FAMOUS WOMEN IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE

EARLY CIVILIZATION

1. Merit Ptah - was an early physician in ancient Egypt. She is most notable for being the first woman known by name in the history of the field of medicine, and possibly the first named woman in all of science as well. Her picture can be seen on a tomb in the necropolis near the step pyramid of Saqqara. Her son, who was a High Priest, described her as "the Chief Physician."
2. Aglaonike - also known as Aganice of Thessaly is cited as the first female astronomer in ancient Greece. She is mentioned in the writings of Plutarch and Apollonuis of Rhodes as the daughter of Hegetor of Thesally. She was regarded as a sorceress for her ability to make the moon disappear from the sky, which has been taken to mean she could predict the time and general area where a lunar eclipse would occur.
3. Theano -was a Pythagorean philosopher. She was said by many to have been the wife of Pythagoras although others made her the wife of Brontinus. A few fragments and letters ascribed to her have survived which are of uncertain authorship. She is believed by some historians to have been a student of Pythagoras and later a teacher in the Pythagorean school, which had 28 female Pythagoreans participating in it
4. Maria the Jewess -or Maria Prophetissima, Maria Prophetissa, Mary Prophetissa, Miriam the Prophetess is estimated to have lived anywhere between the first and third centuries A.D. She is attributed with the invention of several chemical apparatus, is considered to be the first non fictitious alchemist in the Western world, an early pioneer in chemistry (or alchemy), and one of the most famed women in science ever.
5. Hypatia- born between AD 350 and 370; died March 415 was a Greek scholar from Alexandria, Egypt. Considered the first notable woman in mathematics who also taught philosophy and astronomy.

SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

1. Margaret Cavendish- Observations upon Experimental Philosophy and Grounds of Natural Philosophy.
2. Maria Winkelmann- A German astronomer, Maria was taught by her father and uncle, who believed that she deserved the equivalent education bestowed upon boys. Her interest in astronomy was nurtured and she studied with self-taught astronomer and farmer Christopher Arnold, for whom she eventually worked. Through Arnold, Maria developed a relationship with renowned astronomer and mathematician Gottfried Kirch. Despite being 30 years her senior, they married and raised four children who all grew up to study astronomy with their parents.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

1. Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet- (17 December 1706, Paris – 10 September 1749, Luneville) was a French mathematician, physician and author during the Age of Enlightenment. Her crowning achievement is considered to be her translation and commentary on Isaac Newton's work Principia Mathematica published in 1759, ten years after her death, hers is still the standard translation in French.
2. Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze- was a French chemist. She is most commonly known as the spouse of Antoine Lavoisier (Madame Lavoisier) but many do not know of her accomplishments in the field of chemistry: she acted as the laboratory assistant of her spouse and contributed to his work.
3. Caroline Lucretia Herschel - (16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a British astronomer the sister of astronomer Sir Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers. Her most significant contribution to astronomy was the discovery of several comets and in particular the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name. At the age of ten, Caroline was struck with Typhus, a bacterial disease spread by lice or fleas. This disease stunted Caroline’s growth and she never grew past four foot three. Due to this deformation, her family assumed that she would never marry and that it was best for her to remain a house servant, which her mother trained her to do until her father’s passing. Her father, Isaac believed that she was not pretty enough to ever marry and that was true, however she accomplished much more in life than marriage and bearing children.

19TH cANTURY

1. Mary Fairfax Somerville- (26 December 1780 – 28 November 1872) was a Scottish science writer and polymath, at a time when women's participation in science was discouraged. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and was the second woman scientist to receive recognition in the United Kingdom after Caroline Herschel.
2. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace- (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), bornAugusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; as such she is regarded as the world's first computer programmer.
3. Catherine Elizabeth Benson- was the first woman to earn a college bachelor's degree.
4. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin- (May 10, 1900 – December 7, 1979) was an English-American astronomer who in 1925 was first to show that the Sun is mainly composed of hydrogen contradicting accepted wisdom at the time. Payne then studied stars of high luminosity in order to understand the structure of the Milky way. Later, with her husband, she surveyed all the stars brighter than the tenth magnitude. She then studied variable stars, making over 1,250,000 observations with her assistants. This work later was extended to the Magellanic Clouds, adding a further 2,000,000 observations of variable stars. This data was used to determine the paths of stellar evolution.
   

GEOLOGY

• Geology (from the Greek γῆ, gê, "earth" and λόγος, logos, "study") is the study of the solid Earth and the processes by which it is shaped and changed. Geology provides primary evidence for plate tectonics, the history of life and evolution, and past climates. In modern times, geology is commercially important for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration, is publically important for predicting and understanding natural hazards, plays an essential role in geotechnical engineering, and is a major academic discipline.

ALFRED WEGENER

• The teory of continental drift.

ROBERT S. DIETZ

• Proposed the hypothesis of seafloor spreading.

SK RONCON

• Suggested the concept of paleomagnet is M from his finding that the continent had moved relative to the earth's magnetic poles.

GENE SHOEMAKER

• Took the study of the moon away from lunar astronomers and gave it to lunar geologist.
  

