Women in science: Physics World’s first books podcast

In addition to Physics World’s annual review of the very best physics books, published at the end of each year, the editorial team has introduced a new regular podcast, involving reporter James Dacey, features editor Margaret Harris, and editor Matin Durrani, providing views on a themed selection of books.

This first podcast Women in science: A books special  takes in a range of books about the role of women in science in different eras.

Starting with a positive review of the historian Julie Des Jardins’ The Madame Curie Complex, Margaret Harris interviews the author and discovers how Des Jardins’ own “math anxiety” stopped her pursuing a career in science, and discusses what effect the long shadow of Marie Curie has on aspiring female physicists.

Continuing with another positive review of a book about William and Caroline Herschel, Michael Hoskin’s Discoverers of the Universe, Margaret explains how younger sister Caroline’s efforts, in a very different scientific culture to our own, helped transform William “from a good astronomer into a great one.”

Alberto Martinez’s Science Secrets: The truth about Darwin’s finches, Einstein’s wife, and other myths is the next book up for discussion.  Focussing primarily on the chapter about Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Maric, the presenters describe how Martinez successfully debunks the myth around the role of Maric in Einstein’s formulation of general relativity.

Finishing on a more critical note, Matin Durrani introduces Roberto Piazza’s Soft matter: The stuff that dreams are made of.  A soft matter physicist himself, Matin explains how the author has written a popular science book about the science behind everyday materials. The book falls down, Matin says, with a patronising introduction that describes a woman’s average daily routine.