'Her Space, Her Time': Quantum physicist Dr Shohini Ghose to release book championing women in science

The book is available to pre-order now, before it launches officially in hardback on October 17, to coincide with Women’s History Month in Canada.

It tells the stories of ‘unsung’ women physicists and astronomers from around the world, and the significant role they have played in scientific discovery.

Each chapter highlights the women who have made significant contributions to further scientific understanding in specific areas of science.

For example, “In the chapter on time, we learn of Henrietta Leavitt and Margaret Burbidge, who helped discover the big bang and the cosmic calendar,” according to Amazon Books. 

Ghose mentions the book and gives some examples in the latest episode of Lexicon. Listen to the full episode below:

Breaking traditions

Also, the founder of the Laurier Centre for Women in Science, Shohini Ghose aims to spread awareness about female scientists who’ve made significant contributions to the field of physics and astronomy.

“Traditionally in physics, there are fewer women who’re part of the big science workforce. However, there’s a big number of female scientists whose contributions have led to scientific discoveries, but we don’t learn about them and we don’t celebrate them enough,” Ghose told IE.

People shouldn’t exclusively learn about Einstien, Ghose says but also about all the women before her who inspired other women to enter the science occupation.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer and astrophysicist was one such person who has inspired Ghose. 

She says that Cecilia, also the first woman to achieve PhD in physics from Harvard Observatory, discovered the quantum modeling of stars and that they were made up of hydrogen and helium.

“Cecilia was able to literally discover the chemical composition of the universe. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin should be a household name because that's not a small discovery.”

Equal opportunities

While addressing the future of quantum computing, she says that the technology shows possibilities of developing healthcare-based applications for improving medications or diagnostic imaging and other techniques. 

“There’s lots of potential that would contribute to enhancing our lives,” she said. “My other hope is that as we bring this into society, all of us in society have a chance, hopefully, an equally fair chance of reaping the benefits of the technology.”

Part of that goal would be to involve the next generations and educate them and make sure that everybody is gaining the same knowledge and learning about female scientists too. 

Ghose says learning about the women involved in science became a passion during the pandemic. 

She says, “It turns out, every major discovery has stories we don’t know. During the lockdown, I collected all the information regarding female scientists and began to write a book about it.”

The book is available to pre-order on Amazon now.