Bell Burnell and the Little Green Men

Jocelyn Bell and the LGM-1

This year, I plan to grow my collection of portraits of women in STEM. I thought I'd get an early start on this project, with my first portrait of a scientist who is still working.

This is a linocut portrait of Jocelyn Bell (now Bell Burnell) and the incredible radioastronomy dataset she gathered when only a graduate student in 1967, working with Anthony Hewlish. The block is inked "à la poupeé" in dark blue grey and green on Japanese kozo paper. The first edition is a variable run of 10 prints, each 10" by 12.5" (25.4 cm by 31.8 cm).

In November, 1967, Jocelyn Bell (Burnell) was just a graduate student when she discovered the first radio pulsar (or pulsating star), a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. This radiation (light in the radio frequency band) can only be observed when the star is pointed towards us; so, like the light from a distant lighthouse, it appears to pulse at a precise frequency. Jocelyn Bell had been working with her supervisor Antony Hewish and others to construct a radio telescope to study quasars (quasi-stellar objects which emit radio waves). She noted some "scruff" on her chart-recorder, and then that the pulses were incredibly regular, occurring every 1.337 seconds. Hewish was initially scornful and insisted the regular pulses must be noise from a human made source. He first dubbed this object, emitting with such regularity 'LGM 1' for "Little Green Men 1", a playful joke about their uncertainty about what could emit radiation so regularly - obviously it could only be a communication from extraterrestrials hahaha! After she found other such sources, in different places with different frequencies, her colleagues became convinced. These discoveries lead to the development of the pulsar model. LGM-1 is now known PSR B1919+21.

The 1968 paper announcing this discovery in Nature has five authors, lead by Hewish, followed by Jocelyn Bell. In 1974, Hewish won the Nobel Prize for this discovery, (along with fellow radioastronomer Marlin Ryle). Jocelyn Bell was not included as it was assumed that the "senior man" was responsible for the work. This was controversial and has been condemned by many leading astronomers like Fred Hoyle (who with Thomas Gold was first able to explain the signals as due to a rapidly rotating neutron star). Jocelyn Bell Burnell herself has stated she was not upset. Bell Burnell has a great career and won many honours after her impressive start, but her exclusion from the Nobel win, based on her own research strikes me and many others as one of the more blatant and egregious examples of gender bias in the selection of Nobel prize recipients.

Cover of Joy Division's 1979 album 'Unknown Pleasures'
designed by Peter Saville, using the pulsar data
from the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy

Not only the discovery, but the presentation of the data is impressive and elegant. The famous diagram (I've included behind her, and shown above) shows superimposed images of successive pulses. Stripped down to their essential information like sparklines (chart lines without annotation or axes, but drawn of course to a common scale) so their regularity really stands out, and they can be easily compared and contrasted. If you are used to looking at time series, you'll know that since they can be easily superimposed and the pulses line up, that the frequency is quite regular. The diagram is downright eloquent, and visually appealing, so it has been included in books on data visualization and was used in the iconic design of Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' album. From there the diagram itself has become a sort of visual meme and can be found in all sorts of different media and reinterpreted in everything from tattoos to fashion. (You can read my take on this meme itself here: Astrophysical Meme: Jocelyn Bell Burnell's Pulsar, Little Green Me, Joy Division and Beautiful Data ).

Weather Prognosticating Rodent Day

 

It's that time of year again - the day we harass the celebrity rodents and use their sense of their own shadows, or lack thereof as a cue to weather forecasting. Happy Groundhog Day!

Groundhog votes are in: Shubenacadie Sam: no shadow; Wiarton Willie: shadow; Punxsutawney Phil shadow, minouette's linocut thermochromic groundhog print: shadow. I bet my print is more accurate than some of those celebrity rodents (cough! Shubenacadie Sam). False positives (which would occur if it's above 30C or 86 F on February 2nd in Toronto) are unlikely.  

If you live near me, chances are good (as in most years) that there will be 6 more weeks of winter, beyond the 2nd of February, but I do hope that your weather is not too harsh and may even be enjoyable whereever you are.

