Awesome women in science – The Transcriptome

Women are currently under-represented in scientific fields and have been for centuries [1] [2] [3] [4]. Despite the discriminatory challenges they face and the unfortunate tendency of the scientific community to not fully recognize their work, women have contributed to many discoveries that have changed the face of the world. Some of these women are well known, such as Marie Curie, two-time Nobel Prize winner and pioneer in radioactivity research [5]. She single-handedly inspired generations of scientists and has received several tributes (for example, 2011 was the “Marie Curie” year [6]). But she is not the only woman who has made a significant contribution to science … we are going to meet three other equally talented and inspiring women who are too often looked over.

Lise Meitner

At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists were just beginning to discover the complexity of atoms and the secrets they hid: the discovery of radioactivity (Henri Becquerel in 1896), of the atomic nucleus (Ernest Rutherford in 1911) and of electrons (Ernest Rutherford in 1914) are some of the discoveries made that changed the face of the world. However, many observations remained unexplained.

Lise Meitner was born in Vienna in 1878. She devoted her life to physics and the study of radioactivity. In 1934, she decided to study a subject that was particularly fashionable at the time: artificial nuclear reactions. Accompanied by Otto Hahn, she decided to go in search of new elements to complete the periodic table. At the time, no element heavier than uranium was known. “What were those mysterious elements that followed uranium on the table?” Meitner probably wondered.

Meitner and Hahn’s experiment was simple on paper: bombard a uranium atom with a neutron and see if the element had been altered. Two hypotheses were then plausible. The first was that the neutron would bind to the uranium and form a heavier, unknown element. The second was that the uranium would split in two to form two elements whose mass sum would be equal to the mass of the uranium.

The result was surprising and unexpected. The reaction had produced two well-known light elements, Krypton and Barium, whose mass sum was not equal to the mass of Uranium. But where had the missing mass gone? Thanks to Einstein’s equations, the famous E = m*c^2, Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn had just discovered that the missing mass had become energy … a lot of energy. In other words, they had just discovered nuclear fission, which is now ubiquitous in our lives and is the most energy-giving reaction known.

Despite Lise Meitner’s important role in the discovery of nuclear fission, the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded only to Otto Hahn. As often happens, women’s contributions are silenced or reduced to mere acknowledgements, and the story of Lise Meitner is a perfect example of this. Next time you turn on a light or charge your phone, think of Lise Meitner, probably one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century.

Sources used : [7] [8] [9] [10]

Mary Anning

The story of Mary Anning begins in 1799 in England. She came from a poor family who rounded up the ends of the month as best they could. At that time, science was not the first concern of society and paleontology did not yet exist. Mary Anning was going to change that.

Mary Anning was very close to her father, with whom she often went looking for fossils during her childhood. The search for these fossils had no scientific purpose but only economic: Mary Anning’s father sold them to the highest bidder, often wealthy tourists. This work could be very profitable, but it was not without danger, especially because of landslides. In 1810, when her father died of tuberculosis, Anning found herself alone with her brother, her mother and several debts to pay.

At the age of 12, Anning continued her father’s research and created a business around fossils. Mary Anning’s first major discovery was not long in coming: she discovered, with her brother, a complete skeleton of ichthyosaurus, a reptile that has been extinct for thousands of years. In 1821, she discovered the skeleton of a plesiosaurus and then that of a pterodactyl in 1828. Over the years, the scientific community became aware of the importance of fossils in the understanding of the history of life and gradually became Mary Anning’s main client. The British Association for the Advancement of Science even gave her an annuity (a fixed annual income) from 1830 for her efforts and discoveries.

Mary Anning was also instrumental in the development of many of the fossil mining techniques still in use today and in the understanding of certain scientific issues. For example, it was she who understood what “bezoar stones” were ; these are stones found in the gastrointestinal tracts of fossils that have proven to be fossilized feces that are crucial to the understanding of prehistoric ecosystems.

Mary Anning died at the age of 47 from breast cancer. She was rarely credited for her discoveries, which are often attributed to her colleagues. Yet this passionate researcher laid the foundation for what would become paleontology and played a key role in highlighting the extinction of species.

Sources used : [11] [12]

Nettie Stevens

The story of Nettie Stevens begins in Vermont (USA) just after the Civil War in 1861. Coming from a wealthy family that gave her a good education, she graduated from Westford Academy at the age of 19 and became a teacher. At the time, women had few opportunities: they could become a secretary or a teacher at most. However, Stevens’ passion for biology meant that she was not about to stop studying.

For a long time her life followed the cycle “Work – Economy – Study”: she spent a few years working to save as much as possible and be able to afford studies in institutions that accepted women. She was an enthusiastic teacher and a brilliant student. she was often among the best students in her class, which enabled her to enter Stanford University at the age of 35 and obtain her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Physiology and Histology.

At the age of 39, Stevens finally became what she had always wanted to be: a research scientist. She then devoted the remaining 11 years of her life to the study of sexual determination processes that were believed to be influenced by the mother or the environment. This work focused on the chromosomes of several insects and she was the first to observe that chromosomal differences were linked to sex determination. Indeed, she discovered that the presence of the small Y chromosome in mealworms caused a male sex while its absence was linked to a female sex.

The publication that followed this discovery in 1905 was a revolution in the theory of sexual determinism. Although several other scientists had made the same observation at more or less the same time, it provided solid evidence and theories that are still considered valid today. However, many scientists did not believe in Stevens’ theory and it took some time before her work was fully recognized.

Stevens died prematurely at the age of 50 from breast cancer. Her short scientific career did not change her passion and love for science and biology. She made major advances in the understanding of sexual determinism, even though her career was much shorter than most scientists. Today, the theory of sexual determinism is generally attributed to Thomas Hunt Morgan, an eminent geneticist at the time who made observations similar to those of Stevens. Once again, despite their numerous scientific works, the contribution of women is often ignored and overlooked.

Sources used : [13] [14]

More equality

Even today, despite the progress we’ve made in terms of parity, women are still too often forgotten. This effect is known as, the “Matilda Effect” [15], and many studies testify to its existence, whether in the choice for a job [16], for a media interview [17] or for receiving scientific awards and prizes [18]. Women are still too often in the shadow of men who receive all the laurels. It is important today to eliminate these prejudices against women by giving them equal access to all jobs, improving their working conditions and raising awareness of the problems faced by women.