Just a place to collect some badass scientists I come across.
Killick began investigating respiratory physiology and carbon monoxide poisoning in her first role at Leeds, and this was her primary research interest throughout the rest of her career. In Birmingham, she conducted a series of experiments in which she “gassed herself for science”[1] (as reported by the Birmingham Gazette in 1941) by exposing herself to carbon monoxide in a sealed box at weekly intervals, causing herself to become hypoxic and sometimes lose consciousness.
Killick made pioneering discoveries pertaining to physiological roles upon recognizing a vasodilatory effect of carbon monoxide on a feline pulmonary arterial vessel in 1951.[4]
It’s wound down, but the podcast Stem Fatale
we know that she was hired as a research physicist. And her listings in the tabulations indicate she was a “scientist” and not considered a “technician” or “laborer.”
Carolyn Parker became sick with leukemia, very likely due to her polonium exposure. According to Carolyn’s family, she was nearing completion of the coursework for her Ph.D. in physics at MIT, but financial setbacks and the onset of leukemia prevented her from defending her dissertation. She died in her hometown of Gainesville on March 17th, 1966.
We need to keep one thing in mind: nothing started until ’43, relatively early in ’43. The bomb went off in ’45. I mean, that’s a miracle, for that kind of result when nothing was known of how to make a bomb work.
http://harveycohen.net/essex/2017-08-05-GraftonExaminer-p12.pdf
http://harveycohen.net/essex/
Apart from her
remarkable mind, Dr Essex-Cohen broke through social
barriers, quietly but confidently navigating the entrenched sexism that was
rampant in many male dominated fields in Australia as she set about carving out a career in science.
“Maternity leave didn’t exist in that era. Elizabeth continued working while having and raising the kids.
There was child minding on campus and she would go and feed them and go back to lecture.
“I have to concede she was a superwoman.”
Sister Kenneth became an evangelist for computer science, determined that the women graduating from Clarke would be ready for the computer age. Until 1968, she was “a one-woman computer sciences department” [[9]](javascript:scrollToReference(‘ref9’);). Immediately upon taking her position at Clarke in Fall 1965, Sister Kenneth initiated a 3-credit-hour introductory course and established a minor concentration in computer science, a first for private colleges in Iowa. She initially did not want a computer science major, believing that the liberal arts should be encouraged.[5](javascript:scrollToReference(‘fn5’);)
“Sister Computer” noted in 1965 that a broad mathematical background was not necessary to study computing; essential qualities were confidence, humility, and patience. “The computer does not make mistakes, and it is hard on one’s ego to have to assume all the blame every time something goes wrong. That is where humility comes in and then you get to practice patience by correcting your mistakes” [[29]](javascript:scrollToReference(‘ref29’);).
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/2023/01/10076929/1LFQ2k1iy40
Every citizen has a right and a duty to have a knowledge, commensurate with his capacity, of the important forces and instruments which shape his civilization.
goddamn ten-dollar quote.
has a right - open access
Trigger warning for suicide.
a hard read.
Joan Feynman