PROGRESS IN MEDICINE

Medicine-the science of diagnosing and treating or preventing disease and damage the body or mind.

Medical Advancement

• HPV Vaccine-The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may prevent infection with certain species of human papillomavirus associated with the development of cervical cancer, genital warts and some less common cancers.

• Robot doing surgeries-increased the ability of cancer surgeons to get clean margins and good magnification of the sutures.

• Face transplant surgeries-People with faces disfigured by trauma, burns, disease, or birth defects might benefit from the procedure.

• MRI & rTMS-

1. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), is primarily a noninvasive medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structure and limited function of the body. MRI provides much greater contrast between the different soft tissues of the body than computed tomography (CT) does, making it especially useful in neurological (brain), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and oncological (cancer) imaging.
2. repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), has been tested as a treatment tool for various neurological and psychiatric disorders including migraines,strokes, Parkinson's disease, dystonia, tinnitus, depression and auditory hallucinations.

• New drugs treating for cancer:

1. Herceptin
2. Gleevec

• Stem cell research -

1. Stem cells are cells found in all multi cellular organisms. They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiate into a diverse range of specialized cell types.
2. human embryonic stem cells

• IT among Dr's. and patients-made life safer for the patients and physicians have answers in a matter of seconds.

• Human genome discoveries - genes can now be use in screening diseases.

• Radioactive Isotopes- atoms in an unstable for:

1. Breast cancer - brachytheraphy
2. Liver cancer - microsphere brachytheraphy

• Alzheimer's disease by:

1. SPECT-Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera. However, it is able to provide true 3D information. This information is typically presented as cross-sectional slices through the patient, but can be freely reformatted or manipulated as required.
2. PET(Positron Emission Tomography)is a nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide(tracer), which is introduced into the body on a biologically active molecule. Images of tracer concentration in 3-dimensional or 4-dimensional space (the 4th dimension being time) within the body are then reconstructed by computer analysis. In modern scanners, this reconstruction is often accomplished with the aid of a CT X-ray scan performed on the patient during the same session, in the same machine.

• HIV-Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family) that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS),[1][2] a condition in humans in which theimmune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk. Within these bodily fluids, HIV is present as both free virus particles and virus within infected immune cells. The four major routes of transmission are unsafe sex, contaminated needles, breast milk, and transmission from an infected mother to her baby at birth (perinatal transmission). Screening of blood products for HIV has largely eliminated transmission through blood transfusions or infected blood products in the developed world.

PROGRESS IN BIOLOGY

1900-1910-power of experimentation was demonstrated
1928- antibacterial agent was discovered
Gregor Mendel- proposed the Law of heredity
X-ray crystallography- method of determining the arrangement of an atom within the crystal

DISCOVERIES:

Structure and Function of DNA

Structure and Function of Protein

example:

• insulin
• hemoglobin
• antibodies

>Discovery of the Essential Nutrients

1. carbohydrates
2. protein
3. fat (fat soluble vit. and water solube vit.)
4. vitamins
5. minerals
6. water

PROGRESS IN CHEMISTRY

Chemistry – is the science of the nature of the matter and its transformation. It is also the science of matter that deals with the composition structure and prosperities of substances and the transformations that they undergo.

Branches

• Organic chemistry – scientific study of the structures, properties, compositions, reactions and preparations of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons and their derivatives.

• Inorganic chemistry – concerned with the properties and behavior of inorganic compounds.

• Biochemistry – study of chemical processes in living organisms.

• Electrochemistry – study of chemical reactions which takes place in a conductor with involves electron transfer.

• Geochemistry – study of chemical changes on the Earth.

• Analytical chemistry – is the study of preparation, identification and quantification of the chemical components of natural and artificial materials.

Discoveries

• Fire – a mystical force that could transform one substance into another while producing heat and fire. A chemical reaction which is first use in chemical manner.

• Metallurgy – methods of purification of metals.

• Gold – known in early Egypt as early as 2600 B.C. it becomes a precious metal.

• Alloy – heralded the Bronze Age. Become a better armor and weapons.

• Alchemy - change base metals into gold, investigating the preparation of the "elixir of longevity", and achieving ultimate wisdom, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties.

• Atomism: Atom is the most indivisible part of matter.

• Periodic table - is a tabular display of the chemical elements. Its invention is generally credited to Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. The periodic table is now ubiquitous within the academic discipline of chemistry providing a useful framework to classify, systematize, and compare all of the many different forms of chemical behavior. The table has found many applications in chemistry,physics, biology and engineering, especially chemical engineering. The current standard table contains 118 elements to date. (elements 1 - 118)

• Scientific Method- refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

Contributors:

• Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr – atomic structure
• Marie and Pierre Curie – radioactivity
• James Watson and Francis Crick – DNA model
• Rosalind Franklin – x ray diffraction
• George de Hevesy – first to use radioactive atoms

Chemical Industry

• extracting metals from ores
• making pottery and glazes
• fermenting beer and wine
• making pigments for cosmetics and painting
• extracting chemicals from plants for medicine and perfume
• making cheese
• dying cloth
• tanning leather
• rendering fat into soap
• making glass