
Emmy Noether - anonymouz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_noether
======
crntaylor
I remember studying some of Noether's early work in a course on classical
mechanics at university. It's one of the things I remember from my degree that
still blows my mind.

Noether's theorems in classical mechanics associate symmetries of the laws
governing a physical system to conservations laws of that system. For example,

    
    
      Spatial translation symmetry  => Conservation of momentum
      Spatial rotation symmetry     => Conservation of angular momentum
      Time translation symmetry     => Conservation of energy
      Phase symmetry                => Conservation of electric charge
    

When you study relativity, and unify space and time into four dimensional
spacetime, it becomes clear through Noether's theorem that energy and momentum
are also related.

Much later on, around 2008, a friend of mine working at Cambridge generalized
Noether's result [0] to include non-smooth symmetries as well - showing how
CPT (charge-parity-time) symmetry in the Dirac equation leads to new conserved
quantities. Epic work.

[0] <http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3943>

~~~
carlob
Yes. Noether theorem is truly a beautiful piece of insight. I also remember
fondly spontaneous symmetry breaking [0] as the key mechanism behind phase
transitions.

[0] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_symmetry_breaking>

------
Steuard
Despite her tremendous insights, Noether suffered constant discrimination from
the male-dominated academic society of her time: she was sometimes not even
paid for her work, and when she fled Germany during WW2 the best position she
could find was at the women's college Bryn Mawr (in an era when other fleeing
German scientists were landing positions at the best American research
universities).

When she died, the story I recall is that the New York Times printed a very
short obituary that mentioned only her brief work as a teacher at Bryn Mawr.
Einstein was horrified that such a luminary would receive so little
recognition, and he responded by writing a glowing tribute which the Times
promptly printed: [http://www-history.mcs.st-
andrews.ac.uk/Obits2/Noether_Emmy_...](http://www-history.mcs.st-
andrews.ac.uk/Obits2/Noether_Emmy_Einstein.html)

~~~
shardling
>Despite her tremendous insights, Noether suffered constant discrimination
from the male-dominated academic society of her time

My understanding is that many of her _peers_ recognized her -- it was the
universities themselves that refused to properly hire her, etc.

~~~
anonymouz
In Göttingen she was at first not tolerated by her peers, but she was strongly
supported by Hilbert. In fact she used to announce her lectures under his
name, because she was not allowed to give them officially.

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mjs
Emmy Noether is the only (?) woman on IBM's famous "Men of Modern Mathematics"
poster (1966).
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematica:_A_World_of_Numbers...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematica:_A_World_of_Numbers..._and_Beyond#Men_of_Modern_Mathematics_Poster)

~~~
mjs
Oh, and apparently there's an update to the poster in the form of an iPad app,
and she's the only woman there, too. <http://techpinions.com/men-of-modern-
mathematics-lives/6332>

------
oscilloscope
I've been circling around group theory and abstract algebra for a while. This
incredible Wikipedia article really helps to make the history of these
subjects more concrete.

In textbooks, the axioms and theorems seem so dry. It must have been exciting
to be in those lectures though, discovering concepts of a new field of
mathematics for the first time.

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t-ob
I read quite a lot about Noether when I took a module in the history of
mathematics as an undergraduate. Few mathematicians excel so greatly as to
have an entire class of ring[0] named after them!

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noetherian_ring>

------
sasvari
Last year there was an interesting article about _Emmy Noether_ in the NY
Times [0]. Corresponding HN discussion [1].

[0] The Mighty Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of
[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/science/emmy-noether-
the-m...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/science/emmy-noether-the-most-
significant-mathematician-youve-never-heard-of.html)

[1] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3760447>

~~~
zem
the really sad thing is i was aware (and appreciative) of noether's theorem
for years before i learnt she was a woman. she was only ever referred to as
"noether" in the textbooks.

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dsego
There's a really inspiring google tech talk about her life and work. It's
titled "Emmy Noether and The Fabric of Reality"
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_MpQG2xXVo>

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niggler
On the topic of women making major contributions to math and sciences, I think
Hedy Lamarr <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr> and Ada Lovelace
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_lovelace> also deserve recognition

~~~
okal
Hadn't heard of Lamarr before, thanks for the link. I don't think Lovelace
suffers from any lack of recognition, though.

------
j2kun
Her work on physics was nothing compared to her contributions to algebra and
topology. Not only did she basically invent homology groups as we know them
today, but she revolutionized the way we think about rings. The ascending and
descending chain conditions in algebra are like bread and cheese for the
culinary world.

~~~
shardling
As a physicist, I can't speak to her contributions to pure math -- but
Noether's Theorem really is a vitally important part of modern physics. Bread
and cheese territory there, too.

