Earlier this year, when my grandmother, Chien-Shiung Wu, was featured on a USPS first-class Forever stamp, a flood of articles came out explaining who she was and the importance of her work — disproving what was thought to be a fundamental law of nature and changing scientists’ understanding of the universe. Specifically, she proved the “non-conservation of parity,” which showed that the laws of nature are not entirely symmetrical, that the universe does at times distinguish between left and right.
Back when the stamp released in February, I started writing my own tribute to her, on and off, little by little, while recovering from uterine fibroid surgery. Slowly, it morphed from pure biography into a saga that I like to think is about grandmothers and granddaughters, mothers and sons, Chinese history, immigrants, racism, sexism, women in STEM, the thrill of scientific discovery, the tolls of fame and relentless ambition, the questions we have about our families that are too late to ask, and the particular sadness of missing someone who the world reveres.
It’s been a difficult and rewarding writing process with a lot of tears, not cathartic, exactly, but something that has brought me closer to my parents and relatives.
I told myself I wouldn’t share any of the few photos I have with my grandma until the piece published. Well, I’m glad to say that day had arrived. (Link in bio.) Here’s one of her with me as a baby.
With giant thanks to
@washingtonpost for letting me do this; my parents and relatives for their memories; scientists like
@jannalevin , Morgan May, and Lam Hui for their expertise, and, above all, my very patient editor
@hstuever , who kept me sane and gave this piece some of his lovely DNA.
