Meet the women charting unusual paths to discovery
A hobby crafter, horse-riding instructor, and beauty therapist walk into a world-leading science facility… no it’s not a set up for a joke, but it is the tale of three women who took extremely unorthodox routes to find careers at the cutting edge of science.
Humankind is an inherently curious species and, before we even had the language to vocalise our thoughts, we were likely trying to figure out where the Sun goes at night, why water runs down hill, and why Thag makes those eggy smells after a particularly large meal of woolly mammoth.
Fast forward a few millennia and it’s tempting to think of science as being the preserve of those who set their sights on taking that path in their teenage years. Surely the days of someone stumbling across a career in science, like Thag’s unfortunate cavemate, are long behind us?
Not so! Here are the extraordinary stories of three women, all working at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), who found themselves at the cutting edge of scientific research via some less than conventional routes.
Teeny Tiny (Exploding) Targets
Trained as a beauty therapist, Donna Wyatt never expected her career to lead to laser science (and why would she?). Nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened. After deciding beauty therapy wasn’t for her, she worked as a hotel receptionist until she was encouraged to apply for the role of Micro Target Fabricator at the STFC’s Central Laser Facility (CLF).
A micro-target is pretty much what it sounds like: a very small target. These targets are so small they measure little more than the width of a laser beam (which is very small) and are built to contain a sample of material. When laser scientists wish to investigate the sample they fire a high-power laser at several of these micro-targets.
Every time a shot is fired from a high-powered laser the micro-target is destroyed in a teeny tiny explosion. Examination of these explosions helps us to understand an assortment of fascinating physics phenomena.
Each micro-target has a different design, depending on its purpose, with the smallest targets being only five nano metres — that’s smaller than the width of a human hair! Too small to be built accurately using robots, Donna builds these micro-targets by hand using only glue, tweezers, and a microscope, as part of a world-leading fabrication team.
Micro-targets are made by sticking a range of components together in a variety of combinations to make complex structures within 2 microns (a micron is one millionth of a metre) and 0.1 degrees of accuracy! Donna’s micro-targets have been used to investigate how to improve ceramics used in hip replacements, bullet proof vests and rocket nozzles.
Sew, you fancy threading your way to a career in space?
You might assume a stitcher and crafter would have a hard time finding a role in space science — but you’d be wrong — as our next subject, Angela Ashgill, proves.
After several failed recruitment campaigns targeting engineers, STFC put out this call to action on a local Facebook village group:
‘Join our team! We have an incredibly unique and exciting opportunity within RAL Space for someone to join us as a new Multi-Layer Insulation Technician, where you will produce and fit the thermal insulation blankets that are used to protect satellites and their equipment in space.
If you have an interest in, or perhaps enjoy, a hobby in a practical activity where delicate and intricate operations are needed, such as dress making, model making or handicrafts and have a keen interest in working in the space industry, this could be the role for you!’
Angela Ashgill, previously the owner of a ‘kitchen table crafts’ business, answered the call. Fast forward seven years and she’s a valued member of the RAL Space team working as a Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) technician manufacturing blankets for satellites in space.
Tuned by years of experience in arts and crafts, Angela’s nimble hands and ability to visualise objects in three-dimensions are vital to their creation, despite a lack of formal training as an engineer.
We like to think a space as just being a cold empty void but objects, such as satellites, that float around within it are actually subjected to enormous swings in temperature. When the Sun is shining on a satellite, its surface temperature can hit a roasting 220°C, which then plummets to as low as minus 220°C when not in the path of our local star’s radiation.
If the satellites were human, we’d give them a nice warm jacket to wear when it got cold and some sort of (really) high factor sunscreen for when the Sun rolls into view. This might sound silly but, like humans, spacecraft also have optimum working temperatures. However instead of thick jumpers and sunscreen, satellites wear space blankets to protect them from these extreme swings in temperatures.
Often described as the ‘shiny bits’ of a satellite these foil-like blankets are currently in space protecting instruments such as the mid-infrared instrument, MIRI, aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), exploring, studying, and collecting new information about our universe.
This where Angela haberdashery skills come in. These space blankets are carefully hand-made from many layers of thin, lightweight, and hi-tech fibres. Many shapes are measured, cut, folded, and stuck together using tape and special techniques before going into a vacuum chamber to bake. Each blanket is unique, with its own pattern to follow, and precision is crucial.
Angela’s crafting skills and eye for detail are essential to the target’s construction but the transition from crafter to MLI technician did require a rather vertiginous learning curve that, by her own admission, made Angela more than a little dizzy at times. But, with friendly guidance, encouragement, and after asking more than a few questions she has adapted, leading the STFC in a new way of creating.
Riding into the blind spots of the Universe
Former horse-riding instructor Emma Mehan used to spend her working day considering the vision of horses. The placement of their eyes on the side of their heads creates two blind spots directly in front of and behind their heads, disrupting their otherwise almost 360-degree vision.
Led by her insatiable curiosity, Emma (who is now Boulby Underground Laboratory Facility Manager) found work as a senior science support technician at the Boulby Underground Screening Facility (BUGS). She still considers blind spots — but now, she focuses on the blind spots of the Universe.
One of the biggest blind spots in our understanding of the Universe is dark matter. Completely invisible, it doesn’t interact with any form of visible light and can only be observed through its effect on gravity.
To shine a metaphorical light on its mysterious qualities, scientists are developing extremely sensitive particle detectors. Such sensitive detectors are easily overwhelmed by the naturally occurring radiation which surrounds us and passes through. Although we can’t see it, it’s in the water we drink and the sunlight we bask in, and even in our bones.
To overcome this background radiation, particle detectors are built deep underground so that they are shielded by large quantities of rock which the radiation cannot penetrate. Unfortunately, many of the materials from which the detectors are constructed come already imbued with their own radiation, which must be taken into account when trying to record dark matter particles.
More than a kilometre beneath the Earth’s surface, at Boulby Underground Laboratory, Emma tests samples of numerous materials to identify those with the lowest levels of background radiation.
It sounds like a small job but even the slightest deviation in background radiation could mean the difference between answering one of science’s greatest questions, or just stumbling around in the dark.
In a world where, by age 15, many girls feel like there’s no place in science for them and in which women make up less than a third of the world’s scientific researchers, these three women show that you don’t need to be born wearing a white coat, be that kid who only wanted a chemistry set for Christmas, or see algebraic patterns in nature, to build a career in the sciences.
Story by: Angelique Pashley (STFC communications placement student)
Edited by: Ben Gilliland
