SCI-ART  SERIES

Graphics by Rachel Richards.
 

This series pays tribute to four groundbreaking discoveries made by women in science. 

PULSAR // Astrophysicist Joceyln Bell Burnell, discovered the pulsar while analyzing data from a radio telescope she helped to build. This discovery proved the existence of neutron stars - the collapsed core that remains after a dying star has exploded. Despite having been the first to ever observe and precisely analyze pulsars, she was excluded from the the Nobel Prize awarded for this discovery. 

DARK MATTER // Astronomer Vera Rubin, challenged modern physics and astronomy with her observations showing that galaxies and stars are immersed in the gravitational grip of vast clouds of unseeable, mysterious stuff that makes up more than a quarter of the universe: dark matter. Her work on dark matter has forged entirely new branches of scientific inquiry and Rubin was, for years, an obvious Nobel candidate but was never honored for her groundbreaking contributions. 

DNA // Chemist Rosalind Franklin, obtained the very first image of DNA fibers using X-ray crystallography. She had several working papers describing the structural qualities of DNA when this, her unpublished discovery, was shared with two male colleagues without her knowledge. Those two men went on to publish her findings, and they both received the Nobel Prize for identifying the structure of DNA, Rosalind Franklin was omitted.

RADIATION // Physicist and Chemist, Marie Curie, a pioneer in the study of radiation, discovered (together with her husband Pierre) the radioactive elements radium and polonium. She carried out the first research into the treatment of tumors with radiation, and she coined the term “radioactivity”. Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize, and she is the only person who has ever won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry.