A closer look
Physics used to arrogantly assume the universe was perfectly symmetrical—a concept called parity conservation. Chien-Shiung Wu destroyed this comfortable delusion. By supercooling cobalt-60 atoms and watching their radioactive decay, she proved that subatomic particles actually prefer a specific direction. The electrons overwhelmingly shot out in the opposite direction of the nuclear spin. The universe is fundamentally left-handed at the subatomic level, and the male theorists who suggested she run the test won the Nobel Prize while she was aggressively ignored.
