This Is What A Scientist Looks Like

Raising awareness, recommending media, and sharing resources for women in STEM. Fia - she/her, @spacesunflcwer Yan - she/her, @not-an-atla-blog

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Spies in Disguise: A Feminist Perspective

Fia – 15/07/2020

Last week, I watched Spies in Disguise, an action comedy animated film that came out in December 2019, with characters voiced by Will Smith and Tom Holland. Before I begin criticising it, I should say that I absolutely loved it. The characters were interesting and well developed, the story was easy to follow and fun to watch, and most of the jokes made me laugh out loud.

As an aspiring scientist myself, I was especially pleased to see the way science was brought into the spotlight (something which unfortunately doesn’t happen often in entertainment media) by Tom Holland’s character, Walter. I loved Walter. He was probably my favourite character of the film. Not only is he always passionate about science (which probably made me very biased in his favour), he is also wildly different from your typical action film male character. Walter is not physically strong and relies entirely on his brain to get him out of dangerous situations. He is also very close to his pet pigeon Lovey, adores pigeons in general, and enjoys Korean romance dramas. And most importantly, he repeatedly refuses to fight fire with fire and always seeks the solution that involves the least violence. Basically, nowhere near the traditional masculinity often depicted in this genre. He sets a precedent. I feel a tremendous joy for all the little boys and all the men who watched this film and came out of it having found a role model in Walter, knowing that they did not have to aspire to yet another representation of toxic masculinity, and instead could find joy in being kind, in being weird, in being themselves.

But I can’t help but wonder – what if Walter had been a woman instead of a man?

This is not to say that there are no inspiring women in important roles in this film. The spy agency itself is led by a woman, Joy (Reba McEntire), who keeps her cool in the tensest of situations and who recognises her mistakes. There is also Marcy (Rashida Jones), a BIPOC woman and funny, cat-loving badass who strives to fight for what’s right and refuses to allow corruption in the agency – although she does spend a large part of the film wrongly accusing the main character of being a villain and thus accidentally becoming somewhat of a villain herself.

Furthermore, Walter’s “tragic backstory” is centred around him being bullied and belittled by his peers for being a “weirdo” due to his passion for science and his creative, out-of-the-box approach to design weapons made to destabilise the enemy rather than harm them; he finds himself marginalised due to his open-minded pacifist views that the spies do not share. But now imagine how much stronger a female Walter’s backstory would have been. For every scene in which Lance (Will Smith) tells Walter that he has no place in the fight, we could have had Lance tell her to be a good girl and go back home – and of course her calling him out on his sexism and refusing to be treated like that. Because she would be a girl who grew up hearing and experiencing the stigma and stereotypes about women not being smart enough to go into STEM fields. A girl who has been through years of not being taken seriously, whether this be as a woman in science or as a passionate pacifist. A girl who has had enough of all of this and is determined to prove her ideas are worth listening to.

Another one of Walter’s character defining aspect is his close relationship to his mother, Wendy, who supports his ambitions for a less violent world – it would have been very interesting to see Wendy supporting her daughter’s aspirations knowing what it will be like for her as a woman in a largely male dominated field. Similarly, at one point of film Marcy has a conversation with Walter in which she tells him she knows how much it’s hurt him to be viewed as a “weirdo”, and she promises to help and support his work at the agency. This is another plot point that could have been made more interesting had Walter been a woman – Marcy could have directly empathised with her, woman to woman, which in my opinion would have given a lot more depth to both characters and to their relationship (we love to see women supporting women!)

And of course, as a role model, female Walter would have inspired so many. Seeing a woman in science would have been crucial not only for all the little girls watching, but also for all the boys to understand that science is not just for them, as is unfortunately illustrated by the astonishingly disproportionate ratio of male to female scientists that children are exposed to in their education (of course, there are and always have been women in STEM fields, but it is not enough for them to only exist if they are never actively talked about and presented as role models). It would also have been amazing if the film addressed the discrimination that women face in science – not to mention, action films in general are an extremely male dominated genre, so to have a woman in a main role would also have been very important and empowering from that perspective.

