• Question: Name a scientific person

    Asked by anon-226295 to joannabarstow on 11 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Joanna Barstow

      Joanna Barstow answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Someone I really look up to is Jocelyn Bell Burnell. She discovered the first pulsar – a type of dead star that spins very fast and emits radio waves, which allows it to be detected. The first pulsar was originally given the nickname LGM-1, which stood for Little Green Man 1, because the signal was so regular that the team who found it wondered briefly if it might be aliens!

Comments

  • Photo: Heidi

    Heidi commented on :

    Joanna, you chose such a good scientist!

    I would choose Margaret Hamilton who was a computer scientist for NASA. She wrote all the computer programmes for the Apollo missions to the Moon and is a huge inspiration.

  • Photo: Freya

    Freya commented on :

    I agree with Joanna. Jocelyn Bell Burnell has also recently set up a scholarship fund to support graduate students from groups that are currently under-represented in physics.
    I would choose Caroline Herschel from the 18th Century. A trained opera singer who used to tour the country she later joined her older brother, William Herschel, and helped him build his telescopes, make and record observations. Caroline Herschel was a scientist in her own right and was the first known woman to discover a comet, and earned numerous awards. Caroline Herschel was also the first woman in Britain to be paid an income from science.

  • Photo: joannabarstow

    joannabarstow commented on :

    Also a great choice!