Women in Science

*I originallyy wrote this blog on April 12, 2019

Last Wednesday; Mankind achieved the unthinkable when astronomers captured the 1st ever image of a #blackhole thru the "#EventHorizonTelescope" or EHT for short. The EHT is a network of telescopes that are scattered throughout the earth, from the US to Spain to Chile to Antarctica, etc. All of these telescopes captured image data that were later assembled together like a giant jigsaw puzzle by a sophisticated computer algorithm.

This was such a milestone that the world of science is still buzzing with excitement and paying homage to human ingenuity and Einstein in particular, who rightfully predicted the existence of black holes many years back. But something was missing, initially, nobody was praising the person that made it all possible 3 years ago! Katie Bouman, then a grade student in computer science and artificial intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led the creation of a computer algorithm that went thru millions of gigabytes of data and pieced together image of the black hole that we see today.

Here is a clip of #KatieBouman, from 2017, explaining her work;

So how big is her achievement? Just look at her facial expressions...  

But this might as well be an expression of shock at the general lack of knowledge or appreciation for women pioneers in the field of #science.

Take for example the moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969: many of us know the famed line “one small step of man, one giant leap for mankind” by #NeilArmstrong, but how many of us know that Apollo 11 only made it to the moon because of one #MargaretHamilton? a talented female mathematician & a pioneer in computer science.

Hamilton and her team of engineers developed the software that was instrumental in the safe landing and flight of Apollo11, to the moon and back.

Furthermore, if we travel back to the year 1912; we will come across a talented astronomer, whose groundbreaking work made it possible for human beings to measure the distance b/w Earth and cepheid stars. Her name was #HenriettaSwanLeavitt.

After her death; her methods were used by the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble who later came up with “Hubble’s Law” which declared that our universe is constantly expanding. In modern times “Hubble’s law” serves as a very important piece of evidence for the “Big Bang” model.

Biology is another field where women have excelled brilliantly.

CRISPER-CAS (or CRISPR for short) is a recent major discovery in the field of Biology, which took the world by storm. CRISPR is a powerful gene-editing technology that can perform DNA modification with ease, it can delete, tweak or completely replace the genes of any organism.

This important milestone in human history is credited to two females scientists namely Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier and in 2020 they were awarded the Noble Prize in Chemistry for "discovering one of gene technology's sharpest tools: the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors."

Likewise in the field of Primatology; there is one name that commands respect; so much so that if you type "Primatologist" in google and hit enter, one of the very 1st photos that you will see on your screen will be of #JaneGoodall.

In 1960 A 26 years old Jane Goodall arrived in Tanzania to study the behavioral and social patterns of Chimpanzees. At the time she had no prior fieldwork or college degree on her credit but decades later Goodall is now the world's foremost authority on our closest cousins, the Chimps.

The same is the case in the field of Physics; where the name #MarieCurie is synonymous with the world of physics and chemistry. Her groundbreaking work won her 2 Noble prizes, in fact, she is the 1st person ever to win the #Noble prize twice.

Her studies into Radioactivity and the discovery of Radium were significant in the development of X-Ray and other medicinal disciplines. Unfortunately, Marie Curie lost her life due to high exposure to radiation.

These women dedicated their lives to the betterment of mankind yet unfortunately in countries like ours such names don't get the limelight that they deserve, even those who claim to promote or celebrate womanhood don't celebrate these innovators in public places. Women make almost 50% of our world but in the world of science this ratio is very unbalanced and in my opinion, by giving these trailblazers their due credit we can inspire a new generation of women pioneers in the field of science!