International Day of Women in Science.
This month, as of February 11, 2023 was the international day of women in S.T.E.M. On account of that; I will be going over some of the most intelligent, and creative, women that have made huge impacts on science and our knowledge of everything that we know as of today.
Marie Curie
One of the only/most recognized female scientist, Marie Curie, achieved so much in her lifespan dedicating her life to science, impacting the world forever. Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie was a Polish and naturalized French chemist, and physicist that most famously discovered the elements (Ra) radium ,and (Po) polonium or radiation. Born in Warsaw, Poland in November 7th, 1867 she had a drive for knowledge especially since she had two parents that were teachers along with four other siblings. Growing up pretty underclass Curie had a lack of opportunity for a higher education, however that didn’t stop her there, reading all books she could get her hands on and learning as much as she could. That was until her sister helped her get into a university in Paris, France. While in Sorbonne University she studied mathematics, and physics, as well as discovering a new love for learning and these topics. In 1894 she met her husband Pierre Curie where she adapted his last name and from there the became researchers in the school of chemistry and physics at Paris, France. They worked on a discovered phenomenon noticed by Professor Henri Becquerel. They tested on invisible rays given off by uranium being able to pass through matter and conduct electricity in the air. Marie Curie couldn’t expel the fact that maybe this is not because of pure uranium element , but something in its ore (pitchblende) is more radioactive, she was pretty sure she found a new element, however her colleges dismissed her facts and results. Persistently, the Curies decided to take matters (haha, get it?) into their own hands, investigating further into this radioactive mineral by grounding up the material and dissolving everything else in acid. So soon her discoveries proven right. With the discovery of this black powder that was “330” times more radioactive than the original element uranium, they named polonium.
This wasn’t end end yet because right after that, the Curies were curious to the left over substances from polonium; that was radium. To prove the existence of radium they would need to extract an immense about of this element. Marie Curie reached out to an Australian factory that harvested uranium; and Madam. Curie collected the other materials that they needed to get what we know now as radium. Although, these tasks and testing were very physically demanding and it cause the curies to become ill from radiation sickness. However that did not stop them because in 1902 Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the highly radioactive element radium.
With her amazing discoveries in 1903 Marie Curie scored the Nobel physics prize split with her husband , herself , and Prof. Henri Becquerel. From their she got her PHD (post doctored degree) in physics. Then in 1906 her husband died from a horse and cart accident. Pierre missing from her life she continued on preforming lectures, and got his Chair as Professor at the Sorbonne university. With her remarkable discoveries and impact on science and the world Madam. Curie achieved another Nobel prize in chemistry at 1911. In October 1914 Curie worked with one of her daughters Irene Curie and invented a X-ray like machine, helping thousands of solders in World War 1. Continuing her studies with her achievements of being the first women to get a Nobel prize and the only women to get two, and many others she died, in Passy, France, at 66, due to exposure of radiation through out the years and a sickness.
Marie Curie has affected medicine, chemistry, and physics in remarkable ways. Because of her discoveries, millions of people are being saved and treated. Foundations like the Marie Curie foundation help people with cancer and other illnesses. Madam. Curie also left behind two intelligent daughters, Irene Curie, whom discovered artificial radiation, and died because of exposure with radiation and 1956. As well as her youngest daughter Eve Curie whom became a writer and journalist. Everyday Curie’s discoveries and story lives on; an impactful female scientist with an beautiful legacy and contribution.
