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5 min readThe Lost Nobel Women
When Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars as a graduate student at Cambridge in 1967, she was the only woman in a class of fifty physics undergraduates, and the men in her lecture hall would whistle and stamp whenever a woman spoke. She learned not to blush. "Because if you blush they simply make more noise." Her supervisor called her "a stupid fool" when she first showed him the anomalous signal on her paper charts—a quarter-inch blip that didn't look like the quasars she was supposed to be finding. She persisted anyway, and her discovery would later be called one of the most important of the twentieth century. But when the Nobel Prize was awarded for the work in 1974, it went to her male supervisor, Tony Hewish. Bell Burnell was not included.
The Pattern of Exclusion
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Hook & Introduction** - The hosts open with a provocative quote about Nobel Prizes, then introduce the topic of women denied scientific Nobels, featuring guest Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
- 2 (03:21) **The Pattern of Overlooked Women** - A rapid-fire list of female scientists whose work won Nobels for male colleagues, setting up the episode's focus.
- 3 (04:56) **Focus on Vera Rubin and Jocelyn Bell Burnell** - The hosts announce the two main subjects: Vera Rubin (dark matter) and Jocelyn Bell Burnell (pulsars), then introduce Jocelyn in person.
- 4 (07:10) **Jocelyn's Origin Story** - From a Northern Irish schoolgirl forced into cookery class to a Dame of the British Empire.
- 5 (10:19) **Vera Rubin's Discovery of Dark Matter** - How Vera Rubin weighed galaxies and found the universe's invisible mass.
- 6 (16:17) **The Fun of Unknowns & Sexism in Science** - Vera's philosophical take on dark matter and the obstacles she faced as a woman.
- 7 (18:10) **Vera's Wisdom & Jocelyn's Experience** - Vera's three principles for women in science, and Jocelyn's harrowing undergraduate years.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
In its 120 year history, nearly 1,000 people have won a Nobel Prize. And we're going to ask you a simple question: how many of those Nobel laureates are women? What, half of them maybe? Or perhaps more realistically, one in four? One in ten even?
Nope. Of 990 Nobels, 67 are women. That's just 7%. And when we turn to scientific Nobels, then out of 659 awardees, only 26 are women. That's not even 4%.
And so today on Trapped History, we're recognising two women in particular whose names really should be on that list. Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter, and Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, who found pulsars. Don't worry – you don't need a physics degree to tune in. Because we're actually in the room with Jocelyn herself, as she holds our hand and gently leads us through the mind-boggling world of stars, space and sexism. As Oswin says at the end of the show, he's learnt a lot but he's 'unlearnt' even more!
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