ThinkHer

Who is a scientist? I know we have already lingered on this question before, and we did find out that 'Scientist' (a gender neutral term) was first coined to describe a woman (Mary Somerville). But here's my question: Who do you think qualifies as a scientist? If your answer is anyone who studies science, well then, even a 6-year-old studies science. Would they qualify as a scientist? If your answer is anybody with a doctorate in science, then you're in for a surprise. Michael Faraday, renowned for his contributions to electromagnetism and electrochemistry, never had a formal PhD. There is more. A P J Abdul Kalam became a scientist first, and then, only later, received numerous honorary doctorates from various universities. So again, who is a scientist? Although being a scientist is a widely recognised profession today, there is no formal process to determine who is a scientist and who is not. Anyone can be a scientist in some sense; anyone who systematically investigat...

Some people change the world not with loud declarations or sweeping movements, but through quiet, persistent dedication to what they love. They follow their curiosity with discipline, shaping the future in ways that feel almost invisible—until history looks back and realizes the magnitude of their work. Maryam Mirzakhani was one such person. Through her deep engagement with mathematics, she transformed the field. In doing so, she broke multiple barriers: becoming the first woman, the first Iranian, and the first Muslim to win the Fields Medal, mathematics' highest honor. Her legacy lies not only in the concepts she explored, but in the glass ceilings she shattered by relentlessly following what she was curious about.  Maryam Mirzakhani  © Courtesy Stanford News Service Born in Tehran in 1977, Maryam Mirzakhani grew up during a turbulent period in Iran’s history, yet found solace in stories and books. As a child, she imagined herself becoming a writer, not a mathematician....

We have written a few articles already about the personal beliefs and political convictions of scientists—how these elements shaped not only their worldviews but also their contributions within and beyond their disciplines. Yet, for those of us within the scientific community, it is evident that much of the work, particularly in the physical sciences, is rarely undertaken with the explicit aim of societal benefit. Rather, it is often driven by something more elusive: the raw human desire to understand the world.   I am not trying to claim objectivity or detachment of science from the world’s politics, but to recognize that more often than not, the primary aspiration of science is knowledge for its own sake, and not for immediate technological gain or social application. And yet, this pursuit—so seemingly removed from politics and policy—can ripple outward, shaping our understanding of the universe and, at times, changing the course of history. Chien-Shiung Wu’s career sta...

In the world of higher education, knowledge is often separated into two approaches: the deep and the broad. The former focuses on a single discipline—often associated with the sciences—while the latter encourages connections across fields, a style more familiar to the arts and humanities. Science, in this model, becomes a specialized, linear pursuit, while the liberal arts embrace breadth and interdisciplinarity. Dr. Purnima Sinha’s life and work defied these binaries. Purnima Sinha with  Prof SN Bose and Prof. PAM Dirac (top right), playing tabla (top left), with students (bottom left), and Dr. Sinha's PhD Thesis (bottom right)  ©  www.peepultree.world Emerging in the early decades of postcolonial India, she worked in X-ray crystallography—a field  of modern physics that analyze the structure of various materials—and became t he first woman from Calcutta University to earn a PhD in Physics. Howe ver,   her understanding of science transcended its disciplinary s...

I remember how, during my years of higher education, students in the sciences were seen as the most apolitical. Unlike universities, India’s scientific research institutions actively discouraged student politics.  When we had a few protests organized on campus, and there were professors who told students that if they were absent from the lab to participate in the protests, they should not come back to work.  This was all justified by the belief that science 'should not be politicized.' But I often felt the discomfort of being asked to detach my intellect from the political realities around me.  I knew that this so-called objectivity wasn’t objective at all, but a quiet reinforcement of the status quo. Wangari Maathai through protests and recognitions Reading about Wangari Maathai brought this tension into sharper focus. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Ph.D. in Biology—and she refused the apolitical ideal so often pushed in scientific instituti...

Before I write about anyone, I tend to look at the quotes and comments attributed to them to see how much of their personality I can connect with. I think of science as a work in progress, a continuous effort to unravel each knot to reveal some mysteries. So, Dorothy Hodgkin’s words, more than those of most scientists, resonate deeply with me whether it is “ The beauty of science lies in the intricate complexities of the natural world ” or “ Mistakes are inherent in scientific research and are valuable learning opportunities ”.  But for me, the quote that captures the essence of both her life and work would be “ Science does not exist in isolation; it is influenced by social, economic, and political factors ”.  Dorothy  was not just a brilliant scientist; she was a woman of vision, deeply aware of the world around her and the role science plays in shaping it. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with her crystal structures and during the Nobel awarding ceremony Dorothy Mary Crowfoot ...

When you pick up the memoir of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist detailing a groundbreaking discovery, you expect to be inspired. You anticipate admiration for the brilliance and perseverance of those involved. What you don’t expect is to finish the book with a deep sense of anger and resentment toward its author. Yet that’s exactly what happened when I read ' The Double Helix'  by James Watson, his account of the discovery of DNA’s structure. Instead of inspiration, I was left with a heavy heart for Rosalind Franklin, who should have been known as a co-discoverer along with Maurice Wilkins, Watson, and Francis Crick.   Rosalind Franklin  © Novartis Foundation Born on July 25, 1920, in Notting Hill, London, Rosalind Franklin grew up in an affluent Anglo-Jewish family that valued education for both men and women. A brilliant and independent child, she excelled at St. Paul’s Girls’ School, where she developed a strong passion for science. She went on to study chemistry a...

Who do you think was the first to be called a scientist? Albert Einstein? Issac Newton? Galileo Galilei or Nicolaus Copernicus? When we asked ChatGPT to generate an image of a scientist, it produced a depiction of a man wearing geeky glasses and a lab coat. The irony is, the term 'scientist' was first used to describe a woman, Mary Somerville in the year 1834. William Whemwell introduced the term 'Scientist' as a joke while reviewing the book 'On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences' written by Mary Somerville. It was her fourth book and one of the first books to be popular in the science genre. The reviewer, William Whemwell was marveled by its writing and described it to be 'Masterly'. Not so surprisingly, he couldn't get over the fact that a woman could write so fabulously about science. He writes, some women had even advanced so far in philosophy as to ‘ look with dry eyes upon oxygen and hydrogen, to hear with tranquil minds of perturbations a...