However, although it features a very diverse cast of characters, Spies in Disguise never once actually addresses sexism or racism – perhaps the film exists in an alternate universe where these have been eradicated, or never existed in the first place (this universe already gives humans the possibility to shape-shift into pigeons and back, so who knows)? But regardless of whether or not it is an alternate universe, the film was made to be viewed by an audience that lives on this version of Planet Earth, where these problems are unfortunately very much real and present in every aspect of our lives – so really they should have been discussed, even without a female Walter.

And even though I do love Walter as he is and think he already makes a huge difference, even though the film did not address the systemic social prejudice that most of the characters would have encountered in our universe, I still believe that seeing a woman as a confident, passionate, and dedicated scientist would have sent a very necessary message to all members of the audience and would have no doubt inspired many.

But in the end, Spies in Disguise remains a wonderful film as it is – and hopefully in the future we will have greater and better representation of science in pop culture, and especially of women in science.

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Scilence: a podcast for women in STEM, by women in STEM

Fia – 13/05/2020

Here’s a great podcast for anyone bored on lockdown in need of some good recommendations!

I discovered this podcast about a month ago, and I found it too good not to share. Hosted by Dr Shini Somara, a mechanical engineer who also hosts educational physics and engineering videos on YouTube (her channel is linked at the bottom), the podcast welcomes an anonymous woman every week to discuss her experience as a woman in the STEM fields. Together, they talk about the discrimination women face, but they also tackle issues which can apply to everyone, such as the fear of failure, learning from your mistakes, building their confidence, and of course their passion for STEM subjects. I have found it incredibly eye-opening and extremely interesting to learn about all these women’s different experiences and the various ways in which they tackle the issues they face as women in STEM, as well as the varying degrees at which they are affected by these issues. (Not to mention, the name of the podcast is genius)

It’s definitely worth a listen for anyone pursuing STEM subjects, and for anyone else who is interested. I have learned so much from every single episode I’ve listened to!

Links:

Dr Shini Somara’s YouTube channel

Scilence on Spotify

Scilence on YouTube

[thisiswhatascientistlookslike]

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

Yan — 02/05/2020

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, more commonly known as Ada Lovelace, was a British mathematician and computer scientist, was widely referred to as the “world’s first programmer”. Though this wasn’t entirely true, the significance of her role as a visionary in recognising the birth of a more advanced technological age was still indisputable, and she remains to this age one of the most influential pioneers of the computer age.

Born the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, her parents separated when she was only a few months old. To prevent her from developing the “potential insanity” of her father, her mother insisted on her receiving a mathematical education to guide her towards logical and analytical thinking since a very young age. Being a child of ill health but brilliant mind, Lovelace often carried out imaginative projects meticulously and thoughtfully, such as her invention of the study of “Flyology” when she was twelve, through analysing the anatomy of birds to consider materials and sizes of the wings she designed.

Later, Lovelace would go on to coin this combination of creativity and logicality “poetical science”, a practice she used in her academic endeavours. This meant she viewed mathematics as “curious transformations” which “many formulae can undergo”, and that it reminded her of “certain sprites and fairies one reads of.” It’s this kind of unique perspective which granted Lovelace the insight into what many other people overlook, and proves the importance of an open and flexible mind in even the most rigorous of disciplines.

When she was seventeen, her tutor and close friend Mary Somerville introduced her to Charles Babbage, fellow British mathematician, the inventor of the difference engine in 1822, and the proposer of the analytical engine in 1837. The two began working together as Lovelace became fascinated with the machines, being the first to see its true potential as something which “might act upon other things besides number.” In 1843, she published a translation of Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea’s article explaining the analytical engine’s function, adding a set of her own notes. Most notably, in her final note G, Lovelace described an algorithm which can be applied to the engine to compute the Bernoulli numbers, which is widely regarded as the first algorithm specifically designed for a computer.

There has been a lot of controversy throughout history about the extent of her independence in her work, with many of her programs being found in Babbage’s notes years prior to its publication. However, in his book Idea Makers, Stephen Wolfram defended Lovelace by stating that it was Lovelace who distilled the programs from descriptions and “exposition of the abstract operation of the machine”, which Babbage never did himself.

As well as this, and perhaps more notably, the vision and insight into the potential of the age of computers was undeniably hers alone, and significant for a woman of her era. So much so, it took a century after her death for technology to catch up to achieving the predictions she has made about the capabilities of the computer, which was why she was widely and indisputably known as a prophet of the age of computers.

Lovelace died of uterine cancer in 1852, at the age of 36. She had three children with husband William King-Noel, Earl of Lovelace - Byron, Annabella, and Ralph-Gordon. Both her sons were named after her father, George Gordon Byron. She asked to be buried next to the father she never knew in death.

[Image description: photo of plaque identifying the tomb of Lovelace, which reads “In the Byron vault below lie the remains of Augusta, Ada. Only daughter of George Gordon Noel, 6th Lord Byron, and wife of William, Earl of Lovelace. Born 10th Dec 1815. Died 27th Nov 1852. R.I.P.”]

Sources:

Ada Lovelace: Victorian Computing visionary, biography written by Suw Charman-Anderson, founder of Finding Ada, the feminist STEM movement and Ada Lovelace day on the second Tuesday in October each year

Ada Lovelace: Original and Visionary, but No Programmer, article by Javier Yanes summarising the debate over Lovelace’s contributions towards the analytical engine and field of Computer Science.

Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles Babbage, the complete original translation from Luigi Menabrea’s article, by Ada Lovelace, with all added notes.

What Did Ada Lovelace’s Program Actually Do? Paper published on TwoBitHistory with further explanations and graphics explaining and analysing the contributed notes and programs by Lovelace in her publications.

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Image of letter transcript

Fia - 17/04/2020

As you may have noticed, we’re trying to make our blog more accessible by adding image description and transcripts to help out the visually impaired, to keep the formatting of the last post and prevent it from getting too long, I'm posting the transcript of Fia’s letter in a separate post here. I really hope some of you could take the time to read/listen to it - it’s wonderfully written and powerfully presented, and definitely worth your time.

Dear Mr Breithaupt,

I am sure you are aware that historically, women have been excluded time and time again from the field of science, and especially physics. But even though they were often unwelcome in this area, the ones who were passionate enough always found a way to learn about physics and make their own significant discoveries, whether this be by working unpaid in basements at the time when women weren’t allowed in laboratories, or by moving across continents and away from their families in order to pursue an education that they would not otherwise have been permitted to have. One such example of this is the great physicist Lise Meitner. Having been taught by Ludwig Boltzmann and Max Planck, Meitner worked in Berlin alongside German chemist Otto Hahn in the team that accidentally discovered nuclear fission in the quest for transuranium elements, by bombarding samples of uranium-235 with neutrons – which led to the then baffling formation of lighter elements. Unfortunately due to her Jewish origins, she had to flee Nazi Germany in 1938, but this did not stop her from keeping in touch with her team about the research. And what few people are aware of is that she was the one who realised that fission of the nucleus had occurred, and she was the one who explained it as such, and who linked it to the concept of binding energy, and who therefore understood how and why an enormous amount of energy was released in the process. However, she was not recognised for her achievement, as Otto Hahn, who eventually won the 1945 Nobel prize for it, did not include her as a co-author when he published their research – which can be understood given her origins and the political state of Germany at the time. But this has led to Meitner often being left out of a narrative that she significantly helped to build, and having her achievements downplayed or uncredited. Let us not forget that throughout her entire career, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize a total of 48 times. Lise Meitner was undoubtedly an exceptional scientist with a brilliant mind, who dedicated her life to physics, and reading about her I found her incredibly inspiring.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I opened your textbook to the section about nuclear fission only to find that there was not one mention of her contribution. And maybe this would have been fine if none of the scientists involved had been mentioned (something I have seen textbooks do before). But that is not the case, because Otto Hahn and his fellow chemist Fritz Strassman were. So my question is, why isn’t Lise Meitner? Her contribution to this discovery is certainly considerable and I find it unacceptable that she is completely left out of a textbook published in our day and age when the important part she played should be well known (and yet it isn’t by most). Because maybe this seemingly small detail doesn’t make such a difference to the majority of physics students, but when we look at the numbers, the proportion of girls my age and lower going into physics is strikingly low. A study by New Scientist indicated that in 2018, the ratio of girls to boys taking A-Level Physics was 1:3. And one of the key reasons why girls are discouraged to pursue this subject is the lack of representation. Counting through the index of your textbook, I have found that only one female scientist (Marie Curie, who is basically presented as the only role model for women in science) is mentioned as opposed to 28 male scientists – but that ratio may be even lower considering that Hahn and Strassman are not actually to be found in the index. Of course, this textbook is written to fit a specification which aims to cover the discoveries that are most relevant to the course, which as it happens were mostly made by men – since as I mentioned earlier, men were from the beginning at the centre of scientific progress and discovery. And I want to make it clear that I do not ask that all textbooks be rewritten to include more of women’s discoveries in the field, since that would defeat the ultimate goal of a textbook which is to provide an appropriate educational foundation in the science. But what I do ask is that we do not leave out the women who were there, who contributed to those key discoveries that pupils like me learn about. Because too many studies have shown that girls and women do not receive enough support in the STEM fields, and if we could make at least this small change in how we teach science, I believe it would make a significant difference – and even if only one girl makes up her mind to go into physics as a result of this, it will have been worth the effort. And in a best case scenario, maybe this could be the start of something bigger leading to the inclusion of more girls and women in STEM.

