Title: Undergraduate Seminar
1Great Women of Physics
A retrospective in celebration ofthe
International Year of Physics
Honors Program Open House Feb 10, 2005 Charlie
Jui
- A longer version of this presentation can be
found at - http//www.physics.utah.edu/jui/women_in_physics.
html
2Celebration!
- 2005 Designates World Year of Physics by the
United Nations - Challenge continuing, and severe
under-representation of women and some minorities - Time for reflection.
- Opportunity for Positive Action!!!
3Women in Physics Faculty Positions
- Graph shows of women faculty in physics by
country - Is there a correlation with religion???
- Catholic countries seem to have higher of
women in physics than predominantly Protestant
Countries - ???
- Communist countries?
1985
4The Situation Today
- Things have improved and are continuing to
improve, but the U.S. still has a long way to go - Still only about 10 faculty members are women
- Compared to Spain where that fraction is closer
to 25 (but only 3 are full professors!)
5Explanation?
- Some explanations were offered by Prof. Giulia
Pancheri of INFN-Frascati during a conference in
Helsinki, 2003. - http//www.lnf.infn.it/theory/pancheri/helsinki_w
.pdf - At the start of the Age of Enlightenment when
science and technology were advancing rapidly,
most research work was done or sponsored by
royalty/aristocracy, performed in the private
laboratories.
6Early Women Physicists/Astronomers
- In this private/court setting, women participated
along side their male siblings and spouses - Sophie and Tycho Brahe (Astronomical data from
which Kepler developed his three Laws of
Planetary Motion) - Caroline and William Herschel (discovered Uranus
and many comets)
7Research Shifts to Universities
- During the 17th Century, research activities
shifted from private laboratories to
universities. - Universities did not admit women The elite women
became excluded! - Examples of U.K. and U.S.A. provided by Prof.
Pancheri
8The Reformation
- The Reformation brought about the dissolution of
convent schools these were in many instances the
only educational resource available to women - King Henry VIII ordered convent schools
destroyed established public schools (male
only!)
Martin Luther
King Henry VIII
9Women Physicists
- Laura Bassi (Italy 1711-1778)
- Marie Curie (Poland/France 1867-1934)
- Lise Meitner (Austria 1878-1968)
- Rosalind Franklin (U.K. 1920-1958)
- Chien-Shiung Wu (China/U.S. 1912-1997)
- Mileva Maric ???? (Serbia/Hungary/Germany/
Switzerland 1875-1955)
10Laura Bassi Prodigy of Bologna
- Received a Ph.D. and was appointed faculty member
at University of Bologna in 1732 (she was 21
years old!) - University of Bologna was the first University in
the world (established 1189) - Laura Bassi, an experimental physicist, was the
first female college instructor of any kind in
Europe! - She was also the second woman ever to receive a
doctorate degree of any discipline. - In addition to being a professor and a
researcher, she was also a prominent social
hostess and mother of 8 (some claim 12).
11Progressive Leadership
- How is it that the University which could not
protect its scholars from the Inquisition became
so progressive? - a 70-year old Galileo Galilei, professor at
University of Bologna was tried for heresy and
tortured in 1633 for advocating Copernicus
Heliocentric Model - The genius of Laura Bassi was recognized by
Cardinal Prospero Lambertini (later Pope Benedict
IVX), a progressive leader and a prodigy himself(
received Doctorate in Law and Theology at age
19). - In addition to Bassi, he also appointed Maria
Agnesi (famous mathematician and nun) to the
University of Bologna in 1750.
12Bassis Work
- As a reader, Laura Bassi lectured at the
University. - Bassi had to be chaperoned (by older ladies)
while lecturing in the Amphitheater (students and
other faculty were all male). - Bassi had her own laboratory in which she
conducted various experiments in Newtonian
mechanics she was a leading experimentalist - She was the ONLY woman to experiment in
electro-magnetism before Hertha Ayrton (1890).
Hertha Marks Ayrton First woman elected to the
Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1898.
13Bassis Science
- Married fellow faculty member (physician)
Giovanni Veratti they collaborated on medical
applications of electricity - Bassi repeated many of Benjamin Franklins
experiments, She and Veratti installed the first
lightning rod in Bologna - Bassis work in electro-magnetism was continued
by Luigi Galvani at Bologna and Alessandro Volta
(inventor of the battery) at University of Pavia
both went on to become household names.
Luigi Galvani Discovered the electro-chemical
basis for nerve action
14Challenges
Bassis Legacy
- In Italy today
- 23 of physics professors in Italy are women
- There are more female physics students (both
undergraduate and graduate) than male. - All graduate candidates take the same competitive
exam for placement. - Even now, however, the glass-ceiling at the top
positions persists.
- Her marriage was decried by the Bolognese public
- who wanted her to be their learned virgin
married to the University - She was criticized for relatively low number of
papers because of interference from family
duties. - She did not become a full professor until age 65
in 1776.
