Jocelyn Bell Burnell Special Public Lecture: The Discovery of Pulsars

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, winner of the 2018 Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, delivered a special talk at Perimeter Institute about her 1967 discovery of pulsars and her remarkable career in physics.
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Perimeter Institute (charitable registration number 88981 4323 RR0001) is the world’s largest independent research hub devoted to theoretical physics, created to foster breakthroughs in the fundamental understanding of our universe, from the smallest particles to the entire cosmos. The Perimeter Institute Public Lecture Series is made possible in part by the support of donors like you. Be part of the equation: perimeterinstitute.ca/inspiri...
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[@AlanCanon2222]

I was a freshman in college physics when my hero Richard Feynman died, in 1988. How thrilling to be alive in 2020, when another "monster mind," that of Dr Bell, is still among us. It as if Marie Curie were still living and speaking to us. Thank you for the upload, I have heard her tell the story many times but never tire of it.

[@xavinaut]

Absolutely

[@randomhuman1547]

@@JupiterThunder You're delusional

[@sbeckmesser]

This is one of the best Perimeter lectures I've seen. Perfectly paced and pitched. Moving in her personal story. Mastery of the science. Great Q&A.

[@cliffordmorris6091]

Jocelyn s humility and natural gift for teaching what she knows coupled with an amazing personality makes the lecture wonderful and brilliant.

[@denijane89]

What a wonderful lecture! Respect to Dr Jocelyn Bell Burnell, she's just amazing!

[@kawaiicutie4286]

This comment needs more likes pravo

[@blue04mx53]

I have been to many of these lectures. This was one of the best. We are so lucky to have access to all these people.

[@stevefromsaskatoon830]

Indeed

[@AlanCanon2222]

Continuing to watch this, around 22:30, Bell describing the data reduction done, with no computers at all. That's the most drudgy kind of drudgework there could be, especially when (in 1967) you know there are digital computers that would make far shorter work of it, but you don't have access to it. Imagine sitting there for years and years, just cranking out calculations by hand, before you can ever have confidence in what that mass of reduced data is telling you about the Universe. This woman soldered together the instrument, helped others whack bean poles in the ground to keep it off the wet grass, and then did that incredible work of analysis herself. I haven't read her Pulsar appendix, but there's no way that a short (or even a long) appendix could properly convey the magnitude of effort required to achieve her groundbreaking result. Astonishing, at so many different levels of human achievement.

[@jacmac6377]

I really loved this presentation. What an amazing achievement more than 50 years ago, without the technology we have today.

[@BartAlder]

Her talk is absolutely magnificent. Funny, charming and informative. What an absolute treat! Was also wonderful seeing Donna Strickland receive a standing ovation from the audience.

[@kateli1880]

Are your brain ok? Guess you’re in the wrong video. This woman speaker here is Jocelyn Bell.

[@bathcolin]

What an amazing person? I'm so glad that Jocelyn Bell Burnell is here to make the difference, without her the human race will not move forwards, and we will never discover new innovations in physics. Such an amazing outlook on life, so insubstantial. Bless her. Thank you JBB, you are a very important wonderful person.

[@flemlion13]

Absolutely lovely lecture. Watch it if you haven't yet, even if you already know (or think you do) about pulsars already

[@lohphat]

Why isn't this overflowing with views? This lecture is a gem from a pioneer in physics.

[@lorettaobrien8599]

I met Jocelyn at IYM many years ago where she spoke on an entirely different subject. A most fascinating person. I now understand what pulsars are. Thank you Jocelyn.

[@rafapieroni84]

What an honor! Thanks, Dr Jocelyn, PITP, and KZbin.

[@nihalercan5839]

Dear Jocely, I was so lucky to be with you when I arrived At MSSL-UCL for a PhD. Since then, thank you so much for being in touch with me. You are always welcome to visit us anytime. All the best, Nihal

[@SimonSozzi7258]

It's amazing that she first built a Radio telescope and then managed to find anything by remembering that a signal looked familiar to others somewhere in some shoe box on some rolls of print out! It's AMAZING!

[@AlanCanon2222]

I wish I could have walked this planet at the same time as Henrietta Swan Leavitt, but I do take comfort that I walk the same planet at the same time as Jocelyn Bell Burnell. I am a physics undergraduate who studied under an astronomer but never made physicist. Ms Burnell is one of the greatest living human beings of my era.

