8 women botanical artists from across Europe
Making contributions to both art and science
by Aleksandra Strzelichowska (from the archives) via @europeana
https://www.europeana.eu/en/stories/8-women-botanical-artists-from-across-europe
womeninstem
Gladys West, mathematician whose work paved the way for GPS, dies at 95
She navigated segregation to become an esteemed mathematician — and today, her work helps billions of people navigate the world.
By Bill Chappell
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5685027/gladys-west-gps-mathematician
How Noether’s Theorem Revolutionized Physics
Emmy Noether showed that fundamental physical laws are just a consequence of simple symmetries. A century later, her insights continue to shape physics.
By Shalma Wegsman
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-noethers-theorem-revolutionized-physics-20250207/
More information about Noether's theorem:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether%27s_theorem
The female explorers who braved the wilderness but were overlooked by the history books
By Sarah Lonsdale
Books by Mina Benson Hubbard at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1422
"My methods are really methods of working and thinking; this is why they have crept in everywhere anonymously."
Happy Birthday Emmy Noether!!
She made many important contributions to abstract algebra. She proved Noether's 1st and 2nd theorems, which are fundamental in mathematical physics. She developed theories of rings, fields, & algebras. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the connection between symmetry & conservation laws.
![Portrait of Emmy Noether, around 1900.
Unknown author Publisher: Mathematical Association of America [3], Brooklyn Museum [4], Agnes Scott College [5], [6] - Emmy Noether (1882-1935), Archived
The photograph shows Noether as a poised young woman, reflecting the academic environment of the era. Dressed in period attire typical of the late 19th to early 20th century, she appears composed and introspective, a visual contrast to the intellectual revolution she would later ignite in mathematics.](/proxy/post_attachment/656703/c37623fa20.jpg "Portrait of Emmy Noether, around 1900.
Unknown author Publisher: Mathematical Association of America [3], Brooklyn Museum [4], Agnes Scott College [5], [6] - Emmy Noether (1882-1935), Archived
The photograph shows Noether as a poised young woman, reflecting the academic environment of the era. Dressed in period attire typical of the late 19th to early 20th century, she appears composed and introspective, a visual contrast to the intellectual revolution she would later ignite in mathematics.")
Years After the Early Death of a Math Genius, Her Ideas Gain New Life
A new proof extends the work of the late Maryam Mirzakhani, cementing her legacy as a pioneer of alien mathematical realms.
By Kristina Armitage
American mathematician and aerospace engineer Mary Jackson died #OTD in 2005.
She worked at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for most of her career. She started as a computer engineer at the segregated West Area Computing division in 1951. In 1958, after taking engineering classes, she became NASA's first black female engineer.
Edited 1y ago
Seeing dark matter in the Andromeda galaxy
By Vera Rubin, from the archives, via @physicstoday
This is a story of why and how Kent Ford and I studied the orbital velocities of stars in the Andromeda galaxy 40 years ago. Our study was influential in the later conclusion that most of the matter in the universe is dark.
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/59/12/8/387114/Seeing-dark-matter-in-the-Andromeda-galaxy
If Only 19th-Century America Had Listened to a Woman Scientist
Where might the US be if it heeded her discovery of global warming’s source?
By Sidney Perkowitz (from the archives)
Now more than ever is a great time to be reminded of the powerful work of Margaret Morgan Lawrence (1914-2019) & honor her extraordinary legacy.
Decades before "social determinants of health" was coined, she spoke of "nature, nurture and noxia"
🧵
How Alice Hamilton Waged a One-Woman Campaign to Get the Lead Out of Everything
At first a crusader for workplace safety, the trained physician railed against the use of the toxic and ubiquitous material
By Daniel Stone
More information about Alice Hamilton:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Hamilton
Edited 1y ago
Edits to Vera Rubin’s Biography Downplay the Need for Women in Science Amid Federal DEI Crackdown
To comply with Trump's executive order about DEI, a federally funded telescope project has altered the biography of its namesake astronomer.
By Passant Rabie
The Talented and Valiant Female Surgeon Who Joined Allied Forces in WWII and Broke Barriers Along the Way
Prohibited from serving with the U.S. Army as a medical officer, Barbara Stimson was commissioned by the British—and helped open the American military to female doctors.
By Catherine Musemeche
More information about Barbara Stimson:
https://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/distinguished-alumni/barbara-stimson/
"I’m only sorry I couldn’t have had as good a chance as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly."
American inventor Margaret E. Knight was born #OTD in 1838.
She founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in 1870, creating paper bags for groceries similar in form to the ones that would be used in later generations. Knight received dozens of patents in different fields and became a symbol for women's empowerment.
New Quarter Honors Vera Rubin, Astronomer Who Revealed the Universe’s Hidden Mass
Astronomer Vera Rubin, now honored on a U.S. quarter, transformed our understanding of the universe by uncovering powerful evidence of dark matter.
By Gabrielle Stewart
A Lab of Her Own
In her bedroom during WWII, she discovered how the nervous system is wired. On a cold, dry Tuesday in December, 1940, Rita Levi-Montalcini rode a train from the station near her home in Turin, Italy, for 80 miles to Milan to buy a microscope.
BY BOB GOLDSTEIN
Rachel Carson Raised the Alarm About Pesticides in Silent Spring, Changing Environmental History
The influential biologist's work helped launch the modern environmental movement.
By Lloyd Black
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/rachel-carson-pesticides-silent-spring-history
#BlackHistoryMonth is a great time to celebrate astronaut Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) a physician who became the first Black woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour for NASA, on September 12, 1992! She also has a B.S. in chemical engineering, served in the Peace Corps, is a dancer and choreographer, 🧵
#linocut #printmaking #sciArt #astronaut #womenInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #histsci #mastoArt
The hunt for Marie Curie's radioactive fingerprints in Paris
Marie Curie worked with radioactive material with her bare hands. More than 100 years after her groundbreaking work, Sophie Hardach travels to Paris to trace the lingering radioactive fingerprints she left behind.
Marie Curie at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39174
#OnThisDay, 20 Apr 1902, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie refine radium chlorine. The discovery leads to Marie being the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.
The Academy originally planned to award only Pierre and Henri Becquerel. Pierre insisted that Marie should also be included.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomenInSTEM #NobelWomen #Histodons
Edited 308d ago
#OnThisDay, 9 May 1922, the International Astronomical Union formally adopts Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system. The principles in it still underpin modern classification.
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Astronomy #WomenInSTEM #AmericanHistory #Histodons
Edited 289d ago
"I used to say the evening that I developed the first x-ray photograph I took of insulin in 1935 was the most exciting moment of my life. But the Saturday afternoon in late July 1969, when we realized that the insulin electron density map was interpretable, runs that moment very close."
'X Rays and the Structure of Insulin', British Medical Journal, 1971
Happy Birthday Dorothy Hodgkin!
More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Hodgkin
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1964/hodgkin/biographical/
#OnThisDay, 5 Jun 1833, Ada Lovelace meets Charles Babbage, triggering their collaboration on the Analytical Engine and writing the first published program.
Image by Sydney Padua
#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #WomenInSTEM #Histodons
From ATP to MRI: Mildred Cohn's Pioneering Work in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
By Dale DeBakcsy
The Queer Relationship That Powered Rachel Carson’s Nature Writing
Lida Maxwell on Dorothy Freeman, “Silent Spring,” and Rejecting Heteronormativity
Nature study at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/6921
