Irish - Scientist | July 15, 1943 -
There are some countries where there is not an issue with women in physics. Malaysia, for example, has physics departments where 60 per cent of undergraduates are female, and France and Italy are strong, too. It is not about ability but more about what the culture says is appropriate.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
WomenCultureStrongPhysicsMore
My thesis project was to identify quasars, which are very distant, very energetic objects and still quite mysterious.
MysteriousProjectStillObjects
The universe is very big - there's about 100,000 million galaxies in the universe, so that means an awful lot of stars. And some of them, I'm pretty certain, will have planets where there was life, is life, or maybe will be life. I don't believe we're alone.
LifeStarsAloneBelieveUniverse
I'm the eldest of four children: a brother next after me and then two sisters.
ChildrenBrotherMeTwoNextFour
My father was an architect.
FatherArchitect
I didn't always have research jobs.
ResearchAlwaysJobs
Arguably, my student status and perhaps my gender were also my downfall with respect to the Nobel Prize, which was awarded to Professor Antony Hewish and Professor Martin Ryle. At the time, science was still perceived as being carried out by distinguished men.
ScienceRespectTimeMenGenderOut
We live inside our universe and cannot get a bird's-eye view of it from outside. And we cannot even see all of our universe. Distant parts of it are expanding away from us so fast that they are invisible; they go faster than the speed of light. Having bigger telescopes to see fainter stars will not help us here: invisible is truly invisible.
StarsLiveLightUniverseViewHelp
Throughout my working life, I've been either one of very few women or the most senior woman in the place.
LifeWomenWomanPlaceSeniorBeen
I am very conscious that, having worked part time, having had a rather disrupted career, my research record is a good deal patchier than any man's of a comparable age.
GoodAgeTimeManI AmResearch
If you look at other countries, you'll find lots of girls doing physics, engineering, and science. It's something to do with the kind of culture we have in the English-speaking world about what's appropriate for each of the two sexes.
ScienceCultureWorldEngineering
When I started secondary school, it was assumed that the girls would do domestic science and the boys would do science, and I wasn't too happy with that.
ScienceSchoolHappyStartedWould
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Jocelyn Bell Burnell quotes