[@justg2310]

Multiple times I’ve listened to this person... I’m still in awe of being part of her species 🤓

[@E-Kat]

Omg!! So she was awarded it!! I had no idea!! I was so focused on something going on in my life, that I didn't watch any news in any form. None of us watched any news. 😮

[@camielkotte]

Now she can teach! Love it. Magnificent. Btw she and Spekkens are the finest i think.

[@scottishbombolini7794]

What an outstanding role model for Science, and seems a thoroughly decent individual.

[@mrhw2526]

A fantastic story on how pulsars came to be! I couldn’t stop listening !

[@maryrobertson5250]

I just watched Ben Proudfoot's documentary on Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell. What A Woman. ♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡☆♡

[@jenniebugs1]

She described things I don’t quite understand intellectually, but she conveyed it so descriptively and well, that my imagination did ‘see’ it clearly. She is a fantastic communicator! If I were a little child and she was my granny - and she was tucking me up in bed, I know that given the choices of a bed time story I would say ‘No granny, not Winnie the Poo - tell me the story about the pulse thingeys!’

[@ritayspang]

I am so lucky to have been introduced to this amazing lecture by solarman professor hui. knowledge and scientific adventures are an inspiration. respect for Professor Joycelyn Bell Burnell

[@Lunar_lunaa]

Beautiful talk. Funny, interesting and understandable. More please!

[@anonymous-bl2ke]

This is my role model everybody..and I'm SO proud of her...💙

[@rickelliott2092]

Wonderful content : wonderful science: wonderful personal story; wonderful presenter! Wow!

[@stevefromsaskatoon830]

Coffee, THC distillate and this fine lecture on a Saturday night , life is good .

[@whocares995]

lol I feel you

[@E-Kat]

You were so lucky to be able to do this all. And we were so lucky to have you , to do this.❤

[@E-Kat]

This is like a crime documentary, where we are glued to the screen, trying to figure the villain.

[@her1energeticadvantage]

Awesome lecture, Thank you Jocelyn Bell for discovering Pulsar!

[@MrOnly1dad]

Without doubt one of the best lectures I have ever listen to, a truly remarkable lady.

[@krishnaprasadlama9432]

Superb description of pulsars and the way they can be utilised to verify Einstein's theory of gravitation.

[@TheWraithkrown]

Excellent lecture. Informative and very entertaining.

[@Zamicol]

Great talk. This was very interesting.

[@markbricklin3096]

Wonderful presentation!

[@leonardselenide2204]

It was really something I didn't heard for long time - so interesting and vividly it was done. Nobel or not - she is a great scientist, beautiful woman and very very interesting person.

[@ValkyrieofNOLA]

I live in New Orleans, and we have enough light pollution that most of the night sky isn’t visible. The very brightest stars and planets sometimes appear on a cloudless, moonless night, but that’s it. The recent solar storm (May 2024) created auroras that were visible from just 25 miles north of New Orleans. I was so upset that I couldn’t see them because of the stupid street lights that I almost cried.

[@vladyslavahorban1174]

What a great lecture! Thank you

[@candicainn0]

What a joy of a lecture to stumble upon.

[@lottajarvi2907]

This was so Thank you for being an example of being a woman in physics

[@Eldanari]

Very entertaining speech and extremely informative. It's fascinating to hear from the people who literally discovered these objects and continue to study them. Regarding the Betelgeuse comment, I'm wondering about the distance she stated it was. I was under the impression it was more like 600ly away, no 65. I know there is some difficulty with measuring it's distance due to it's changes in shape and size, but wasn't aware it could be as low as that.

[@HebaruSan]

Google says 642.5 ly. I'm guessing she just misremembered the number off the top of her head.

[@stevefromsaskatoon830]

*Also , it's open public night at the University of Saskatchewan Observatory. We have a pretty nice sized scope here , maybe 15 feet long . Every Saturday ours is open to the public for a few hours at night . I've seen so much awesome stuff through that scope including a slow night where I got toblook at Jupiter for like 20 minutes, you know like uninterrupted scope time all to myself ( I even got pictures of Jupiter through their scope lens and my android phone lol )

[@kevinfox3875]

It still infuriates me, all these years later to watch Jocelyn and be ever mindful of the great injustice done to her, in not being included in the Nobel prize awarded for this discovery.. Long may the Nobel Committee and others unmentioned, hang their heads in shame.