Jocelyn Bell Burnbell
If you were to talk about remarkable British Astrophysicists one prime example would be Jocelyn Bell Burnbell. Born on July 15, 1943 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Growing up Burnbell admired science and was very curious in learning, even though her secondary schools ways, dividing boys and girls into domestic cooking and sciences, she marked as unfair and not right. Early introduced to “gender roles” and expectations Burnell did not let that get in her way. While reading one of her dad’s library books on astronomy she knew what her future career and passion would be Radio astronomy. Eventually Jocelyn Bell Burnbell began to study at University of Glasgow majoring in physics where she would get her bachelors degree. However while studying in classes she was one of the few women out of fifty men who attended. When attending to these courses and classes she face multiple accounts of sexism like getting catcalled and whistled at when just trying to learn and advance her own knowledge. In a interview with the New York Times she shares that she had to face those problems on her own. If she wasn’t dead set on her passion she would have quit. Later, she applied for top university Cambridge, and got in! Although very exited, she didn’t think she was good enough for the collage, and that they made a mistake; witch is called “imposter syndrome”. So Burnbell made the best of it , got her PHD in astrophysics, and began to work even harder to have a less guilty conscious if Cambridge were to kick her out. During her time there she got into a Tony Hewish project about radio astronomy and waves. More specifically, about compact object called quasars.
Her first task was to make a radio telescope, from the photo above shows what it looks like. Radio telescopes measure and record radio wavelengths from very large distances. It took Burnell and her team (6 people) two years to fully build. With bell Burnell’s expertise and PHD all day and night she looked at the recorded waves documented by the radio telescope on a line chart, sifting through everything that came out. “‘ At this stage, there was nobody else on this project,’”(NYT Burnell 4:40). One of the tasks she had to do was determent these if signals were natural or human-made, if she found something that was different or out of the ordinary she would mark it down. From her findings Burnell called up her supervisor, Antony Hewish, and at first he thought it was 100% man made, witch was a good explanation. However, the next day Hewish came in to see himself at the exact time at these strange waves would occur.
And nothing happened.
Giving up all hope, but suddenly 5 minuets later one of Burnell’s co-workers screamed. The radio wave had arrived, their calculations were 5 minuets early to where the radio telescope would read these Pulsars. In a Cambridge University interview in 2020 with Jocelyn Bell Burnell she states, “If we’d miscalculated by 25 minutes we’d have all gone home! And the story would be different”(Burnell 3:19). They found it ,pulsars, a pulsing rotating neutron star, that radioactive pulsing intervals of milliseconds to seconds! With this information it would go on to help the next future scientists with fundamental physics theories as well as other scientific measuring and discoveries. In result landing Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle the physics Nobel prize. In the Cambridge interview she quotes, “This was the first time astrophysicists had won the Nobel Prize. My contemporaries were probably more upset than I was,”(Burnell 4:15). Even though she didn’t get the recognition or reward that she deserved Burnell took it as a win, for science and astrophysics.
That was until 2018 in the Breakthrough prize were she got the full credit that was truly meant for her and her hard work. From the breakthrough prize Joycelyn Bell Burnell is using all her 3 million dollars $ on funding organizations that help people in science to be more diverse. Her impact from in 1967 till today is truly inspiring and helpful, and really a great role model for women in science/stem.
Alice Ball
Chemistry, by Oxford definition, is ‘the branch of science that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed of’. One very important chemist, that was only recognized after death was Alice Ball. Alice Augusta Ball was born in Seattle, Washington of July 24, 1892. Alice Ball was a studious scholar in her high school, ‘Broadway High (school)’, graduating in 1910. From there she obtained two bachelor’s degree; one in pharmaceutical chemistry and another in pharmaceuticals from the University of Washington and her master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Hawaii. Fun fact, Alice Ball was the first African-American and women to graduate from the University of Hawaii in 1915. While studying chemistry at the Hawaiian collage she focused on chaulmoogra oil and its chemical properties that recently at its time been used to treat Hansen’s disease, also know as leprosy. However, when using this oil, there was mixed results. Like eastern medicine they used the oil straight from the tree, in result being hard to use and causing lumps/blisters to form under the skin. As well as other ways then injecting not being as fit or accepted well.
