Physics PhD - What Was the Greatest Barrier to Getting a PhD in Physics?

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In your path to getting a physics ph d, as a woman, what was the greatest barrier or obstacle you faced? I haven't got a physics ph i graduated in physics, and that was at a time when,. because i got a good degree result, i was offered a position as a p h g student. which would be fully funded by the government. And i turned it down because i didn't want to spend the next three years in a laboratory working out decimals. So i made a positive decision, but i was bored by physics. Oh, i think i still try to byse for example, i was what's called the senior teacher of a college, which is...

Patricia Fara is a historian of science at Cambridge University and well-known for her writings on women in science. Her forthcoming book, Life After Gravity: Isaac Newton's London Career, details the life of the titan of the so-called Scientific Revolution after his famous (though perhaps mythological) discovery under the apple tree. Her work emphasizes science as a long, continuous process composed of incremental contributions–in which women throughout history have taken a crucial part–rather than the sole province of a few monolithic innovators.

Patricia joined Tyler to discuss why Newton left Cambridge to run The Royal Mint, why he was so productive during the Great Plague, why the “Scientific Revolution” should instead be understood as a gradual process, what the Antikythera device tells us about science in the ancient world, the influence of Erasmus Darwin on his grandson, why more people should know Dorothy Hodgkin, how George Eliot inspired her to commit unhistoric acts, why she opposes any kind of sex-segregated schooling, her early experience in a startup, what modern students of science can learn from studying Renaissance art, the reasons she considers Madame Lavoisier to be the greatest female science illustrator, the unusual work habit brought to her attention by house guests, the book of caricatures she’d like to write next, and more.

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Recorded January 15th, 2021 Other ways to connect

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