[@donmorrison519]

So well done that even I could at least follow along with interest.

[@ashaketharam]

Excellent! Loved it.

[@keybutnolock]

Magic ! Watch again.

[@arthapeterson5239]

This deserves more views.

[@nandakumarcheiro]

Finally this give a clue on mirrored x rays out of Blackhole as a markof more informatios x ray ejections out out of Blackholes to contitnue additinal imagages forming refective emissions confirming relativity theory out of Einstein's combinatinal x ray ejections out of Blackhole.This has refined our thought. This informations gives a clue on Specific X rays connected with strange illumination may be called x ray echos at the background even Stephen Hawings failed notice Sankaravelyudhan Nandakumar

[@PhillipChalabi]

Jocelyn is a rockstar :D

[@teashea1]

She is so excellent

[@musicfan238able]

The pulsar discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize, but the imposter syndrome interfered and Jocelyn got nothing

[@zurzakne-etra7069]

was it the imposter syndrome that interfered or men being sexist?

[@athaz3699]

I would say that it was sexism that interfered more. Sexism caused imposter syndrome.

[@jenniferlorence1950]

through her, I am discovering that I suffered Impostor Syndrome my whole life. I knew I always felt like I didn't belong "there" wherever that "there was, I didn't feel welcomed Anywhere or accepted to, but didn't know it was a syndrome.

[@scottishbombolini7794]

Can relate to those feelings, thanks for being honest. Mine is being born in the wrong age. Born too late to explore the World when it was a paradise , born too soon to explore the black of Space. So stuck here, trying to explore what make me, Me. You will find you're niche, most folks just haven't understood that variety is the spice of life, and the "anomalies in life " are to be followed up and investigated with gusto.

[@jenniferlorence1950]

@@scottishbombolini7794; I know what you mean, why couldn't we live a thousand lives, or a thousand Years. There is always So much to learn, to See, to explore. Is like we don't have enough years to explore and See everything there is to see. Our lives are so limited here on Earth !~~~

[@E-Kat]

I turned up for my job in a pathology lab and soon wanted to jump out of the window but it was on the first floor, meaning it wasn't high enough to die and not low enough to escape.

[@sylviarogier1]

Delightful talk. Heart emoji.

[@patrickdoyle2510]

What I want to know is how Hoyle guessed that these were supernova remnants...Anybody know?

Since the stars radiate full spectrum, i wonder what distances matters to the radiation results.

[@marianaortiz7993]

She is very inteligent person!

[@davidwilkie9551]

Should be a Hoyle-Bell based revision of Cosmology (ie cleansed of political perceptions).

[@PrateekT30]

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar would have completely related to what Bell described as the 'Imposter Syndrome'. His doctoral research years were also spent -- mostly gloomily -- around the so-called Oxbridge dons.

[@japeking1]

Thank you. From an even more uncouth.

[@alexstevensen4292]

- Little pieces of a neutron star would 'explode' back to the usual form and probably in gas form. It seems to contain higher elements and may be the source of those elements on this planet. - 30hz should be well visible, normal television freq is 50hz and that is visible esp in the corner of the eye. In the americas it's 60hz offcourse, that is also visible but already alot less. In movie theathers they use an extra shutter which turns 24fps into a multiple so you never get to see 24 flashes per second there. the thing that works against it being visible would be the overall weakness.

[@SimonSozzi7258]

6:47 Why is it "alarming"? How many X rays we've probably had...

[@davidinmossy]

How nice I didn't know I was an uncouth savage!

[@probro9898]

*Dame* Jocelyn

[@rajitshrivastava1769]

💗💗

[@GnosisMan50]

Those posters leave a lot to be desired...

[@nandakumarcheiro]

whether the bending of gravity waves producing strange x rays connected with relative emissions is yet to be seen.Whether Einstein will speculate with this information.

[@colingeorgejenkins2885]

St Patric would bee proud of her 1968

[@nihalercan5839]

37:09

[@Opa-Leo]

They could at least list her as co-discoverer. But that would dilute all that kleos (glory-fame)

[@aratrikarosy8728]

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

[@krymz1]

25:12 , lower right lol

[@Mrfailstandstil]

Bruh...

