Important events with female scientists in the 1980's?

Question

I need to find 6 discoveries or significant events in science from the 1980's that a female scientist took part in. Please include the name of the scientist and sources if you can!

Answer 1

Here's one to get you started:

1987 - Rebecca L. Cann (with Mark Stoneking and Allan C. Wilson) devised a genealogical tree in which all human mitochondrial DNA may be traced back to a common maternal ancestor who lived somewhere in Africa.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I don't know whether Rebecca Cann had anything to do with the use of the Mitochondrial Eve theory to suggest that modern humans came out of Africa as late as 135,000 years ago. But some have made that suggestion, and it's baloney.

Too much has been made of the Mitochondrial Eve theory, in my opinion. It tentatively suggests that the pure maternal line of every living human's ancestry can be traced to Africa. However, there are lots of other lines about which you know nothing geographical because they are mixed in gender, containing many father-daughter or mother-son links, and so MtDNA Eve might have had human contemporaries most anywhere.

In order to patch up the idea that hominids emerged from Africa as recently as 135000 years ago, some folks have proposed that there was a population bottleneck at that time. Ah. A bottleneck. How fortuitous! Now, there's a way to trace your pure patrilineal line also, through the DNA on the Y-chromosome of men. This line, too, has been tentatively traced to Africa; however, it was traced to Africa only 72000 years ago.

Nobody thinks that the emergence of hominids from Africa was as recent as 72000 years ago. We can't keep proposing "population bottlenecks" every time they might be convenient, can we? So obviously too much as been made of the Mitochondrial Eve theory. It should never have been made to seem to imply that humans came out of Africa as recently as 135000 years ago.

Answer 3

This seems to be a pretty comprehensive resource. A quick scan showed me several 1980's dates and I'm sure there's plenty more.

http://www.astrosociety.org/education/re...

Happy hunting!

Answer 4

Challenger Space shuttle