♥♥♥

Another ♥s milestone on things from secret minouette places today; the shop now has more than 2200 fans! It's gratifying, encouraging feedback from the invisible people out there on the internet who actually find and appreciate my work. So, I'd like to take a moment to thank each and every one, as well as the 850 Etsy followers, 889 twitter followers, 1449 pinterest followers, 614 fans of the things from secret minouette places fanpage, and last but not least, anyone who follows this blog!

Creative small online businesses, and babies

I was invited to write a short article about selling on Etsy, Etsy teams and being a new mom for SavvyMom.ca. You can read it here:

Why Community is Crucial to Your Success

Year of the Horse exhibit

Ma: The Horse by minouette

Friday, January 31st is the Chinese New Year! We're beginning the Year of the Horse. Kung hei fat choi! 恭喜发财! Have a prosperous new year and enjoy your little red envelops.

To celebrate the new lunar year, PROOF Gallery in the Distillery is hosting their annual international printmaking exhibit, for horse-themed prints made using traditional printmaking methods, from all over the world (including my linocut, shown above). Come for the Chinese New Year Opening celebration or check out the exhibit throughout February.

Horse Latitudes by minouette

A little press for IMPRESSI

I was really gratified to see Art.Science.Gallery share a link to The Austin Chronicle's review of some of the many shows that are part of PrintAustin.

"Next door at Art.Science.Gallery., among a wealth of science-oriented prints, Jenn Schmitt's Periodic Table Printmaking Project draws the most interest. In this collection of 118 prints, 97 artists have used a wide variety of mediums – woodcut, linocut, monotype, etching, lithograph, and more – to depict the periodic table of elements. These tight ranks of small works, filling one wall, are an exhibition in themselves; but don't miss Ele Willoughby's thermochromatic linocuts (in which sections of the ink, when heated, disappear; which makes the Schrödinger's Cat print, in particular, a hoot) and, looming overhead, the life-sized gyotaku print of a full-grown turkey vulture by Adam Cohen and Ben Labay of Inked Animal." - via The Austin Chronicle

Do yourself a favour, and check out the great work being shown, including the full Periodic Table. My little contribution to the Project, is Silicon, below. I think of it as an earth scientist, making up so much of our planet's crust, in quartz, or common in seafloor sediments, including radiolarian skeletons, as well as the crystal form of pure silicon... rather than simply as something which goes into computer chips.

IMPRESSI - Science Inspired Printmakers at Art.Science.Gallery

 

I've very excited to be showing my scientists portraits and Imaginary Friends of Science series as part of IMPRESSI, a science-themed printmaking show at Art.Science.Gallery which is part of the PrintAustin festival at many venues around Austin, TX, this January 15 to February 15, 2014!

The IMPRESSI show will also feature gyotaku (or "fish rubbing") style prints and a workshop by Inked Animal. This traditional Japanese printmaking technique usually involves inking and taking impressions of actual fish; they've extended the method to other animal specimen as well. Jed Dore of Ink & Sword makes fabulous, graphic, retro-styled screenprints on science, math and engineering (STEM) themes. Jennifer Lynch's work includes a gorgeous series on crystals. Cathy Savage, one of the Chairs of PrintAustin, has some fabulous scientist prints I've long admired. Jenn Schmitt's amazing Periodic Table Printmaking Project is a collaboration and print exchange where every printmaker was assigned an element on the periodic table to illustrate with a 6" x 6" print. I always thought I should have participated and now have a chance to do so as a few of the originals need replacing. Have a look at the loveliest periodic table you ever did see. It promises to be a great, and very original show.

PrintAustin, "this inaugural print extravaganza is a month-long event celebrating the art of original printmaking, educating the public about the traditions of printmaking as well as showcasing the innovations of the contemporary approach". Read more on their blog.

If you are in Austin, be sure to check it out - and tell me all about it! I would love to see it in person and would be there if I could.