Friday, 28 October 2016

WOMEN AND SCIENCE

Why all or almost all the famous scientists are men? Why is the presence of women in science much more smaller than men's?
As we know, some times ago women were illiterate and their only work was to look after the children and be at home. For that reason, the presence of men in science has been much higher. But since women were allowed to have studies, the situation has changed. First women scientists started to appear such as Emilie du Chatelet (1706 – 1749), Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848), Mary Anning (1799 – 1847) or just the most famous one: Marie Curie (1867 – 1934). But in my opinion, the situation still hasn't changed a lot. In fact, science remains institutionally sexist. Nowadays, despite some progress, women scientists are still paid less, promoted less frequently, win fewer grants and are much more likely to leave research than similarity qualified men.   Moreover, despite the fact that our society sais that there is equality, we are not conscious of some facts, and there are lots of more topics rather than science.




Emilie du Chatelet (1706 - 1749) appears in the first picture in the left side. She was a French natural philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and author during the early 1730s until her untimely death due to childbirth in 1749. 

Caroline Herschel (1750 - 1848).  She was a German astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets.

Finally Marie Curie (1867 – 1934).
was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity

Friday, 14 October 2016

ASTRONOMERS

Hi every body!
I'm very glad to write this post about the similarities and the differences between two of the most important scientists in science's history and even in humans history: Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton. In fact, their innovative laws and predictions have changed our life. But, are we really conscious of what they have done? And do we really know the relationship between them, meaning the differences and similarities between them?

For a start, I'll describe the laws of each scientist. Galileo stated that the experiment was superior to logic in uncovering natural laws. In addition, he showed that moving things, once in motion, stay in motion without the use of forces (called inertia). On the other hand, Newton stated the 3 Laws of Motion:
1- Every body continues in motion in a straight line unless compelled to change by forces impressed upon it. Actually, Galileo first formulated this, but Newton recast it.
2- Every change of motion is proportional to the force impressed and is made in the direction of the straight line in which that force is impressed.
3- For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Moreover, putting these laws together, he stated the Law of Universal Gravitation, which means that the gravitational attraction between two bodies decreases rapidly as the distance between them increases.
This discoveries are considered two of the most important in science and they are completely different.

On the other hand, those scientists have some things in common. Actually, the ideas of both were  very different than the status equo. They also challenged conventional wisdom and stood up for their beliefs. Furthermore, as I said before, Newton supported his laws of Motion on the cinematic theory developed by Galileo, who took ideas from the causality principles developed by Aristotle. So, we can see certain connection between these ideas, this is, the relationship between the most important scientists in the history.

Finally, it's important to say that Galileo's contributions changed but not whole lot. Newton added to his work with his laws of motions. However, Newton's contributions never changed and they never will. To sum up, I think that these scientists have been so important in science and human evolution and we should show our gratitude for their innovative laws and discoveries.