Welcome back to PRISM, the SCISOC newsletter! With the end of the term leering and exam period fast approaching, it's time to start thinking about our careers! With our event Meet Your Majors, as well as an exclusive opportunity from the Science Faculty, you can! As a source of inspiration, we talk about Chien-Shiung Wu and her lifelong contributions to the topic of physics in our Scientist Spotlight. Finally, in the Fun Corner, we delve into the darker side of the music industry by looking at some of their most infamous scandals to date. With that said, let's dive in!

Lockdown cabin fever? Have no fear as SCISOC brings you a new wave of engaging events ranging from case competitions to discussions with specialists of the Big 4. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the following events:

Meet Your Majors

Meet Your Majors presents an exclusive opportunity to meet with industry professionals from the Big 4 (Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG) with an online event that includes discussion and group networking opportunities. This open discussion with specialist speakers will empower you as a science student to develop your understanding of different majors and most importantly, getting internship tips and tricks. If you do not want to miss this valuable opportunity, check the facebook event and register immediately - only a limited number of spots are available.

Location: Online

When: 29th July, 4-8:30pm

SCISOC Museum Winner!

Congrulations to Lily Lam on winning the SCISOC Museum raffle! Enjoy your $25 UberEats gift card and we hope you can put it to good use during lockdown!

If you haven’t been up to speed with SCISOC’s publications, here’s a reminder that our newest publication SCISOC Museum has been released for all students to read. The publication contains articles that cover a variety of topics in Science and we recommend you to have a gander in your spare time! The magazine can be accessed here.

Interdisciplinary Mini-Consulting Projects

Are you an student looking to further develop skills that will further your chances of becoming employable? CDEV3000 is a 6UoC General Elective and free elective course run via Microsoft Teams, where students will work in teams and develop skills in project design, development and presentation. This course will be run during Term 3, and applications close soon, so if you don't want to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, register now!

For more information, click here.

Deadline for Registration: 5th August, 11:59pm

“I wonder whether the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment.”

- Chien Shiung Wu

On May 31st in 1912, the ‘First Lady of Physics’ was born in the county of Taicang in eastern China. Chien-Shiung Wu went on to become one of the leading scientists in the sphere of physics, with her contribution to the theory of the conservation of parity and her work on the Manhattan Project. Overall, Wu’s work proved not only important to the field of physics but to the history of POC women in STEM.

Before these incredible accolades however, Wu was already an academically gifted child. She was encouraged by her father who advocated for the education of young girls in early twentieth-century China, to take her career into her own hands. Taught at her father’s all-girls school before further study at the National Central University, she had consistently ranked at the top of her cohort, and figures such as philosopher Hu Shih recognised her talent and brilliant mind throughout this time.

The catalyst for her move to America was advice from her mentor Gu Jingwei, who encouraged her to obtain a PhD at the University of Michigan. She left China in 1936, set for San Francisco and upon arriving, decided on UC Berkeley instead. She had been astounded at the sexism women faced in Michigan, so much so that they were not allowed to use the front entrance of the campus and chose the liberal Berkeley instead, where she had been guaranteed a place in the physics graduate program by the head of the department. The research she had conducted on topics such as beta decay and the production of radioactive isotopes via nuclear fission here would build the foundations for her achievements to follow later on in her life.

Wu began investigating beta decay and earned a reputation as a meticulous experimental physicist after making several significant contributions, including the first confirmation of Enrico Fermi’s theory of beta decay. In 1956, she was approached by theoretical physicists Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang to carry out an experiment to test their hypothesis that the law of conservation of parity did not hold true to beta decay. Wu’s experiment utilised cobalt-60 in a strong electromagnetic field. In the observation made when the nuclei broke down, more particles flew off in the direction opposite to the spin of the nuclei. This proved that identical nuclear particles do not always act alike and thus Wu was able to confirm the invalidity of the conservation of parity law. Lee and Yang received the 1957 Nobel Prize for their theory though Wu was not acknowledged. Instead, she was recognised by the NMS and was awarded the first Wolf Prize in Physics from the Wolf Foundation in Israel. Being snubbed for a Nobel Prize was one of the many instances of gender discrimination that Wu experienced during her career, and only contributed to her fight for equality for women in the field of science.