Going back to the original issue, I believe Lise Meitner is one of those scientists that deserve a mention in this textbook. As should the accomplished French mathematician and physicist Émilie du Châtelet, who showed that kinetic energy is directly proportional to the square of the velocity, proving even the great Isaac Newton wrong who thought that kinetic energy and momentum (mv) were one and the same. And in the Astrophysics optional section, so should the astronomers Annie Jump Cannon, who developed the system of classification of stars by spectral class (O, B, A, F, G, K, M), and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin who determined the composition of stars in what was described as “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy”. These are only a few examples, and I am sure there are more that deserve to be included just as much as those 28 (and more) male scientists do.

Although I won’t pursue physics at university, I can safely say that I have truly enjoyed the A-Level physics course. But I didn’t always, and I have my amazing teacher to thank for constantly encouraging me and challenging me to improve and refine my skills, and most importantly inspiring me with her love and passion for her subject. She is proof that role models matter, in the same way that I look up to the many female scientists that I have had to research and read about in my own time since they were not rightfully included in my education. We cannot go back to change the centuries worth of discrimination that women have faced in science and in society in general, but there are generations of girls and women to come for whom we can and must make a difference. They deserve to learn about the women who played significant roles in shaping our world as it is today – and so do the boys and men, because if we want to make a change in how women are treated in our world we will need their help, too. And after all, science is for everyone, so everyone who wishes to go into science deserves a fair chance; and that includes appropriate representation, which means we need to hear the stories of more female scientists, not just Marie Curie’s.

Of course in practice I can see how the current A-Level textbook might not be rewritten any time soon since it already provides a very good basis for the physics course. But I urge you to please consider this for the next time you have to write such a textbook (and in general), because it is an important cause – for me, and for all the girls and women who like me have the potential to become incredible scientists, if only given the same level of inspiration and encouragement that boys and men have been receiving from the beginning.

Sincerely,

(Fia)

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Taking matters into our own hands

Yan (and Fia) - 17/04/2020

Hi all, Yan here. Today I’m going to talk about one of my favourite feminist icons of all time. She may not be well-known (yet!), but I have admired her for her intelligence, brilliance, and sheer-hecking-passion about activism and educating herself and others on topics which matters most for a long time. She was the one who got me to start thinking about the world and the field of STEM through a more feminist and egalitarian lens, and she continues to inspire me with everything she does. 

That’s right, I’m talking about our very own Fia.

