New £50 note: here are some female scientists who could go on the new banknote Let’s take stock of the bold and brilliant female scientists that could make the grade

The much-loved and highly sought after £50 note will soon be getting a makeover with a new public figure.

Although £50 notes are rarely seen unless in the arms of financiers in TV dramas, the Bank of England has decided to create a new polymer note to match the rest of the cash updates that have taken place in recent times – and wants to put a British scientist on it.

Members of the public can submit their suggestions on the Bank of England’s website over the next six weeks to suggest the future face of the bill.

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Although the campaigns to see Harry Maguire, Lisa Scott Lee and Jim from Friday Night Dinner have now sadly fallen by the wayside, one essential question remains: who should be featured on the bill?

Before we get some old stuffy bloke clogging up the note for another eight years, let’s take stock of the bold and brilliant female scientists that could make the grade.

Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace is the most likely contender for the note. While claims that she was the first computer programmer ever will always face criticism from some corners, its undeniable that she was the first to truly recognise the power of programming. Not too shabby for someone with a”mad, bad, and dangerous to know” poet, Lord Byron, for a dad.

She is the bookies’ favourite to get billed, alongside Stephen Hawking. But maybe it’s better to go rogue and back an underdog…

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

British scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock has an MBE and should be considered as a modern-day scientific legend. You might know her for her presenting role on The Sky At Night with Chris Lintott.

The physicist has worked on developing aircraft missile warning systems for the Ministry of Defence, developing hand detectors to find landmines, as well as being instrumental in the creation of a spectograph, a tool which helps us track distant stars.

However, Aderin-Pocock isn’t just cool – she’s keen on educating the next generation on how they could get involved in science too.

It’s estimated that Maggie Aderin-Pocock has spoken to about 25,000 children, many of them at inner-city schools telling them how and why she is a scientist, busting myths about careers, class and gender in her time.

But she isn’t dead, so I have a feeling that might go against her.

Dorothy Hodgkin

Although Dorothy Hodgkin was born in Cairo, growing up she spent half of the year in Britain to avoid the blazing Egyptian heat.

As well as discovering the structure of steroids, vitamin B12, insulin and penicillin, the trailblazing scientist, she was a pioneer in crystallography, and developed x-ray crystallography, which denotes the three-dimensional structures of molecules.

It took a while for Hodgkin to feel comfortable enough to have her work published under her real name, which is quite sad. But now that we live in a society where women can put their name to their work (although apparently not advanced enough for men to not try to steal the credit) perhaps we should let Hodgkin take that £50.

Rosalind Franklin

For those not in the know, Rosalind Franklin made a significant contribution towards finding out the structure of DNA.

Naturally, these efforts were only recognised posthumously, and at the time the credit was usually attributed to James Watson and Francis Crick.

She also led some research at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. Aaron Klug then continued her research, and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982 for it.

As Franklin has been done over quite a few times in the accreditation department, it would be quite nice to finally give her the recognition she deserves.