Sheila Scott: Record-Setting Pilot

Sheila Scott (27 April 1922 – 20 October 1988) was an amazing pilot who broke over 100 aviation records during her career, and was the first person to fly over the North Pole in a small aircraft as part of her "world and a half" flight in 1971 where she flew 34,000-miles (55,000 kms). A harrowing flight that was completed despite mechanical failures that would have made other pilots turn back.But her adventurous life began even before she climbed...

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Adele Goldstine - pioneering programmer

I've been doing some reading lately about the women who programmed the ENIAC computer, and was thrilled to learn that these six amazing women were trained by another amazing woman: Adele Goldstine! Adele Goldstine (December 21, 1920 – November, 1964) earned her masters in mathematics from the University of Michigan, and then went to teach at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, at the University of Pennsylvania. That's important, because...

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Marian Wright Edelman and trying your best

I've been thinking about what inspires social justice activists to continue fighting when it feels like there's always more work to do. One of the women whose work continues to inspire me is Marian Wright Edelman. "You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day." Marian Wright Edelman The more I learn about her life and her work, the most I admire her. This quote is one I refer to often when I'm...

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Katharine Burr Blodgett

Katharine Burr Blodgett (January 10, 1898 – October 12, 1979) was the first woman to to earn a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge, in 1926. She spent her career working for General Electric, where she invented low-reflectance "invisible" glass. What I'm struck most by when reading about her life and work is that she just did her thing and didn't let anything get in her way. I'm sure it wasn't entirely that simple, of...

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Edith Quimby - pioneering medical physicist

In the early decades of the 20th century scientists around the world were busy looking for ways to use radioactive materials. Following its groundbreaking discovery by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, and then the isolation of radium as a pure metal by Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne in 1910, radium seemed to hold the most promise. The two most common applications were in luminescent paint applied to clock hands so they glowed in the dark,...

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Science Fair Rock Stars: Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner, and Bria Snell

High school juniors Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner, and Bria Snell have been in the news quite a bit in the last week, but the articles have only barely touched on what I consider to be the really exciting part of their story: these smart girls came up with an inexpensive and easy way to filter lead out of drinking water! And not only lead, but other impurities and bacteria like e. coli. Their creative system builds on NASA Spinoff technology...

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Eugenie Clark and the power of passion

I wonder how many scientific discoveries have been made by people who were just curious about a subject and wanted to know more about it? How does it work? Why is it like that? What else is there like this? Honestly, I have a special place in my heart for stories about people who first realized their passion as a child and spent their life pursuing it. And especially for those who had to overcome some kind of naysayers, ignoring anyone who...

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Aggretsuko - adorable badass

Yesterday I was logging into Netflix to watch my current obsession (Offspring, a charming comedy-drama from Australia), and saw an interesting looking teaser for something called Aggretsuko, based on a character from the Sanrio franchise. I thought it looked cute but maybe annoyingly so, and I didn't have high hopes for the story, but I figured I should probably check this out anyway, just to have an informed opinion. A couple of hours...

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