British Science Week
This past week has been British
Science Week. It’s also been a sad week because a brilliant scientist, Stephen
Hawking, has passed away on the day Einstein was born (14 March). This is, in a
way, fitting because it’s the nickname he acquired at school, and, indeed, he
is considered the best scientist since Einstein. The 14th March is also
Pi (Ο) Day, pi being a mathematical representation for a constant and Hawking
was Lucasian Professor of Maths at Cambridge for 30 years. So also rather apt.
Coincidentally, Stephen was also born
on another auspicious day for science, the day Galileo died (8th
Jan). Stephen was a genius and someone with a great sense of humour who dealt
with his debilitating illness with fortitude and pragmatism focusing on what he
could do not what he couldn’t do. A motto of his that he definitely lived up
to!
"However difficult life may
seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at."
Easier said than done but he managed
it. Stephen was a mathematician, astrophysicist, cosmologist and space traveller
and champion of rights for those with disabilities. He was well-known for his
ground breaking research on black holes which examined the idea that black
holes are not that black and emit radiation. The radiation black holes emit has
been named after him (also called Bekenstein-Hawking radiation). For more on
the legacy of Stephen Hawking see:
He also wrote science-based
stories for children. In total he wrote 5 of these, the ‘George’ series as I
will call them, which he co-authored with his daughter, Lucy. Stephen led such
a full, vibrant life that it’s impossible to do him justice. But he is someone
that will always be remembered as a great scientist and mathematician.
Stephen Hawking’s legacy is not just a scientific one but
one that extends to the rights and visibility of disabled people and their
achievements. Branson responded to Hawking’s wish to travel to space by offering
him a free flight on his Virgin Galactic. Part of the aim of this trip was to
show that people living with disabilities have far more abilities to accomplish
things than is often expected of them. For instance, many predicted Hawking
would struggle with the g-forces experienced in a space trip but a test flight
proved this would not be the case in practice. Hawking was also involved in the
opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games where he spoke about early modern
science, a period of history and a subject that I research in philosophy.
Here are two examples about positivity and doing what you
can rather than focusing on what you can’t do which fits into Hawking’s motto. The
first is that of Para Athletics. Here we have Richard Branson supporting GB
Paralympians who are truly inspirational. As someone who is into tennis and a
tennis player, I am always impressed by wheelchair tennis.
The second example is Kate, who is an amazing artist despite
suffering from severely restricted movement due to a rare form of muscular
dystrophy.
As part of #PressForProgress I
have committed to making women visible and celebrating their achievements. So,
I want to shed light on two other astronomers, like Stephen Hawking. Both women
were born in Ireland back in the 19th century, Lady Margaret Lindsay
Huggins (1848-1915) and Annie Russell Maunder (1868-1947). Both were also excellent
photographers and worked alongside their husbands who relied on and appreciated
their invaluable input to their combined research. This was even more
impressive marital teamwork because, back then, women automatically lost their
jobs once engaged. This meant that all the work they had produced until then
would just lie fallow causing a great loss to future generations. However, by
continuing their career on equal research parity with their husbands, these
women were less restricted in what they could do post-marriage and continued to
make research contributions which greatly advanced knowledge in their field.
Maunder attended Girton College
after her secondary school education in Belfast and finished with honours but
was not awarded the degree because such was the prejudice against women at the
time. She spent much of her time photographing the sun, and wrote a book with
her husband ‘The Heavens and their Story’, where he credits her as the main
author. Her photographs of the sun are in this book. (This is reminiscent of the
egalitarian marriage that JS Mill enjoyed with Harriet.) However, when her work
was published in journals she was subsumed under her husband’s name (rather as
Harriet’s was, except for one instance) and even today philosophers are
reluctant to give her the credit she deserves despite JS Mill crediting her for
the work they produced together. Maunder belonged to two astronomical
societies, The British Astronomical Association (established by her husband) where
she was an editor amongst other things, and the Royal Astronomical Society
(which was harder to get into because they refused women entry so she had to
wait until this was no longer the case). Her ambition was to make astronomy
societies inclusive so that all interested in the field, especially women,
could participate and become members. She herself was a speaker at various
scientific societies and later became known as an expert on ancient astronomy. Maunder
was particularly known for her eclipse photography, cataloguing “600 recurring sunspots
groups” and the prolonged sunspot minimum came to be termed the Maunder
Minimum, after her and her husband.
For this and more details see:
Lady Huggins developed a passion
for astronomy when her grandfather started teaching her about stars when she
was still very young. She was home educated during her early years then attended
a private school in Brighton. Despite this she did not go to university to study
astronomy but was self-taught. Like Maunder she was a photographer but her
genius was in spectroscopy. Through this she met and married the well-known
astronomer she adored and was a fan of namely, Sir William Huggins, 24 years
her senior. They worked together writing joint articles working as equal research
collaborators throughout their marriage! This I find truly amazing given the
times they were living in. During her lifetime, Lady Huggins was given even
bigger accreditation than Maunder received, who was born 20 years later and
died as recently as 1947, because Lady Huggins was written down as co-author with
her husband on an article on the Nebulae which was a project they were both
collaborating on. This was despite Lady Huggins having no tertiary education
and therefore no formal qualifications, yet lack of university qualifications was
sometimes used as an excuse for not giving Maunder the accreditation she
deserved even though she had studied at Girton College and was merely barred
from receiving evidence of her degree due to gender discrimination.
For a great inspiring read on
Lady Huggins, read the passage on her here:
Lady Huggins’s work revolved around
photographing the stars which meant the two were right up there in the field of
astronomical spectroscopy. Their work was ground breaking. At St Paul’s
Cathedral there are 2 medallions in honour of this husband and wife team,
however, she is demoted to just wife and fellow worker while he retains the
title of astronomer.
This is how women are written out
of history retrospectively despite the recognition they received for their
amazing achievements during their lifetime. Others are written out of history
during their lifetime too. Hence the importance of #PressForProgress and its
aims of gender parity, combatting bias and stereotypes, promoting women’s
visibility in every sphere of life and celebrating women’s achievements by
giving them credit for what they do. Not just pretending they don’t exist, demoting
their job title, inventing excuses as to why their contribution shouldn’t be
valued (just as back in the 19th century that their qualifications
aren’t good enough) and dismissing their contribution to research in the hope
they’ll just give up and go away.
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