Student who was ignored gets her reward half a century later

The discovery of pulsars is one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the 20th century. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The Breakthrough prizes, funded by American Silicon Valley multi-millionaires, are the largest monetary science awards in the world.
  • The discovery of pulsars is one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the 20th century.

Back in 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a Cambridge University graduate student, worked with her supervisor, Antony Hewish, investigating objects in space.

When she noticed repeatedly pulsing radio waves she was deeply intrigued and concentrated her observations on that phenomenon.

The fact is she had spotted what now are known as pulsars — rapidly spinning neutron stars which emit radiation.

This is one of the greatest astronomical discoveries of the 20th century and was considered so important that it won a 1974 Nobel Prize — for Hewish.

Jocelyn said it did not bother her too much that she was not included in the Nobel award. “In those days, students were not recognised by the Nobel committee,” she said.

AWARD

Decades later, that injustice has been righted with the award of a Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which comes with a cheque for three million dollars.

The Breakthrough prizes, funded by American Silicon Valley multi-millionaires, are the largest monetary science awards in the world.

Prof Edward Witten, chairman of the Breakthrough committee, said the discovery of pulsars “will always stand as one of the great surprises in the history of astronomy. Until that moment, no-one had any idea how neutron stars could be observed.”

Jocelyn is donating her prize winnings to the UK’s Institute of Physics to fund graduate scholarships.

She said, “I don’t need the money myself and it seemed to me this was the best use I could put to it.” She referred to “an unconscious bias” in physics research jobs.

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HOMELESS

Adult education teacher Emma lost her home when her marriage broke up and she now sleeps in a night shelter.

She told Channel 4 television, “I go into McDonald’s in the morning to clean my face and dress up and come out like a clean girl.”

Kallum is a security guard in a posh London store but does not earn enough to get on the property ladder. He says, “It’s like I’m Superman — in the day time a security guard and at night-time I’m a homeless boy.”

Emma and Kallum are just two of tens of thousands of people who have jobs but are nevertheless sleeping rough.

Research by the charity Shelter revealed that costly private rents, a freeze on housing benefits and the lack of council houses sent the number of the employed homeless soaring from 19,000 in 2017 to 33,000 today.

Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said, “It’s disgraceful that even when families are working every hour they can, they’re forced to live through homelessness.”

A government spokesman said the Ministry of Housing was investing £9 billion (Sh1tn) in affordable properties, which is probably good news to Emma, Kallum and others.

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LOTTERY

A common sight here is someone intently scraping a coin across the squares on a little printed card. These are National Lottery scratch cards.

Reveal the right numbers and you could win a few pounds or become a millionaire, even a multimillionaire.

Self-employed gardener James Evans had been talking about lottery wins to a friend and on his way home he decided that if there was parking space outside his local grocer’s shop he would stop and buy a couple of cards.

“Amazingly there was space, so I took that as a sign and popped in,” he said. He had no luck with the first card and he was distracted as he scratched the second. “When I looked back down and saw the three mill symbol, I didn’t believe it.”

Mr Evans telephoned his girlfriend of four years, Jolo Smith, but she told him to stop joking and went off to her job as a baker.

After reality dawned, the couple made these decisions: To buy a Mercedes car for each of them, to buy a bungalow for James’ mother and to move from New Romney, Kent to Cornwall, where James had always longed to live.

* * *

Two thousand parents were asked, “Recalling life before you had children, what do you miss most from those days?”

The answers: Saturday morning lie-ins, a clean house, watching TV in peace, leaving the house when you want, spending money freely and using the toilet without being disturbed.

Seven in 10 adults said they underestimated the impact of their first child, but nine out of 10 said it was the best thing they ever did.