A scientific face for the fifty
Posted by the Node, on 28 November 2018
Here at The Company of Biologists we’ve been debating the Bank of England’s decision to put a scientist on their new £50 note (the highest denomination note in England). The scientist must be deceased (only the Queen can grace notes while still alive) and ‘have shaped thought, innovation, leadership or values in the UK’.
Each of our five journals was asked to come up with their nominations for the face of the fifty. Here’s who they picked and why they picked them:
Development
Anne McLaren
“McLaren was a towering figure in developmental and reproductive biology. She did foundational work in IVF, experimental chimeras and germ cell differentiation, contributed to regulatory policies on human embryo research, and championed pubic engagement”
Journal of Cell Science
Rosalind Franklin
“She studied in Cambridge, and although a chemist, made a crucial, and often unrecognised, contribution to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA”
Journal of Experimental Biology
Mary Anning
“English fossil collector/palaeontologist. Considered an expert in her field, contributing to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life, at a time when women were mostly excluded from the scientific community”
Disease Models & Mechanisms and Biology Open
Fred Sanger
“Modern biology wouldn’t be what it is without him. Double Nobel winner known for sequencing DNA & pioneering work on the structure of proteins. Declined the offer of a knighthood, as did not wish to be addressed as Sir”
The Company of Biologists Twitter feed has a poll where you can pick your favourite out of the four:
We asked our journal teams for their nominations for the face of the new £50 note. Read the thread below to find out who @Dev_journal @J_Cell_Sci @J_Exp_Biol @DMM_Journal and @BiologyOpen selected and why.
Who out of the four would get your vote? #ThinkScience #50poundnote— The Company of Biologists (@Co_Biologists) November 28, 2018
What do you think of Development’s choice of Anne McLaren? Which other developmental biologist do you think could be honoured? Let us know in the comments
(1 votes)
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