The Mother of Dark Matter
July 2, 2014 3:54 PM Subscribe
Vera Rubin and Dark Matter Vera Rubin has been quoted as saying "Does Sex Matter? Of course it does. But does it matter enough to Matter? That's a different question." She is an astronomer and mother of four who successfully combined a serious career with raising a family. She is one of the discoverers of dark matter.
From what I gather, she often worked from home when her kids were little, doing astronomy after they went to bed and once gave a presentation of a paper with a child on her hip rather than let a man steal her work and present it as his own. She was denied entry to Princeton based on her gender. But she now has a definite place in our history books and a lot of accolades to her name.
..in 1963...Vera Rubin was... the mother of four..but was still not a practicing astronomer. "Galaxies may be pretty remarkable" she liked to explain " but to watch a child from zero to two is just incredible." Her youngest, however, was now three. She secured time at Kitt Peak later that year.
She is the first woman astronomer who observed at Palomar.
She is co-discoverer of the Rubin-Ford Effect.
She supposedly authored a children's book called "My Grandmother is an Astronomer" but I cannot find it on Amazon or elsewhere.
"Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting."
"In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of ten. That's probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance-to-knowledge. We're out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade"
Her Wikipedia page
Always a Bridesmaid: Vera Rubin and the Nobel Prize
From what I gather, she often worked from home when her kids were little, doing astronomy after they went to bed and once gave a presentation of a paper with a child on her hip rather than let a man steal her work and present it as his own. She was denied entry to Princeton based on her gender. But she now has a definite place in our history books and a lot of accolades to her name.
..in 1963...Vera Rubin was... the mother of four..but was still not a practicing astronomer. "Galaxies may be pretty remarkable" she liked to explain " but to watch a child from zero to two is just incredible." Her youngest, however, was now three. She secured time at Kitt Peak later that year.
She is the first woman astronomer who observed at Palomar.
She is co-discoverer of the Rubin-Ford Effect.
She supposedly authored a children's book called "My Grandmother is an Astronomer" but I cannot find it on Amazon or elsewhere.
"Science is competitive, aggressive, demanding. It is also imaginative, inspiring, uplifting."
"In a spiral galaxy, the ratio of dark-to-light matter is about a factor of ten. That's probably a good number for the ratio of our ignorance-to-knowledge. We're out of kindergarten, but only in about third grade"
Her Wikipedia page
Always a Bridesmaid: Vera Rubin and the Nobel Prize
This is the best thing. Thank you MiC!
posted by pipoquinha at 4:41 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by pipoquinha at 4:41 PM on July 2, 2014
I got a chuckle out of the part of her Wikipedia article discussing the galaxy rotation problem. Her previous work around galactic clusters was considered controversial, so she switched her area of research to the rotational curve of galaxies, which she expected to be safer from controversy. Instead, she discovered the discrepancy that led to the theory of dark matter!
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:44 PM on July 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 4:44 PM on July 2, 2014 [5 favorites]
Great post, thanks Michele!
posted by Fibognocchi at 6:01 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by Fibognocchi at 6:01 PM on July 2, 2014
Brilliant, am looking forward to all of the links, thank you
posted by lakersfan1222 at 8:45 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by lakersfan1222 at 8:45 PM on July 2, 2014
Dark matter is fascinating. There's so much indirect evidence for it, such in galactic rotation curves (wikipedia also lists seven other types of observational evidence consistent with dark matter). But multiple terrestrial experiments that have been designed as direct detectors of dark matter give results consistent with the null hypothesis (no dark matter). And then there's the LHC: I don't think there's any hypothetical dark matter particle that is in the standard model, but the LHC steadfastly refuses to give us any experimental results that point at physics outside the SM.
It's enough to make you worry that DM is the epicycle of our time. Are we overlooking something, and the problem is not "missing" mass? (MOND goes some way to explaining galactic rotation curves, but not any of the other lines of DM evidence AFAIK) Or do we simply lack the technology for direct DM detection and the production of beyond-SM particles in the accelerator?
If I were making a short list of questions I'd like answered by a far-future physicist, the question of dark matter would be on the list.
posted by jepler at 4:49 AM on July 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's enough to make you worry that DM is the epicycle of our time. Are we overlooking something, and the problem is not "missing" mass? (MOND goes some way to explaining galactic rotation curves, but not any of the other lines of DM evidence AFAIK) Or do we simply lack the technology for direct DM detection and the production of beyond-SM particles in the accelerator?
If I were making a short list of questions I'd like answered by a far-future physicist, the question of dark matter would be on the list.
posted by jepler at 4:49 AM on July 3, 2014 [1 favorite]
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