non usual suspects. In particular I loved the inclusion of Ursula Franklin who spoke at the International Women in Physics conference in Waterloo in 2014. What do you think of the list, who’s been missed out? Perhaps we should look to developing one with an Australian slant?

On a sadder note is The Conversation article on the fact that teachers will marks boys in maths more favorably than girls. It explains the results of a long-term study that it is thought reflects the societal expectation that ‘girls can’t do maths’. The article itself has prompted some debate in the comments. This issue has been hot in the press of late, with the Guardian running a story on the fact that girls ‘lack self-confidence’ in maths. This was prompted by research from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which again pinned the blame on expectations of parents and teachers. It’s a nebulous problem, but what approaches should we (as a society who don’t lack confidence in maths) look to take?

Articles of interest 25/02/2015

Two articles that have appeared in recent days that may be of interest/comment.

The first is an article from Nature describing a study that claims that in the US the 'leaky pipeline' is no longer an issue between graduate and PhD level.

Second is by Selina Todd of Oxford University announcing the creation of a Women in Humanities group, aimed at actively supporting women in academia. 

So now all the Lego scientists are women, how is reality building up?

By Helen Maynard-Casely, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation

Box front of the new LEGO Ideas “Research Institute” set LEGO

So who go hold of some of the Lego 'Research Institute' mini figures?

Aren’t they super? The set, which is part of the new Lego “Research Institute”, features a female chemist, paleobiologist and astronomer. It has sold out in days, which probable tells you something of the demand for such positive stereotypes. The set came about from a suggestion from Ellen Kooijman on the Lego ideas site, and was accelerated by a seven year old who also noticed the male-bias in Lego figures.

It is fantastic to have new champions of women in science on board. But, I’m sat here at the International Conference on Women in Physics and all I can think about is the backwards steps that Australia has taken when it comes to women and science, and correspondingly women in science. Alarmingly this has been rather rapid too. There’s evidence that the current cuts to science funding are disproportionally affecting women.

On the longer term, the amount of girls in Australia taking two science subjects to the end of high school has dropped. This is usually seen as pointer to them carrying on with science subjects post-18, and this concern has been noted by the Chief Scientist’s office.

I sat today listening to updates of the status of women in physics from 53 other countries, and some stories really stood out. In Iran and Egypt, for instance, there are more female students at undergraduate level in physics than men. In Finland, women physicists are held back by the culture of meetings held in gender-segregated saunas. And when I asked a Japanese delegate about when she saw the barriers to increasing on the 5.7% female membership of the Japan Physics Society she responded starkly: “From birth.”
A bit of a loose trend did seem to emerge though, many countries (Australia, at present included) report an about 30% female population of physicist right up to PhD level. There it drops off. This is not new news, I’ve written about it before, and this is not just confined to physics. What was really interesting was learning today what the Netherlands are doing to address this.

As a country, the Netherlands noticed that they didn’t have enough physicists and chemists(!), and were concerned that this would effect their economic future. So to up their numbers, they decided to appeal to the underrepresented 50% of their population, women.

The Dutch government has funded 88 tenure-track positions, and has set the target that 40% of these should be filled by women – in fact they mandated that 20 of these positions could only be filled by women. I asked the Dutch delegates about how this scheme had been received in the community, and they did say there had been some resistance.

But they explained that the idea of such a mandate had been motivated by the success of fellowship schemes that only recruited women, improving the status of the departments running them.

Quite and aggressive tactic perhaps? It is certainly the most head-on way I have encountered of trying to stop up the “leaky pipeline” of women in science. But, are the more subtle ideas, such as the Lego figures, going to be more constructive on the longer term to remove the gender bias in our society?


This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.