From a video conducted on the YouTube channel of “Hertford College, Oxford” it mentions that Alice met a man named Harry Holman whom was a assistant surgeon and longed for a cure to leprosy. Holman enlisted Ball to help. Ball found a way with the “Ball Method” , coined from her name, which is isolating the ethyl ester compounds from the fatty acids of the chaulmoogra oil making it more easy and less bumpy to inject in patients. This was revolutionary! Ball found a practical and useful cure for leprosy, saving now thousands of lives. In fact, this remained the preferred treatment for Hansen’s disease until sulfonamide drugs were developed in the 1940’s. Although a year later at the age of 24 Alice bell died, from unknown causes on December 31, 1916. Not publishing her findings, the collage was taking over and taking credit. That was until apparently Harry Holman in 1922 spreader Ball’s legacy in a medical journal. This talented chemist although had a short life, extended thousands others of leprosy lives everyday. Alice Ball, the amazing and record braking chemist.
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin, a overlooked and intelligent scientist and scholar. Rosalind Elise Franklin was born in London, England in July 25, 1920. Born in this time not many people believed that women belonged in science or any academic area in general. However, growing up Franklin was in awe of learning, and curious about science; leaving the sexist stereo types behind her and continuing her path of learning. Franklin attended Cambridge university and earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry (1938–1941) for employment opportunities; and post doctorial degree (PhD) in physical chemistry (1945). In this degree she had learned about crystallography and X-ray diffractions (which she used in later years). This was because while doing her PhD she worked with a fellow scientist of the name Jacques Mering were she studied the physical chemistry of coal.
From there in 1951 she conducted research at King’s Collage London and used her information on X-rays to scan DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid). Famously “photo 51" (shown above) came out capturing a real chromosome scanned through X-ray. According to the TED-Ed experts it mentions the clash of co-worker Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. This clash would result in famous scientists Francis Crick and James Watson getting the photo shown to them without Franklin’s knowing because of Maurice and giving them the step ahead on the same goal on Franklin. Getting the X-ray photo took aproxomently 100 hours to make and it would take up to a year to calculate the form of the DNA in the photo.
Nonetheless, the biologist and physicist didn’t calculate every atom in their exact spot. In fact they just did a quick analysis of Franklin’s findings and got a relative structure, taking all the credit for themselves. On the other hand, Franklin spent year analyzing and calculating every position of every atom from her self-found data and got the same result. Crick and Watson’s damage was already done and everyone knew them for the discovery of the DNA structure. Shortly after in April 16, 1958 Rosalind Franklin died from ovarian cancer at age 37.
The story doesn’t end there because Crick and Watson, the public ignorant of Franklin’s original findings, took the credit and obtained the Nobel Physiology or Medicine prize in 1962 about the DNA structure. However through multiple sores that knew Franklin we now know what really happened to what I think was one of the most heated race to scientific discovery. Still today Rosalind Franklin was an amazing and inventive scientist that her love for discovery and science led to wonderful things.
Conclusion
To conclude these extraordinary and intellectual scientists have made many improvements to what knowledge and technology we have today. Although, at the time most of them did not get the recognition they deserved these remodels defined the future for the rest of science. As well as many other women not mentioned in this article. So, today we should encourage and recognize women in stem and everyone else in science all working for the main goal to build our knowledge.
Thank you for reading this article.
Works Cited
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Drake, Nadia. “Meet the Woman Who Found the Most Useful Stars in the Universe.” Science, 6 Sept. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-jocelyn-bell-burnell-breakthrough-prize-pulsars-astronomy.
Guerra, Cláudio L. “Rosalind Franklin: DNA’s Unsung Hero — Cláudio L. Guerra.” Www.youtube.com, 11 July 2016, youtube.com/watch?v=BIP0lYrdirI&feature=shares. Accessed 27 Feb. 2023.
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SciShow. “The 22 Year-Old Chemist Who Changed Leprosy Treatment | Great Minds.” YouTube, 22 Feb. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=dymJcBkGlbs.
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The New York Times. “I Changed Astronomy Forever. He Won the Nobel Prize for It. | ‘Almost Famous’ by Op-Docs.” Www.youtube.com, 29 July 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDW9zKqvPJI.
