What do you think was the greatest discovery made by a woman scientist?

Question

Please support your answer. I'm taking an opinion poll for a public outreach program targeted at encouraging girls to pursue careers in science related fields. Thanks!

Answer 1

One would have to be Mary Leakey, a British archeologist and anthropologist. She found a skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and other fossils and tools at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

Answer 2

Bastian--Mike Nesmith's mother invented Liquid Paper, not the post-it note.

I go with Hedy Lamarr.

Answer 3

Hedy Lamarr, she helped stop the n***s with her invention patent 2,292,387 and she was also a beautiful movie star.

Answer 4

I have to agree with Auntsally as she not only did this but died as a result of it. A great woman. Also Ada Lovelace wrote a scientific paper in 1843 that anticipated the development of computer software, artificial intelligence and computer music.

Heres a site for you with some of the ladies inventors http://inventors.about.com/library/blwom...

Answer 5

It's hard to gauge which scientific find is the "greatest" or which invention is "the most important".  But, based on the background that you gave behind your question, I would have to say that any woman involving the field of computer science since that's the scientific field with the least amount of women in it.

Answer 6

Mike Nesmith (of that 60s band) the Monkeys, his mother invented the post it. It might not be high tech, but it was freaking inspired

Answer 7

What sort of invention are you interested in?

~ Sister Elizabeth Kenny (an Australian) discovered a way to treat infantile paralysis (polio) with physiotherapeutic techniques

~ Barbara McClintock discovered that genetic material shifted location inter-generation, groundbreaking work in early DNA technology

~ Aglaonike, a Thessalonian woman of ancient Greece, discovered how to predict the eclipses of the moon

~ Margaret Floy Washyburn was the founder of modern psychology

~ Si-Ling Chi discovered how to obtain and weave silk

~ Caroline Herschel discovered eight comets

~ Hypatia, 'The Philosopher', invented the astrolabe, the planisphere, an instrument for distilling water and an instrument for measuring the specific gravity of water

~ Hildegard von Bingen wrote about universal gravitation several centuries before Newton, founded the practice of holisitic medicine and invented a recipe for spice cookies still widely used today

~ Patsy Sheman co-invented 'Scotchgard' and held 13 other chemistry and commercial patents

Every invention is 'most' important in some way, to someone.

Knowing the moon's eclipse times is vital in a society dependant on agriculture and fishing which does not have access to modern fertlisers and planting methods.

'Scotchgard' is important if you are a company with thousands of employees wanting to keep a competitive edge and keep people in jobs.

If you think knowing how people think, and why, is the most important way to increase knowledge and help our world, psychology is a vital tool.

Being able to distill water is such a basic and vital skill, that many 'modern' people forget how important such a discovery must have been when it occurred so many years ago.

But even though all these discoveries are vital and important, it is also worth remembering that most scientists work together in teams, something the joint awarding of many scientific prizes reflects.

Cheers :-)

Answer 8

From my opinion, nail polish

Answer 9

Mike Nesmith's mother did not invent post-its she invented White-out.

Answer 10

There is not much on the list to choose from. Men invent so much more than women.

Answer 11

One of the first Computer Programmers: Admiral Grace Hopper became the third person to program the Mark I. She received the Naval Ordnance Development Award for her pioneering applications programming success on the Mark I, Mark II, and Mark III computers.

Created first large-scale computer: In pursuit of her vision she risked her career in 1949 to join the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and provide businesses with computers. There she began yet another pioneering effort of UNIVAC I, the first large-scale electronic digital computer.

Helped develop Cobol: Admiral Hopper actively participated in the first meetings to formulate specifications for a common business language. She was one of the two technical advisers to the resulting CODASYL Executive Committee, and several of her staff were members of the CODASYL Short Range Committee to define the basic COBOL language design. COBOL became the most widely used computer programming language in the world and still is widely used in industry and government.

Created Cobol compiler and standards for the computer programming industry: Another major effort in Admiral Hopper's life was the standardization of compilers. Under her direction, the Navy developed a set of programs and procedures for validating COBOL compilers. This concept of validation has had widespread impact on other programming languages and organizations; it eventually led to national and international standards and validation facilities for most programming languages.

Awards: Admiral Grace Murray Hopper received many awards and commendations for her accomplishments. In 1969, she was awarded the first ever Computer Science Man-of-the-Year Award from the Data Processing Management Association. In 1971, the Sperry Corporation initiated an annual award in her name to honor young computer professionals for their significant contributions to computer science. In 1973, she became the first person from the United States and the first woman of any nationality to be made a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society.

Education: Grace Brewster Murray was born in 1906 in New York City. In 1928 she graduated from Vassar College with a BA in mathematics and physics and joined the Vassar faculty. While an instructor at Vassar, she continued her studies in mathematics at Yale University, where she earned an MA in 1930 and a PhD in 1934. She was one of four women in a doctoral program of ten students, and her doctorate in mathematics was a rare accomplishment in its day.

Other notable women in science:

Rachel Carson; environmentalist

Rosalind Franklin, key in solving the puzzle of DNA

Dorothy Hodgkin, researcher into the chemical structure of medicines

Henrietta Leavitt, key in measuring stellar distances

Answer 12

Marie Curie - radioactivity

helped along nuclear weapons.

So it's all women's fault.

Answer 13

Marie Curie--x-rays.

Answer 14

Many say mary curie, but it isnt clear how much was she and how much was her husband, whom died from exposure to radiation. I would say the woman who invented the window washers, imagine cars without them in the rain.

Answer 15

No on has mentioned this.

Medical syringe Letitia Geer 1899

Can you imagine how many lives have been saved by being able to administer medicine through a syringe, not to mention drawing blood for tests.  So many medicines would be destroyed in the stomach due to acid if they could not be injected into the muscle or a vein.  It is impossible to realize how many lives were saved.  How many medical cures would not have even been invented had there not been a viable way of delivering the medicine.  I think this is the most important.

Answer 16

Marie Curie -- discovered radium and contributed to the invention of X-rays.

Answer 17

Meat loaf, you could feed a family of five on 1lbs of meat!!

Answer 18

I don't know any discoveries!