Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, Emmy Noether. Noether’s Theorem is regarded as one of the most important mathematical theorems, influencing the evolution of modern physics. Born in 1882 in Bavaria, Noether studied mathematics at a time when women were generally denied the chance to pursue academic careers and, to get round objections, she spent four years lecturing under a male colleague’s name. In the 1930s she faced further objections to her teaching, as she was Jewish, and she left for the USA when the Nazis came to power. Her innovative ideas were to become widely recognised and she is now considered to be one of the founders of modern algebra.
With
Colva Roney Dougal Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of St Andrews
David Berman Professor in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary, University of London
Elizabeth Mansfield Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kent
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
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| 0:14.7 | I hope you enjoyed the programs. |
| 0:16.4 | Hello, Emmy Nerto was one of the great |
| 0:18.4 | innovative mathematicians of the 20th century, |
| 0:21.0 | and her ideas have underpinned much |
| 0:22.7 | in modern physics and algebra. |
| 0:24.6 | She has been greatly undervalued. |
| 0:26.5 | She was born in Germany in 1882, |
| 0:29.1 | and with Nerto's serum, she showed scientists |
| 0:31.7 | how to think about nature in a new way to build ideas, |
| 0:35.2 | such as those that led to the search for the Higgs boson. |
| 0:38.1 | She helped Einstein understand some of the issues |
| 0:40.4 | in general relativity. |
| 0:42.0 | Nerto's serum has been described |
| 0:44.4 | as the cornerstone of modern subatomic physics. |
| 0:47.7 | She achieved so much, yet for years, |
| 0:49.5 | she was barred from teaching at universities |
| 0:51.5 | as she was a woman, and when she finally had a paid post, |
... |
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