History of Science: Fred Hoyle and Katherine Johnson

• Science has become both increasingly diverse and increasingly connected.
• Researchers across the globe collaborate to increase human knowledge in every field
• Researchers seek to bring their different disciplines closer together in pursuit of bigger, broader, more useful theories.

Fred Hoyle (1915–2001)

• British astrophysicist who worked on the origin of elements in stars.
• Postulated that most chemical elements could be created step-by-step by nuclear reactions within large stars.
• A proponent of the steady state theory, which states that as the Universe expands, its average density is kept constant as new matter is continuously created.
• Coined the phrase "Big Bang" disparagingly for the main rival theory during a popular radio talk.
• The steady state theory was largely discredited in the 1960s.
• Took particular interest in the presence of organic molecules in comets, believing they brought life to Earth.

Katherine Johnson (1918–)

• Award-winning American mathematician who played a key role in calculating the trajectory for many space missions.
• Calculated the trajectory for the mission of Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
• Began work at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), a forerunner of NASA, in 1953.
• Manually carried out calculations for the engineers.
• Helped plan the launch site and flight path for the Apollo 11 Moon mission in 1969.
• Later worked on the US space shuttle program and retired from NASA in 1986.

Irene Uchida (1917–2013)

• Canadian medical geneticist who instigated work on how genes and chromosomes affect health.
• Investigated chromosome differences in various genetic conditions and congenital abnormalities.
• Studied congenital heart disease and Down syndrome, in which people have an extra chromosome (47 rather than 46).
• Examined how X-rays affect chromosomes.

Yvonne Brill (1924–2013)

• Born near Winnipeg, Canada, started work with the Douglas Aircraft company in 1945.
• Invented a propulsion system that keeps unmanned spacecraft in stationary orbit.
• Worked on thrusters for weather satellites, rocket designs used in US Moon missions, and the Mars observer.
• Worked for NASA from 1981 to 1983 on a rocket engine for the space shuttle.

Abdus Salam (1926–1996)

• Born in Pakistan, studied mathematics and physics at the University of Cambridge, UK.
• Proposed the electroweak theory, which explains how the weak interaction between subatomic particles works and how it could be unified with the electromagnetic force.
• His theory postulated the existence of messenger particles for the weak interaction.
• His theories were proved correct at CERN in 1973.
• Jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Lee Glashow and Steven Weinberg in 1979.

Vera Rubin (1928–2016)

• Discovered that stars orbiting in the outer part of a spiral galaxy travel as fast as those close to the center in the 1970s.
• This implied that each galaxy had a halo of invisible matter whose gravitational force affected the outer stars, contrary to Newton’s laws of gravity.
• In 1970, showed this to be true of the Andromeda Galaxy and by 1985, she had examined 60 spiral galaxies.
• This work convinced astronomers that dark matter exists
• Received the National Medal of Science in 1993.

Peter Higgs (1929–)

• Born in Newcastle, England, studied physics at King’s College London.
• Began work at the University of Edinburgh in 1960.
• Best known for developing a theory that explains the origin of the mass of elementary particles (subatomic particles).
• These particles obtain their masses by interacting with a field, called the Higgs field, that permeates space.
• Predicted that this field should produce its own type of particle, which has since become known as the Higgs boson.
• The search for the Higgs boson spawned the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.
• Scientists at CERN discovered a particle with the predicted characteristics of the Higgs boson in 2012.
• Received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013, sharing it with François Englert for the work they carried out in 1964.

Eric Kandel (1929–)

• Born in Vienna in 1929, fled with his family to the US due to anti-Semitism.
• Studied medicine at New York University, receiving his degree in 1956.
• Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for work on the role synapses play in memory and learning.
• Helped to clarify the different processes behind short- and long-term memory.
• Showed that the different processes behind short- and long-term memory are equally applicable in humans.

Mario J. Molina (1943–)

• Born in Mexico City, studied to become a chemical engineer.
• Showed that CFCs (chlorofluorocarbon compounds) released from aerosols, foams, and refrigerants destroy the ozone layer in 1974.
• Led directly to banning or limiting the use of CFCs.
• Earned a share of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Lap-Chee Tsui (1950–)

• Canadian medical geneticist born in Shanghai, moved to Canada in 1977.
• Jointly found the fault in the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis.
• Identification of the faulty gene paved the way for new treatment options based on correcting the gene or replacing it.

Mae Carol Jemison (1956–)

• First African American woman to travel in space, going into orbit in the space shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
• Graduated from medical school in 1981 before serving as a medical officer with the Peace Corps in West Africa.
• Became one of the 15 candidates selected from more than 2,000 applicants to train as an astronaut in 1987.
• Was the science mission specialist on the space shuttle and a coinvestigator of two bone cell research experiments.

Donna Strickland (1959–)

• Canadian optical physicist who paved the way for the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created.
• Developed a technique called chirped pulse amplification (CPA) along with Gérard Mourou from France in 1985.
• Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with Mourou in 2018 for CPA.
• Became associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo in 1997.
• CPA has several uses, including in laser eye surgery and in some cancer therapies.

Carol Greider (1961–)

• American molecular biologist whose research has been on telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
• Telomeres are the segments of DNA that occur at the ends of chromosomes and play an important role in cell life span.
• Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak.
• Found that inhibiting the telomerase in cancer cells slows tumor growth, making it a potential anticancer drug development.

A brief overview of Fred Hoyle and Katherine Johnson's contribution to science. Fred Hoyle was a British astrophysicist noted for his work on the origin of elements in stars. Katherine Johnson is an award-winning American mathematician known for her calculations of orbital mechanics.