15Maria Sklowdowka Curie
- Born in Warsaw
- Arrived in Paris in 1891 for university studies
at the Sorbonne. - Received degree in physics in 1893, another in
mathematics in 1894, and a teachers diploma in
1896 - 1895 married Pierre Curie who had already
discovered Piezoelectric Effect and was to
submit his Ph.D. thesis on magnetism (Curies
Law MCB/T) the same year.
Maria Sklowdowka in 1891 before departing for
Paris
Pierre Curie
16Radiation
- In 1897 Mme. Curie started her Ph.D. thesis
research on a systematic investigation of
radiation discovered by Röntgen and Becquerel. - Becquerels discovery of ionizing radiation from
uranium was not met with excitement. He reported
it at lAcadémie des sciences on a routine Monday
meeting where his colleagues listened politely
and then moved on to the next item on the agenda
Wilhelm Röntgen
Henri Becquerel
Mme. Curie had at her disposal the piezoelectric
electrometer, invented by spouse Pierre and his
brother Jacques, for the measurement of very weak
currents
17Surprising Results
- Very early in her work, Mme. Curie discovered
that thorium gives off the same radiation as
uranium - She also observed that the amount of radiation
depended only on the amount of U or Th atoms
present, independent of the chemical compound!!!. - Pierre abandoned his own research and joined her
in radiation research - She went on to look at ores with U and Th. In
pitchblende, they found evidence of much more
radioactive components.
Source Lecture by Nanny Fröman to the Royal
Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden,
February 28, 1996
18Discovery!
- They soon isolated what appear to be two
previously unknown elements - One is a metal chemically similar to bismuth
they named it polonium in honor of her homeland - The second was an alkali metal with properties
almost identical to barium named radium.
- The Curies were a true partnership evidence by
the intertwined entries in their lab notebook. - These discoveries were submitted as Mme. Curies
Ph.D. thesis in 1903.
19Nobel Prize and Honor!
- In the same year (1903) in which Mme. Curie
presented her Ph.D. thesis, the Curies were
jointly awarded ½ the Nobel Prize in Physics. - Mm.e Curie went on to win the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1911. She was the first woman to win
a Nobel Prize. - In 1995 the French government honored the Curies
by disinterring their bodies and reburying them
at the Panthéon in Paris (near the Sorbonne).
20Lise Meitner
- Lise Meitner was born to a Jewish family in
Vienna, Austria. - Austria had prohibitions against women attending
universities. This was lifted in 1901 and she
entered University of Vienna and studied with
Ludwig Boltzmann - Boltzmann (who committed suicide in 1906) gave
her the vision of physics as a battle for
ultimate truth, a vision she never lost. (Otto
Frisch, nephew)
21Work on radioactive substances
- Meitner received her Ph.D. in 1907. And went to
work with Max Planck at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute in Berlin. - She collaborated for 30 years with Otto Hahn on
radioactive substances. - Hahn and Meitner were both headed separate
sections Meitner worked on the physics and Hahn
on the chemistry.
Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in their Laboratory in
22Nuclear Fission!
- Meitner moved to Sweden in 1938 after the Nazi
annexation of Austria. - After the discovery of neutrons by James Chadwick
in 1932, researchers were bombarding radioactive
elements with neutrons - Hahn found evidence of barium in the debris from
neutron bombardment of uranium - Meitner and nephew Frisch used Bohrs liquid drop
model and suggested giant resonance from neutron
bombardment leading to fission.
Otto Hahn
James Chadwick
Lise Meitners laboratory table
23No Nobel Prize for Meitner!
- In 1944, Otto Hahn received the Nobel prize in
chemistry, which astonished him when he heard
About it after the end of WWII. - He was also shocked that a nuclear weapon had
been constructed based on their discovery - Meitner did not received the Nobel Prize
(why?)!!! - Neither Hahn nor Meitner worked on the bomb.
- Ironically Meitner is often referred to as the
Mother of the Nuclear Bomb.
Recommended Reading Lise Meitner, A Life in
Physics by Ruth Lewin Sime
24Rosalind Franklin
- Rosalind Franklin went to one of the few girls
schools in London that taught physics and
chemistry - Her father was against women going to
universities. - She received a chemistry degree from Newham
College, Cambridge in 1941. - Awarded Ph.D. in chemistry in 1945 from Cambridge
for work on carbon and graphite microstructures. - Worked in Paris (1947-1950) and began working
with X-ray diffraction techniques.
25Franklin and DNA Work
- Franklin returned to England in 1951 to work at
Kings College, London. - She was given a lab of her own by director John
Randall and assigned the task of working on DNA
structure - Maurice Wilkins, who had previously worked on DNA
but was not active, was on leave. On his return
he thought she was a lab assistant. - Many authors mistakenly identify Wilkins as
Franklins supervisor - In fact the two were equals at Randalls lab.
