{"id":403698,"date":"2026-04-29T19:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/403698\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T19:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T19:26:08","slug":"astrophysics-wasnt-carole-jordans-only-legacy-astronomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/403698\/","title":{"rendered":"Astrophysics wasn\u2019t Carole Jordan\u2019s only legacy | Astronomy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Your obituary of the astrophysicist Carole Jordan (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2026\/mar\/31\/dame-carole-jordan-obituary\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">31 March<\/a>) describes a life dedicated to making important discoveries about the complex nature of the universe. These inspiring discoveries could not have been made by sending rockets to the moon, but perhaps the excitement generated by the latter\u00a0will encourage more young people to study physics and astrophysics. Contributing to the funding in these areas would be a wonderful way for billionaires to establish a name for themselves, and\u00a0much cheaper than sending rockets into space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The obituary mentions that Carole was \u201ca formidable advocate for women in science\u201d. She was exemplary not only through her scientific achievements but through being caught in the trap of Oxford\u2019s male-biased ad\u00a0hominem promotions system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In the 1990s, after being made a fellow of the Royal Society, she failed to gain promotion, adding to the groundswell from other female academics that resulted in the Oxford promotions system being changed to a fairer one.<br \/>Gillian Morriss-Kay<br \/>Emeritus professor of developmental anatomy, University of Oxford<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2026\/apr\/29\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your obituary of the astrophysicist Carole Jordan (31 March) describes a life dedicated to making important discoveries about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-403698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}