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
womeninstem
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 274d 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 272d 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
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 206d 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 187d 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
Happy birthday to #physicist Harriet Brooks (1876 - 1933) who discovered atomic recoil, Radon & recognized radioactive elements could undergo chains of transmutations into a series of new elements. #nuclear #physics
She was Rutherford’s 1st grad student at McGill. After publishing her results in 1899 she completed her MSc in 1901 on “Damping of Electrical Oscillations,” before embarking on #radioactivity research. 🧵
#linocut #printmaking #sciart #womenInSTEM #histsci
#OnThisDay, 5 Aug 1888, Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim: the first journey of 100+km in a car by *anyone*.
She'd got tired of her husband tinkering with his prototype so took it on the road with her sons. And without him.
Along the way, she made running repairs to the engine and realised there would need to be refueling stations.
#WomenInSTEM #EuropeanHistory #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons
Lise Meitner: The Forgotten Mother of Nuclear Fission
Of the 15 elements on the periodic table that honor scientists, only one and a half are named after women.
Science is the story of discoveries but sometimes credit isn’t given when it is due. How many women discoverers can you name?
By Eva Kellner B.A.Sc
Nuclear fission at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=nuclear+fission
Maria Mitchell: America’s First Woman Astronomer and Mentor to Women in Science
As Vassar College’s first astronomy professor, Maria Mitchell advanced opportunities for women in science and mentored a generation of students using one of the country’s finest observatories.
By Deb Warner
Maria Mitchell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3377