[@subtle0savage]

Hell of a power-source for alien civilizations.

[@johnpwmcgrath]

It’s kind of sad how Doctor Bell Burrell was not recognized as a Doctor in the introduction, or in the title of this video until the last 5 seconds of the video. VERY VERY SAD!!!!

[@pauljonze]

Amazing, talented and gifted lady. Long time a victim of misogyny but finally recognised

[@KRYPTOS_K5]

It is tragic that natural scientists attribute the explanation of gender differences to folk sociology instead of Darwinian biological approaches. The gender differences in the Academics and liberal arts statistics were adressed here. And even knowing that English-speaking societies are much much more feminist en sui than the Latin and South American countries along the obviously self evident counter argument it was argumented that all the cause of gender difference in Physics is the local culture. The overpowered force which is simply called ideology remains in the mind of today's scientists as a really and notable sign of irrationality. Anyway the lecturer and the lecture (and all the Jocelyn's well described endeavour, historical moments in Science and outstanding deep sky research) are amazing. It is a also amazing that black holes and pulsars were in fact not known so recently as 50 years ago. The reported passage relating Sir Fred Hoyle to some degree of English venerability was also very pleasing. Despite the fact that Hoyle was by far my preferred cosmologist it was surprisingly turned on the fact that Nature doesn't play cricket or any other type of steady state English game with the heavens :-) Thank you for this historical document. Regards from Brazil.

[@godblessamericaamerica6498]

Y there is gravity on earth .

[@berndheghmanns1437]

Wau what a women!!

[@SimonSozzi7258]

23:21 "Every F...raction!"

[@E-Kat]

Wonder if she'll mention the Nobel Prize she's missed out on. 🤔

[@E-Kat]

As some of my comments got deleted, I've deleted the rest!

[@alexstevensen4292]

I've got something against the political correctness that's spawn around 'women in science', it seems a bit contradictory. Let me give an example a few years back I looked into madam Curie's work and thought it was kind of interesting and I went to a bar afterwards and mentioned it and immidiately a women went on about how that was the first women in science and yadayada. I hadn't thought about that actually..

[@karrarelhussein9854]

In the Holy Quran revealed to prophet Mohammed 1400 years ago there’s a chapter named after the pulsar/ piercing star

[@elsagavshaham4202]

Cheated out of a part of a Noble prize. Same as many other deserving persons.

[@goonhoongtatt1883]

25:12 A mouth-gaping overawed student on the right.

[@markheller197]

Didn’t get the Nobel just mentioned. How’s dem apples

[@endless_universe2023]

it's funny to see scientists trying to be funny, but not in this case - simply doesn't work for the professor

[@Doutsoldome]

I'm here for the science, and I love it, but I downvoted the video because of the obnoxious introduction. Sorry, I can't stand this level of virtue signalling.

[@LastFractionZero]

I think what bugs me most is that the work she's done stands on it's own merits. All they've done by heavily emphasizing gender and mentioning that it's all paid for with gender-specific funding is give the impression that they wouldn't invite an accomplished woman to speak if the funding they received was gender non-specific.

[@Doutsoldome]

Exactly.

[@camielkotte]

I skip intros of this channel after seeing 2 of them.....

[@johnnie135]

@@LastFractionZero I must admit that I was in this audience and when the mention of today's women being in science here in Canada was a toxic message against men. (At least that's how I was beginning to feel.) and today's women of science is not like in Dr. Bell's day. I did not applaud at all when the sponsors mentioned women, women women. I was kind of disgusted at it all really because in most of the Western world, anyone can be whatever they want to be. I remember thinking that this must be how a German citizen feels when anyone today mentions the Holocaust. Let the 'sins of our fathers' go already. I glad that you too recognized this and commented upon it, because I thought it was just me thinking this all alone. The night as a whole was pure magic, except for this women photographer and her obnoxious Nikon camera and the shutter sounded like thunder.

[@angelathomas6773]

@@LastFractionZero I think they had the organization because females aren't really picked for these kinds of events compared to men. So the organization was made to level the playing field.

[@vikramheble9972]

A travesty that she was included for the Nobel!

[@ArmelBelier]

@@LanceManion10 Three months ago she was not in the paper and one month ago she was. You have no clue what are you talking about. You are the disgrace... as human been. Get lost please.