Too often it can feel like the world is too big and we are too small to have a voice which matters and can be heard within it. It’s one thing to look up to accomplished female scientists or read about protests and movements happening today, but for a lot of us it can seem very far away, or at least somewhat impersonal, like others have done all or most of the work for us, but what Fia has shown me, and hopefully all of us here, is that it is possible for one person to be the change they want to see, and make contributions for a movement they believe in. Contributions such as starting a blog, or composing a strongly worded letter to the author of their high school Physics textbook lecturing him about the importance of the inclusion of women scientist in the education of STEM:

I have to admit, having done the same course for two years, I’ve never seen things the way Fia did (maybe because I barely touched my textbook once the whole way through but still), but after being sent this to read, the points are so clearly presented I can’t help but agree this is a real issue that has to be addressed. It takes a lot of awareness to not only identify this kind of trend that still runs through our education today, but also present it so eloquently and to take the initiative to get it out to the people responsible. This is the kind of individual activism that awes me so much about her, and makes me proud to have studied and worked alongside her. 

The letter has gone out to the publisher of the textbook and we hope it will make its way to the author, we will keep you updated should it get any response. In the meantime, I really hope this will inspire some of you to start considering what you can do for a movement relevant to yourself and so many others, or at least believe that you do have the power and means to make a positive personal impact on the world.

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Ida Freund (1863–1914)

Fia — 15/04/2020

Ida Freund was an Austrian chemist born on this day 157 years ago (which also happens to be my birthday!). After her parents’ death, she was raised by her grandmother and her uncle, who encouraged her to enrol to the University of Cambridge to study Natural Sciences. She successfully graduated with first class honours, despite English being her second language.

Freund then went on to work as a demonstrator at Newnham College (the second women’s college in Cambridge), and eventually became the first female chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom in 1890. At the time, women were not allowed in the university’s chemistry laboratory unless they had passed the first part of the undergraduate exams, so Freund, who was passionate about women’s education and inclusion in science, took it upon herself to teach chemistry to the female students. With her strong Austrian accent and odd style of dress, she was known as an intimidating teacher who did not tolerate her students’ thoughtless mistakes, but who encouraged her shyer students to unlock their full potential, and whom one eventually grew to love. According to her students, she “reigned supreme” in the chemistry laboratory.

Ida Freund was also an active supporter of women’s rights and women’s suffrage. In 1904, she was one of nineteen female chemists to sign a petition in favour of admitting women as Fellows of the British Chemical Society (now the Royal Society of Chemistry). The petition argued that since about 150 women were quoted as authors of roughly 300 scientific papers that the society had published in the previous 30 years, they should rightfully be allowed to participate in the society’s meetings and given full access to all published chemical literature. Several male chemists including William Ramsay, discoverer of the noble gases, supported the effort – however women were only admitted to the society in 1920, six years after Freund’s death.

Over the course of her lifetime, Ida Freund focused mostly on teaching and less on her own academic research, only publishing one paper on the theory of solutions. She also wrote two chemistry books, the second of which she hadn’t finished by the time of her death and which was published posthumously, now recognised as key texts in chemistry. Freund is also credited with inventing periodic table cupcakes, which she apparently used as teaching aids, and despite losing one of her legs in a cycling accident as a child, she enjoyed travelling across Europe, mostly in a wheelchair. After her death in 1914, the Ida Freund Memorial Fund was set up in Cambridge by her former students, “to raise the standards of women teachers of the physical sciences by giving them opportunities for further study”.

Sources:

Ida Freund by Holly Salisbury for the Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013

Ida Freund’s biography by Alan Dronsfield for the Newnham College website, 2011

Women in chemistry: their changing roles from alchemical times to the mid-twentieth century, by Geoffrey Rayner-Canham and Marelene Rayner-Canham, published in 2001

1904 petition to the Chemical Society on Wikipedia

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Lise Meitner (1878–1968)

Fia — 10/04/2020

Born in Vienna to a family of Jewish origin, Lise Meitner showed interest for the maths and sciences from a young age. Her parents were always supportive of her ambitions and paid for her to receive a private higher education – which women weren’t allowed to have in Vienna at the time. After obtaining her doctoral degree in physics from the University of Vienna (only the second woman to do so) Meitner went on to live and study in Berlin, where she was exceptionally (for a woman) allowed to attend Max Planck’s lectures. In 1907 she began working alongside Otto Hahn, a German chemist, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute – where she eventually became head of physics. However, until 1913 Meitner worked unpaid as a “guest” and was not allowed to use the laboratories or the toilets, despite being considered equal to Hahn in their research work. The pair worked together on radioactivity research and were the first to discover a stable isotope of protactinium, in 1917. On her own, Meitner published several papers on beta radiation and discovered the Auger effect (a physical phenomenon in which an electron is emitted from the surface of an atom), which was named after the French scientist Pierre Auger, who discovered the effect independently a year after Meitner.