26Scientific Misconduct?
- Franklin made by far the best X-ray diffraction
photos - During 1951-1953 she almost solved the DNA
structure she had already measured the unit cell
dimensions - She was scooped by Watson and Crick they were
shown one of her diffraction photographs along
with unit cell dimensions by Wilkins. - Watson and crick published in Nature in 1953.
Franklins own article appeared in the same issue
as supporting evidence
James Watson and Francis Crick Crick was known
to have been giving seminars claiming that using
X-ray crystallography to study DNA structure was
a futile mad pursuit Watson reduced Franklin to
a insignificant caricature in his 1968 book The
Double Helix
27No Nobel Prize for Franklin
- Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958.
- James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins
were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and
Medicine in 1962. - Neither Watson nor Crick mentioned Franklin in
their Nobel addresses. - Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.
- To her death, Franklin never knew that Wilkins
had shown Watson and Crick her diffraction photo.
28Short Lesson in X-ray Diffraction of DNA (by
Tamara Young)
- Famous diffraction photograph 51 (of B-DNA) that
Wilkins showed Watson and Crick
29Interpreting The Image
- You are familiar with this interference pattern.
This is caused by light passing through 2 slits,
and produces an image like the one seen below on
a screen. - So, if you were to see an image like this, you
would know that you had 2 interference points.
30- Likewise, these are diffraction patterns from
benzene molecules. (A benzene molecule has 6
interference points, arranged in a hexagon.) - In addition to the snowflake shape, you can
obtain information about the number and placing
of the benzene molecules from the diffraction
pattern.
31The DNA Diffraction Pattern
- This diffraction pattern is characteristic of a
helix. - The rows of spots are due to the parallel planes
of interference. - The cross is from the zig and zag of the helix.
- The varying intensity pattern indicates that
there is a double (instead of a single) helix.
32Measurements
- h the distance between bases
- p the longitudinal period
- q the pitch angle
q
1/h
1/p
h
p
q
33A simulation (Ziggy Peacock)
- We can simulate the X-ray diffraction of DNA with
laser diffraction of light bulb filaments. - I am working on a new laboratory activity for the
students to measure the pitch angle and the
longitudinal period of a light bulb filament
using an ordinary He-Ne laser expected to
34Chien-Shiung (Madame) Wu
- From Shanghai, China
- Received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1940
- Worked on the Manhattan Project (development of
the first nuclear bomb in Los Alamos) during WWII - Taught at Smith College and at Princeton
- Joined Columbia University in 1944 and remained
there for the next 37 years - Mme. Wu died in 1997.
35No Nobel for Wu!
- In 1956, Mme. Wus Columbia colleagues T.D. Lee
and C. N. Yang proposed the idea of
parity-violation. - Mme. Wu performed a milestone experiment to
demonstrate this effect - Lee and Yang won the Nobel Prize in Physics in
1957. - Mme. Wu did not share the prize. She did later
receive a Wolf Prize.
36Mileva Maric
- Born in Hungary to Serbian parents
- Was one of very few women ever accepted in the
same program at Zurich (now ETH) that Albert
Einstein was in - Took the same classes as Albert Einstein
- According to biographer Andrea Gabor, was a
better student than Albert
37Mileva Maric
- In 1986, previously unknown documents, including
love letters were found. - Discovery of a love child named Liserl given up
for adoption - In some of these letters (1901-1903) references
were made of our work and our theory of
relative motion - Some, including Gabor, claim that Maric did all
of Einsteins mathematical work (allegedly
witnessed by a boarder) - Supporting evidence from linguistic analysis.
38Mileva Maric
- Soviet Academician Abram Joffe, working as
Rontgens post-doc 1905, claimed to have seen
the original manuscript of the Paper on Special
Relativity with the name Einstein-Marity
(Hungarian form of Maric) - Maric was known to have used that form of name
(customary in Switzerland) - Albert was not known to have used that
namealthough some men in Switzerland do adopt
such hyphenationsit is not required nor is it
common (State department document attests to this
convention to this day). - Evidence is inconclusive and controversial.
- One hour documentary film Einsteins Wife aired
by PBS - http//www.pbs.org/opb/einsteinswife/
39Brownian Motion
- In 2004 I collaborated with Sid Rudolph and
Gernot Laicher (Physics Dept.) to develop an
experiment to measure the mole (Avogadro
Number) using Brownian motion of micro-spheres. - Award from Teaching Committee purchased 8
microscopes - Experiment first run by the ACCESS women scholars
in UGS 1430 (summer 2004) - Experiment now part of PHYCS 2209/2219 (with
further 7 microscopes from the Physics Dept) - Equipment is available for this proposed course.
Click picture to see movie of Brownian Motion of
micro-spheres
40Let us Celebrate 2005!