Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

16 replies

bluescreen · 18/12/2018 13:35

Wanted to share Jim Al Khalili's interview with this inspiring woman. It's from 2011 and was re-broadcast this morning. His incredulity at some of the sexism she's had to endure is itself jaw-dropping. Her calm and resilience is impressive.
The Life Scientific

OP posts:
UpstartCrow · 18/12/2018 14:12

Its so annoying when men react like that. Are they so dismissive of other groups or is it just women?
There are tweets being shared about the Hubble telescope. In the past, male researchers were more likely to be given access; recently their sex has been redacted from their application and the balance of sexes is now closer to 50:50.

www.stsci.edu/news/newsletters/pagecontent/institute-newsletters/2018-volume-35-issue-04/hubble-cycle-26-tac-and-anonymous-peer-review.html?fbclid=IwAR3cgTsv88oXOGXz3G-obuJBRs_DCxB7eU1o4HTMczFWE8VyBvo8HXLeZyg

cleanhousewastedlife · 18/12/2018 14:21

She recently won a huge prize for Physics and donated all the prize money to help woman and girls get into science. She's wonderful.

MotherForkinShirtBalls · 18/12/2018 18:47

Dd has a book of amazing women scientists and Dame Bell is my favourite. Her donation of the prize money earlier this year was inspiring.

MotherForkinShirtBalls · 18/12/2018 20:00

I admire Dame Bell Burnell much more than my inability to name her correctly indicates 🤦‍♀️

OvulaRasa · 18/12/2018 20:05

Really wonderful, grounded and generous woman. I enjoyed listening in today.

Bowlofbabelfish · 19/12/2018 09:10

She’s one of my scientific heroines. Amazing woman.

SirVixofVixHall · 19/12/2018 09:19

The Life Scientific is an excellent programme generally.

terryleather · 19/12/2018 09:26

Agreed SirVix , I am woefully ignorant of anything to do with science but I find The Life Scientific fascinating and JAK is a great presenter.

I don't think I've heard this ep with JBB so will need to check it out.

hipsterfun · 19/12/2018 09:32

I’m going to give JAK some credit and suggest his incredulity was somewhat faux.

Another who loves TLS.

allthatmalarkey · 19/12/2018 09:34

I heard this too and was blown away. Haven't read up on it yet, but it sounded like she didn't get to share the Nobel prize with her supervisor even though he had told her not to bother with the stuff that led to her discovering pulsars. Staggering.

bluescreen · 19/12/2018 23:52

hipsterfun
I’m going to give JAK some credit and suggest his incredulity was somewhat faux.

You may well be right. They will have rehearsed the interview so it won't have come as a total surprise to him. On the other hand he is too young to remember quite how awful things were in the '60s so he doesn't have to pretend to be shocked at it when he hears her spelling it out like that. Even if it's not the first time. Looking back on it, hearing her calm and steely tone, I'm shocked too.

Dame Jocelyn is indeed amazing. Yes, as a PhD student she discovered pulsars - through sheer alertness, doggedness and application of her extraordinary mind. And in the face of initial pooh-poohing. And yes, years later she donated the whole of her 2018 £2.3m Special Breakthrough Prize money to help women, ethnic minority, and refugee students become physics researchers.

If she ever felt any rancour at being left out of the Nobel nomination she keeps it well to herself though her supervisor condemned himself out of his own mouth in that clip they played. The wikipedia page on her is worth a look and there's plenty more about her online.

I'm a bit of a fan of JAK, seems like a top bloke. Leading humanist. Now if only we could get him onside... Ain't going to happen though, at least publicly, as long as he's a BBC presenter.

OP posts:
BernardBlacksWineIcelolly · 20/12/2018 06:32

woah, on top of everything else she gave £2.3 million to a fantastic cause. what a woman. thank you for posting this, I'll listen to the programme on my way to work this morning!

cleanhousewastedlife · 20/12/2018 11:48

I've just written a radio play about her. If I get it made I'll come back and let you all know!

bluescreen · 20/12/2018 12:00

Wow, cleanhouse, I'd love to hear that!

OP posts:
BingBongSong · 20/12/2018 12:31

I've got this on my list of things to watch, but thought to share this recent conversation between Dame Jocelyn Bell and Professor Dame Athene Donald.

.
prunemerealgood · 20/12/2018 12:36

She's amazing. Thanks for posting this.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page