Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin, Sally Ride. These are some of the female scientists everyone has heard of. But women have been making strides in STEM fields for as long as men have, but their names largely stay unknown. Here are 5 great female scientists you need to know about, that you probably haven't heard of.
1. Barbara McClintock
One of my personal heroes, Dr. McClintock won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983. She is known for her pioneering research in genetics; specifically cytogenetics, the study of the structure of the chromosome. She discovered transposons by working on multicolored corn; the corn kernels were different colors because a gene jumped around an sometimes inserted itself into genes for different colors. This would turn the color gene off, so that other color genes would color that kernal. These "jumping genes" are now called transposons, and are viral in origin. Every organism has transposons in its genome; there are millions in the human genome alone, making up almost half of our genetic code. Dr. McClintock also did important research on crossing-over during meiosis, and telomeres (the ends of the chromosome).
2. Grace Murray Hopper
Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was an early computer programmer for the United States Navy. She worked on a computer at Harvard known as the Mark I, which made calculations to help in World War II. There are both a warship and a supercomputer named after her. She was also known to be a phenomenal teacher. In a cute anecdote, she once was servicing a computer that wasn't working correctly. She opened it up to find a moth stuck inside. Taking it out, she casually remarked that she was "debugging the machine." The term stuck.
3. Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace was one of the first computer programmers in the world, if not the first. She was highly educated compared to other women at the time, and worked directly with Charles Babbage. They worked together in the mid-1800's, only shortly after some pioneering work on electromagnetism. Ada was interested in mathematics, computers, electricity, and the brain. She was also known as an excellent scientific writer and editor. She was full of amazing ideas, but she died early, at 36, before she could pursue them all.
4. Valentina Tereshkova
Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go to space. "But wait," I hear you say, "Sally Ride was the first woman in space!" That's actually not true! Sally Ride was the first female astronaut, and the first American woman in space, but Valentina Tereshkova was the first female cosmonaut. Valentina Tereskova visited the cosmos a full 20 years before Sally Ride. She was also the first civilian (non-military) to go to space. In 1963, six years before the moon landing, she piloted a capsule called the Vostok 6 alone. She spent 3 days in space, completing approximately 50 orbits before returning to Earth.
5. Hypatia
The oldest example on the list, Hypatia was a Greek scientist living in Egypt in the 3rd century C.E. Known mostly for being a philosopher, she was also a mathematician and astronomer. She lived during a time of contention between Hellenistic people and early Christians, and she was brutally murdered by a mob during a particularly tense period in the year 415 C.E.
In conclusion, women have been kicking butt at science for millenia. Not every genius scientist is an Albert Einstein or a Stephen Hawking; some of them are a girlish Ada Lovelace, or a tough Admiral Hopper. Ignoring one half of the human race when it comes to technological advances is disingenuous and unconsciounable, so let's start remembering some of the women who have brought us to where we are today.