Her work for the Manhattan Project was based on the thesis she had worked on, with physicist Emilio Segré recommending Wu to Fermi to discern an issue with the B Reactor, the first practical nuclear reactor ever built. Sure enough, her research proved that the xenon isotope, Xe-135, was the source of the problem. Furthermore, the research she’d undertaken on radioactive uranium separation was the model used to manufacture enriched uranium atomic bomb fuel as well as building Geiger counters.

Wu continued making significant contributions to science throughout her life after this. Her research helped answer biological questions about blood and sickle cell anaemia and her book “Beta Decay” (1965) is still a standard reference for nuclear scientists to this day. In 1975, she became the first female president of the American Physical Society, was awarded the National Medal of Science, the Comstock Prize, and the first honorary doctorate awarded to a female at Princeton University. She would go on to ask for equal pay for herself that matched those of her male colleagues at Columbia as well as speak on the perception and treatment of women in physics and science in general, her background as a Chinese woman illustrating the backwardness of the American society in their value of women. Wu remained an influential part of the physics community until her retirement from Columbia in 1981.

Chien-Shiung Wu was an icon especially for young girls around the world seeing a Chinese-American woman revolutionise the world of physics. She proved that female minds were just as powerful as that of their counterparts. However, Wu is a role model for all students of science looking to make groundbreaking changes in the world, who could try their hand at making it look as easy as she did!

Note: The following contains potentially disturbing content with explicit and sexual references.

In recent years, more and more artists have revealed their struggles with record labels, thus forcing a light to be shone on what goes on behind the scenes of the music industry. From greedy record labels, suffocating contracts, controlling creative rights and potentially destroying careers, the music industry’s sinister reach extends far beyond what we thought. Here are the two biggest scandals that dragged different music industries through the mud.

Case 1: Taylor Swift And BMR

One of the most well-documented record label conflicts was Taylor Swift’s battle with Big Machine Records, with whom she signed a 13 year record deal.

In June 2019, the masters (first recording of an audio recording) of Taylor Swift's first six studio albums were acquired by Scooter Braun as he gained ownership of Big Machine Records, her label till 2019, for $300 million.
In response, Swift made an announcement in August 2019 stating that she wished to have complete ownership over her music, and so would re-record all of her first six albums adding the note “(Taylor’s Version)” to each song and album name.

Fig 1: Long time friends of Swift voice their support.

Case 2: Kpop Sex Scandal

Nowadays, K-pop is more than a culture - it is its whole genre of music. Starting off from humble beginnings in 1992 where the first electronic hip hop performance was made in Korea, K-pop has reached its way up to billboard charts and Coachella. Despite this, 2019 was a scandalous time for K-pop - from drug dealing to sex scandals, suicide, forced prostitution linked with politics even up to sexual assaults.

The most notable example is the Burning Sun scandal. It involved Big Bang Seungri’s Club, Burning Sun, and was first brought to light upon allegations of illegal drug use and fighting.

Fig 2: Seungri and Jun Joon Young attending court hearing.

Fig 3: Burning sun gate concludes after two years with no charges to Seungri (pictured right)

The scandal escalated quickly when federal police made an investigation into the night club and discovered rape evidence and non-consensual filmings of sexual activities as well as non-consensual sharing of those videos and pictures. It was further revealed to have involved many other K-pop artists, such as Jung Jun Young, CNBLUE Jong Hyun and FT Island Jong Hun. This is not the only example of underhanded and sleazy activities the K-pop industry is involved in.

With all these behind-the-scenes acts that are going on in this industry, it is important to note that you as listeners are somewhat complicit in the state of the music industry today as humans are wired to want more of the same music. Familiar sounds are both comforting and easier to process which in turn, makes it that much easier for audiences to warm up to it. Knowing this, companies will be less likely to let artists have creative control over their music when they have a surefire method of producing hits.

With all these behind-the-scenes acts that are going on in this industry, it is important to note that you as listeners are somewhat complicit in the state of the music industry today as humans are wired to want more of the same music. Familiar sounds are both comforting and easier to process, which in turn, makes it that much easier for audiences to warm up to it. Knowing this, companies will be less likely to let artists have creative control over their music when they have a surefire method of producing hits. So, the next time you use spotify or any other music streaming application, try to listen to something you wouldn't normally, you might find a new favourite artist!

UNSW Science Society is proud to announce our continued partnership with GradReady through 2020. GradReady provides GAMSAT Preparation courses for anyone looking to pursue Medicine after they graduate.
This process starts earlier than you think, so if you’re studying medical science or just have that passion, check out what they have to offer!