But Lise Meitner’s most significant contribution to science is probably the part she played in the discovery of nuclear fission. In 1934 a team of scientists based in Berlin which included her, Otto Hahn, and her nephew Otto Frisch, joined the international race to discover elements heavier than uranium. They decided to go about it by bombarding samples of uranium with neutrons. However what they found was that rather than creating heavier elements, they had made lighter ones such as barium and krypton. This unexpected result baffled them as they did not understand how this could have happened – until Meitner realised the nucleus had split in two. Unfortunately, it was around that time that she was forced to escape Nazi Germany at the last minute due to her Jewish descent. She safely made it to Sweden with the help of Niels Bohr, and managed to keep in touch with her team about the research. She was the first to explain the phenomenon in terms of fission of the nucleus and linked the result to the concept of binding energy, and thus realising that a huge amount of energy was released during the process. This groundbreaking discovery later led to the making of nuclear weapons during the war – which horrified Meitner, who did not want to be associated with it and was not involved in the research.

But when it came to publishing the nuclear fission research, Otto Hahn did not include Meitner as one of the co-authors, which is somewhat understandable given the political state of Germany at the time and Meitner’s origins. However this meant that Meitner was unrecognised further when Hahn alone controversially went on to win the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of nuclear fission. This has led to Meitner often being left out of a narrative that she significantly helped to build, and having her achievements downplayed or uncredited. Let us not forget that throughout her entire career, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics 29 times, and 19 times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Lise Meitner was an exceptional scientist with a brilliant mind who dedicated her life to physics. And while many may not have heard of her, she is remembered on the periodic table as element 109 was named meitnerium in her honour.

After World War II, Meitner decided to stay in Sweden rather than return to Germany. She expressed her regret at not leaving Nazi Germany sooner, and criticised several of her fellow German scientists for not protesting against the country’s regime. She spent her later years in a Cambridge nursing home and died in her sleep in 1968, aged 89. The inscription on her headstone, composed by her nephew Otto Frisch, reads: “Lise Meitner: a physicist who never lost her humanity”.

Sources:

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, by Rachel Ignotofsky, published in 2016

Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics, by Ruth Lewin Sime, published in 1997

Lise Meitner, article written by Patricia Rife for the Jewish Women’s Archive

Lise Meitner: The Nucleus of Fission, article written in 2008 by Nicola Davies for Bluestocking Oxford

Lise Meitner – the forgotten woman of nuclear physics who deserved a Nobel Prize, article written in 2019 by Timothy J. Jorgensen for The Conversation

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Happy belated World Poetry Day!

Yan — 22/03/2020

This is a day late, but I yesterday was spring cleaning day as well. In honour of the 21st of March AKA World Poetry Day, I bring you an original piece dedicated to the daughter of a great poet, a great scientific mind in her own right, and an accomplished woman widely accepted as the world’s first computer programmer and the prophet of the technological age. Here’s to Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, a brilliant computer scientist.

I will update a more complete biography of her life and accomplishments in the format of our previous post, stay tuned for our updates!

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Alice Ball (1892–1916)

Fia — 14/03/2020

Alice Ball, a chemist best known for developing one of the first and most effective cures for leprosy, was born in Seattle to a family of photographers. This is thought to be the reason she took up chemistry, as she grew up learning about the various chemicals used to develop film.

After earning two bachelor's degrees from the University of Washington (one in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1912 and the other in pharmacy in 1914), Alice went on to receive a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of Hawaii in 1915, the first woman and first African-American to do so. She then also became the first woman and first African-American to be hired as a chemistry teacher by the university. It was during this time that she began her research into a cure for leprosy.

Leprosy, a disease which causes skin lesions and nerve damage, was quite common at the time and yet had no known cure; the best solution was to exile all infected people with no hope for them to return. The only known treatment was chaulmoogra oil, extracted from the seeds of the Hydnocarpus wightianus tree. However this oil was very viscous and not soluble in water, so it could not be injected in the body; it could not be ingested either as it caused nausea.

