Behind some groundbreaking discoveries and innovations that have rewritten the history of science are the contributions of many remarkable women. In the past, their contributions were often overlooked due to societal circumstances, but today their significant achievements are gradually gaining recognition.
Research That Changed the World, Often Overlooked
1. Artemisinin – The Weapon Against Malaria
In many respects, Tu Youyou is an “extraordinary” scientist. Unlike many researchers, she did not earn an official PhD during her studies, nor did she study abroad, yet she has saved millions of lives with her research results.
She and her team drew inspiration from traditional Chinese medicine books, combining them with ancient Chinese herbal formulas, and then extracted the active ingredient in a colorless crystalline form known as artemisinin, derived from a common Chinese herb called Qinghao. This compound became an extremely potent treatment for malaria. Consequently, Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.
2. Mapping the Global Seafloor
Our modern understanding of Earth stems from the bold speculations of a group of geologists, such as Alfred Wegener, who proposed the theory of plate tectonics. However, the process of gaining widespread acceptance for this theory was not smooth, and a crucial step in this process came from our knowledge of the seafloor.
It wasn’t until the 1950s, with the aid of sonar technology, that Marie Tharp (1920-2006) began to draw and publish the first topographic maps of the ocean floor, allowing humanity to “see” the ocean floor for the first time. Notably, the cross-section map she created across the North Atlantic revealed a significant rift at the center of the ocean floor, and by comparing earthquake epicenters, she and her colleagues found that the epicenters were all located within these rifts, indicating that movement was indeed causing the continents to drift.
3. Photo 51
Although Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) never received a Nobel Prize, her name is forever linked to DNA and our current understanding of it. In 1952, Franklin and PhD student Raymond Gosling captured an X-ray diffraction image of DNA, which they named “Photo 51”. This image soon gained fame in the scientific community and became key to elucidating the double helix structure of DNA.
However, Franklin’s contributions to science extended far beyond this. She used X-ray crystallography to demonstrate the detailed structure of the tobacco mosaic virus, laying the groundwork for research on the poliovirus. Her life, though brief, left many treasures for future generations. As inscribed on her tombstone, “Her research and discoveries about viruses have brought lasting benefits to humanity.”
4. Breaking the Symmetry of Nature
Wu Jianxiong, also known as Chien-Shiung Wu (1912 – 1997), was hailed as the “First Lady of Physics.” After studying abroad and earning a PhD, she decided to stay in the US and became a prominent Chinese-American physicist.
In 1956, when Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang first proposed the “law of conservation of parity,” it shook a principle that had been regarded as immutable until then: the “law of parity conservation.”
The research of these two scientists on experimental results at the time convinced them that parity was conserved for electromagnetic interactions and strong interactions. For this reason, scientists expected the same to hold true for weak interactions, but it had not yet been tested, and the theoretical studies by Lee and Yang suggested that this might not be the case for weak interactions.
To prove the validity of their theory, Wu Jianxiong conducted numerous experiments, spending almost all her time in the laboratory; she would only sleep about four hours a day. Eventually, she achieved remarkable results: proving the Lee-Yang theorem was accurate, which sent shockwaves through the physics community worldwide. Some say Wu Jianxiong liberated atomic and nuclear physics from its first barrier.
Wu Jianxiong conducted many significant experiments for atomic spectroscopy and quantum mechanics, earning numerous special honors. In 1974, she was named “Outstanding Scientist of the Year” by the American scientific community, the first woman to receive this honor. In 1975, she was elected president of the American Physical Society.
5. Discovering the Territorial Behavior of Birds
Although we cannot perceive the world as accurately as animals do, scientists have strived for years to understand the world through the eyes of animals, leading to deeper insights into nature. This effort is closely tied to meticulous observations of animal behavior and the reasons behind it, a field known as Ethology. One of the pioneering scientists in this field was Margaret Morse Nice (1883 – 1974).
From the early 1900s to the 1960s, she studied animal behavior for over half a century, particularly conducting extensive and detailed field studies on North American sparrows to explore their territorial behavior and the significance behind it. Interestingly, after becoming a mother, Nice published several research papers on linguistics by observing her child’s language development. Her life, as described in the title of her autobiography, “Research is a passion for me.”
6. Noether’s Theorem
When Albert Einstein wrote an obituary for Emmy Noether (1882 – 1935) in 1935, he referred to her as a “highly creative mathematical genius.” Since Noether’s theorem was published in 1918, it has remained one of the most important theorems in physics for over a century. This theorem links conservation laws with natural symmetries, showing that every symmetry corresponds to a related conservation law, and vice versa. It not only resolved a challenging issue in general relativity but also provided physicists with a unified perspective to observe and study the universe.
In the latter half of the 20th century, Noether’s theorem also laid the foundation for the Standard Model of particle physics. Therefore, it has been praised by some physicists as the “guiding light of physics in the 20th and 21st centuries.” Additionally, she made significant contributions to mathematics, pioneering the field of abstract algebra, with her name appearing in numerous mathematical concepts.
7. Description of the Greenhouse Effect of Carbon Dioxide
Currently, we have a deep understanding of the remarkable heat-retaining capabilities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is also the primary cause of global warming. This property of carbon dioxide was first discovered in the mid-19th century.
At that time, Eunice Foote (1819 – 1888) conducted a simple experiment. She placed a thermometer inside two glass cylinders, filling one with carbon dioxide and leaving the other with just air, then exposed them to sunlight. Ultimately, the cylinder containing carbon dioxide was found to be significantly warmer than the other one. Foote realized that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere absorbs a lot of heat. Consequently, she proposed that: “If air is mixed with a higher ratio of carbon dioxide, it will cause the temperature of the atmosphere to rise, and a warmer atmosphere will make our Earth hotter.”
Foote’s paper was published in 1856 under her name in the American Journal of Science and Arts, shortly after her husband’s work, Elisha. However, for some reason, it was not included in the annual publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) regarding the association’s meetings.
Foote’s work demonstrated that the warming effect of sunlight is influenced by carbon dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere. This may be the first scientific study to prove the existence of greenhouse gases.
8. The World’s First Computer Program
As the daughter of poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) did not have much contact with her father and instead lived with her mother. She received a good private education at that time, particularly studying a lot about science and mathematics, which was quite rare at the time.
From a young age, Lovelace exhibited extraordinary talent, and as a teenager, she began researching the “analytical engine” with Charles Babbage, often regarded as the precursor to the computer. Even more notably, Lovelace focused on the potential of data more than anyone else and enhanced the machine’s ability to perform multiple tasks, such as using machines to create musical compositions. At the same time, she developed an algorithm to calculate Bernoulli numbers.
