Mathematician to know: Emmy Noether

Noether's theorem is a thread woven into the fabric of the science. We are able to understand the world because it is predictable. If we drop a rubber ball, it falls down rather than flying up. But more specifically: if we drop the same ball from the same height over and over again, we know it will hit the ground with the same speed every time (within vagaries of air currents). That repeatability is a huge part of what makes physics effective. The repeatability of the ball experiment is an examp...