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Last week, Donna Strickland was awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize for physics jointly with Arthur Ashkin and Gérard Mourou. It's the first time in 55 years that a woman has won this famous prize, but why has it taken so long? We look at five other pioneering female physicists—past and present—who actually deserve the prize.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Perhaps the most famous snub (ÀäÂä): then student Bell discovered the first radio pulsar (ÉäµçÂö³åÐÇ) in 1967, when she was a PhD student at Cambridge. The Nobel Prize that recognized this landmark discovery in 1974, however, went to her male supervisor, Antony Hewish. Recently awarded a ¡ê2.3m Breakthrough Prize, which she gave away to help under­represented students, she joked to the Guardian, “I feel I've done very well out of not getting a Nobel Prize.”

 Lene Hau

Hau is best known for leading the research team at Harvard University in 1999 that managed to slow a beam of light, before managing to stop it completely in 2001. Often topping Nobel Prize prediction lists, could 2020 be Hau's year?

Vera Rubin

Rubin discovered dark matter in the 1980s, opening up a new field of astronomy. She died in 2016, without recognition from the committee.

 Chien­Shiung Wu

Wu's “Wu experiment” helped disprove the “parity conservation law (¼ò³ÆÊغ㶨ÂÉ)”. Her experimental work was helpful but never honoured, but her male colleagues won the 1957 Nobel Prize for their theoretical work behind the study.

 Lise Meitner

  Meitner led groundbreaking work on the discovery of nuclear fission. However, the discovery was acknowledged by the 1944 Nobel Prize for chemistry, which was won by her male co­lead, Otto Hahn.

21£®When was the discovery of the first radio pulsar recognized by the Nobel?

A£®In 1944.   B£®In 1967.  C£®In 1974.   D£®In 1980.

22£®Which woman is most likely to win a Nobel Prize later according to the text?

A£®Donna Strickland.   B£®Jocelyn Bell Burnell.  C£®Lene Hau.     D£®Vera Rubin.

23£®What do we know about the five females?

A£®The five female scientists did greatly in chemistry.

B£®Vera Rubin had opened up a new field in geometry.

C£®Lise Meitner's teacher won a Noble Prize for her work.

D£®All their findings haven't been recognized by the Nobel.