Amid the congratulatory messages pouring in for Victor Ambros, who gained the 2024 Nobel Prize in Drugs, a bit of on-line commenters criticised the Nobel Committee for allegedly snubbing his colleague and spouse, Rosalind Lee.
Because the Nobel’s official X account mentioned in a publish, Lee was additionally the primary writer of the 1993 ‘Cell’ paper cited by the Nobel Committee in awarding Ambros. On Monday (October 7), Ambros and Gary Ruvkun gained the Nobel for locating microRNA, that are tiny molecules that play a vital function in how genes perform.
Many mentioned Lee equally deserved the honour, having served as the primary writer of a number of analysis papers with Ambros over time. Whereas the cost of a snub resulted in discussions about analysis protocol, it additionally introduced again a steadily invoked accusation towards the Nobel — of sexism.
Because the inception of the Nobel Prize in 1901, 64 ladies have been awarded, with solely Marie Curie being a two-time winner. She bagged the 1903 award in Physics, following her husband Pierre’s insistence that she be recognised alongside him, and in 1911 for Chemistry. In drugs, solely 13 ladies have gained the prize so far.
Here’s a have a look at three main situations, the place prolific ladies scientists have been denied the Nobel Prize, with their contributions recognised solely years later.
- 01
Rosalind Franklin
Right this moment thought of one of the crucial egregious Nobel Prize snubs ever, British chemist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) is thought to be a pioneer who found the double-helix construction of the DNA molecule.
The explanation she was denied the popularity? The Nobel doesn’t posthumously recognise the contributions made by a researcher. Franklin died of ovarian most cancers in 1958 in London, 4 years earlier than James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins have been awarded the prize “for his or her discovery of the molecular construction of DNA, which helped remedy one of the crucial necessary of all organic riddles,” in accordance with the Nobel web site.
Franklin obtained her doctorate from Newnham Faculty, Cambridge College in 1945 and researched extensively on coal and graphite. In 1951, she moved to King’s Faculty London and pivoted to DNA analysis. She then met Wilkins, with whom she typically clashed.
It was right here that she recognized two types of DNA, proving that the molecule may exist in numerous structural states relying on humidity ranges. In 1952, Franklin and her PhD scholar Raymond Gosling captured the X-ray diffraction picture of DNA, which revealed the double-helical construction.
This picture, leaked by Wilkins to Watson and Crick over at Cambridge, alongside along with her 1951 lecture on types of the DNA molecule, can be the essential foundation for the Nobel-winning discovery.
Within the following years, revelations concerning the nature of those discoveries have solely vindicated Franklin’s declare to a Nobel. She persevered at King’s Faculty regardless of little assist for ladies in sciences. Crick as soon as admitted, “I am afraid we all the time used to undertake—as an instance, a patronizing angle in the direction of her.”
- 02
Lise Meitner
The Nobel prospects of physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968) have been affected each by sexist attitudes and stereotypes about her Jewish heritage. The Austrian-Swedish scientist, generally known as the ‘Mom of the Atom Bomb’, was the primary lady physics professor in Germany. Amongst her notable contributions is conceptualising nuclear fission, and the invention of the radioactive component Protactinium.
Nonetheless, with the rise of Nazism within the early twentieth century, Meitner was compelled to flee to Sweden and had her identify omitted from scientific papers in Nazi Germany underneath concern of persecution. This meant that the credit score for locating nuclear fission went totally to Otto Hahn, who gained the Chemistry Nobel in 1944 “for his discovery of the fission of heavy atomic nuclei”.
In keeping with the Nobel Prize archive, Meitner was nominated 49 occasions for the Physics and Chemistry Nobel. Writing in Physics Right this moment in 1997, authors Elisabeth Crawford, Ruth Lewin Sime and Mark Walker described Meitner’s exclusion from the Chemistry award “as a combination of disciplinary bias, political obtuseness, ignorance, and haste”.
- 03
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell (born in 1943) was a 24-year-old postgraduate scholar when she found the primary radio pulsars in 1967. Radio pulsars are quickly rotating neutron stars with sturdy magnetic fields that emit beams of radio waves.
In keeping with a report in The Washington Publish, Burnell did all of the grunt work within the run-up to the invention. She constructed the telescope, laboured in harsh English climate, operated the devices and analysed the information herself.
Nonetheless, the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics went to Sir Martin Ryle and Burnell’s advisor Antony Hewish, “for his or her pioneering analysis in radio astrophysics: Ryle for his observations and innovations, particularly of the aperture synthesis approach, and Hewish for his decisive function within the discovery of pulsars”.
Downplaying the snub in 1977, Burnell mentioned, “I consider it could demean Nobel Prizes in the event that they have been awarded to analysis college students, besides in very distinctive instances, and I don’t consider that is one in all them”.
She has since mirrored on the sexism she confronted as the one lady learning Physics on the College of Glasgow and the character of media consideration she acquired then – with questions on what number of boyfriends she had, and if she may undo a shirt button or two whereas posing for images.
Burnell later gained the 2018 £2.3m Particular Breakthrough Prize in Elementary Physics, which awards the biggest quantity in science. She has used the prize cash to make physics analysis accessible to deprived teams, together with ladies, ethnic minorities and refugees.