Teaching during the day and working on her research at night, Alice, aged 23 at the time, figured out a way to isolate the fatty acids contained in chaulmoogra oil, and hydrolyse them into their respective ethyl esters which maintained the plant’s therapeutic properties and could then be made into a water-soluble and injectable oil to use to treat leprosy. Her method, known as the Ball method, was used as the main cure for the disease until the development of antibiotics in the 1940s.

Unfortunately, Alice died aged 24, most likely from chlorine poisoning after inhaling chlorine gas in the lab, before she could publish her results. They were published shortly after by a fellow chemist at the university, Dr Arthur Dean – who did not credit her for her findings and instead named her method the Dean method, after himself. Her accomplishments were not recognised until several years after her death.

In 2008 a plaque in her honour was unveiled at the University of Hawaii on a chaulmoogra tree. She is also celebrated every four years on the 29th of February.

[Image description: photo of the plaque which reads “Chaulmoogra (Hydnocarpus) Tree. Oil from the seed was used to relieve symptoms of leprosy. Alice A. Ball — African American, College of Hawaii instructor, research chemist, and the first woman to receive a master’s degree from the College of Hawaii (class of 1915) — extracted the oil’s active ingredient in the 1910’s. Based on Ball’s research, University of Hawaii President Arthur L. Dean and others later refined the chaulmoogra extract into a partially effective treatment for leprosy. In the 1940’s the sulfones were discovered as a more effective remedy.”]

Sources:

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, by Rachel Ignotofsky, published in 2016

African American Women Chemists, by Jeannette Brown, published in 2011

Alice Ball and the Fight against Leprosy, article written in 2016 by Ellen Pasternack for Bluestocking Oxford

Alice August Ball, article written in 2007 by Miles Jackson for BlackPast

Alice Augusta Ball: Chemical Drug Pioneer, article written in 2016 by Sibrina Nichelle Collins for Undark

Photo of the plaque

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Hi all!

I’m Yan, and I will be contributing to this blog along with Fia. I will be going to uni next year to read Physics and Philosophy, so I will likely be your resident physicist and mathematician, while occasionally dabbling into Engineering. Since I haven’t touched Chemistry for three years now I'm going to be leaving the brunt of that to Fia, and we’ll both try our best at Biology :)

As you can probably see from my chosen degree, I have a passion for both the sciences and humanities. I love maths and problem solving, but also expressing myself in both art and literature. I am a strong believer that my femininity should be an important strength to help me combine the two fields, and not a disadvantage to bar me from opportunities in either or both. I’m very excited to explore how I could combine the two to help raise awareness and be a voice to budding girls in STEM on this blog and help demonstrate how you shouldn’t and don’t have to sacrifice any part of who you are for success.

I also come bearing gifts, here is an International Women’s Day tribute to all you lovely ladies interested in pursuing STEM, hope you guys like it as much as I had a blast drawing it.

[Image description: an illustration of the symbol for the planet Venus, which is commonly used to represent the female gender, composed of various pink pictographs representing areas of STEM (such as a microscope, the DNA, mathematical symbols etc) surrounded by blue floral patterns. On the inside of the ring is inscribed the quote by Émilie de Châtelet, 18th century mathematician and physicist: “Let us choose for ourselves our path in life, and let us try to strew that path with flowers.”]

As a closing note I would like to add that I also dislike any form of belittling women’s achievements and people who chew with their mouth open, but I do quite enjoy peppers.

[thisiswhatascientistlookslike]

Hello!

In honour of International Women's Day, my friend (who will introduce herself in a separate post) and I decided to create a blog to celebrate women's achievements in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and to raise awareness on the discrimination that women face in these fields.

I'm Fia, currently in my last year of school, and planning to study chemistry next year at university. I like cats, baking cookies, and the colour yellow. I (strongly) dislike peppers, any form of belittling women's achievements, and people who chew with their mouth open.

I'm very passionate about science and about feminism, so I felt it was only right to bring the two together on this blog. I hope it becomes a nice source of information and inspiration for others who are as passionate and/or interested in learning about women who helped change the world through their work :)