Hi, you're listening to Cultivate
Curiosity, a
podcast that inspires the next generation
to stay curious.
Cultivate Curiosity is brought to you by
the Emerald Coast Science Center, a
nonprofit.
Interactive science museum and steam
educational facility in Fort Walton Beach,
Florida.
This podcast is perfect for anyone curious
about the world we live in, because.
You never know what we'll talk about
next. Hey, it's Diane, the director at
the Emerald Coast Science Center.
Hi, it's Jacie, the social media coordinator.
And hi, it's Harley, an educator and
community affairs coordinator here at the
Emerald Coast Science Center. This episode is
about Women's History Month. Yay, March.
Women's History Month is extremely
important to us here at the Science
Center, not because the majority of us
staff are women, but because women deserve
to be heard and their stories deserve
to be told. During this month and
all other months, let's celebrate the
countless women who have fought tirelessly
for equality, justice, and opportunity in
our nation and others. Let's turn our
celebration into action and work to put
together programs that are held to help
foster the growth of supporting women in
Stem fields and all other career fields.
Now, Women's History Month is not just
for women to learn about either. Normally,
girls are the main focus for teaching
them about the courageous women that came
before them during Women's History Month.
But boys need to learn this information
too. This month was in part created
to help females combat the stereotypical
images of women they received from their
male dominimateded history curriculum. But
it may be even more important to
combat those images in the heads of
males. Many problems we have with how
females are treated by males can be
connected to the historical viewing of
women as less than men. The adverse
effects of exclusively teaching that
history in class cannot be overstated. In
spite of being held back for centuries,
women have managed to become much more
than what society has intended them to
be. However, if you are not intentionally
teaching the accomplishments of women,
then you likely won't as much of
history is written by men. If we
truly want society to advance in gender
equality, then it's not enough for women
to see themselves as equal and valuable.
Men have to see it too.
Did you know that girls and women
are systemically tracked away from science
and math through their education, limiting
their training and options to go into
these fields as adults? Women make up
only around 28% of the workforce in
science, technology, engineering and math,
or Stem, and men vastly outnumber women
majoring in most Stem fields. In college,
the gender gaps are particularly high in
some of the fastest growing and highest
paid jobs of the future, like computer
science and engineering. What can we do
to change this discrepancy in female to
male ratios?
So we'll share some of the amazing
stories of different female scientists
throughout time. These stories are in
chronological order of sorts. So as we
go through them, we will move from
scientists who did exceptional things in
the mid 1800s to the present
day, scientists who are changing the world
as we know it. So I'm going
to talk about Emily Warren Roebling. Her
lifespan was from 1843 to 1903, so
Emily was an engineer known for her
contributions over a period of more than
ten years to the completion of the
Brooklyn Bridge. After her husband
developed casseon disease and became
bedridden, she served as a liaison and
supervisor of construction. Through
communicating between her husband and
onsite personnel, she developed an
extensive knowledge of strength of
materials, stress analysis, cable
construction, and calculating catenary
curves. Through her husband's teachings,
she complimented her knowledge by her
prior interest in and study of the
bridge's construction. When her husband
was first appointed as chief engineer for
the decade that her husband was confined
to a sick bed, she was dedicated
to the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge.
She took over much of the chief
engineer duties, including day to day
supervision and project management. The
bridge was finally completed in 1883, in
advance of official opening. Carrying a
rooster, a sign of victory, emily was
the first to cross the bridge by
carriage. Today, the Brooklyn Bridge is
marked with a plaque dedicated to the
memory of her, her husband, and her
father in law, who all helped in
the construction of the bridge. Emily is
also known for her influential essay, a
Wife's Disabilities from 1899, which won
wide acclaim and awards. In it, she
argued for greater women's rights and
railed against discriminatory practices
targeted at women.
Okay, why is a rooster I don't
know.
It was, like, cool, I guess, the
pinnacle of, like, we finished the bridge.
I have to take this rooster yeah.
In a carriage across it. But it's
really great because she took over
basically everything. She already had some
interest in it, like I said, but
basically she was doing everything. And
her husband was actually still getting
paid for all the work, and he
almost actually got fired. And the only
reason that she was able to liaison
for himself was she actually fought with
politicians and talked to them and was
like, oh, no, he's fine. Still doing
it.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
And there's a Roebling Bridge between
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. That's
the name of the bridge, the Roebling
Bridge. And I think there's also when
we.
Walked on that bridge yeah.
When we went to Pittsburgh, I think
one of the bridges in Pittsburgh was
also designed by Roebling. I mean, he
was a very famous, famous name in
bridge design.
And it was like the father in
law, her husband's father had set it
all up and designed it, but then
he passed away, so he took it
over, but then he got sick. But
she kind of took it over like
a whole family set up there.
Got you.
Okay.
This next woman we'll see if people
can guess. It has two Nobel Prizes,
one in chemistry and one in physics.
It's Marie Curie. She was born in
1867 and passed in 1934. And honestly,
I feel like Diane loves Marie Curie,
so she should talk about her. You
could probably just rattle off everything
without me doing anything. But Marie Curie
is an amazing scientist. She worked with
Pierre Curie, who was a professor and
then ended up they got married and
they worked together and helped discover
radium. Right, as radium. I actually was
just telling some kids today about that
in the annual presentation. I had Pierre
and Becq, and they.
Were like, oh, cool.
Who are they named after? Because all
of the kids today wanted to know
who everybody was named after and why,
which it was awesome, perfect. And so
I was like, okay, I don't normally
talk about this as much, but we'll
talk about it. And so I was
able to discuss, like, hey, it's Pierre
and Becq, and they worked with Marie
Curie, and they loved it. But do
you want to add more?
I think one of the things again,
so this is the turn of the
century, and if I remember the story
correctly, marie Curie is originally from
Poland, and she and her sister both
wanted to study. And because they didn't
have any money, they came to Paris
to study, and they went to the
sore bone, and they took turns. So
one of them would work for years
while one could go to school, and
then the other one would work and
support the other sister. So that way,
between the two of them, they were
able to make sure that they each
got through school. And of course, I
could take up the rest of the
podcast talking about Marie Curie. She is
just that fascinating and that incredible
of a role model. And I think
Harley had in her notes that her
husband was run over by a carriage
and died. So this is in Paris
during the times before cars and so
horse and carriage. And so she carried
on doing the research. They had two
daughters, which one of them became a
chemist. And her husband and their
daughter Irene also went on to win
a Nobel Prize in chemistry. And then
their other daughter married a Frenchman,
and he was part of an organization
that won a Nobel Peace Prize. So
within this one family of four, they
have five Nobel Prizes. That just shows
you the incredible story behind
Marie Curie. And I think during World
War I, she had a portable X
ray machine, and they took it out
she and her daughter took it out
into the field and were taking X
rays of battle wounded soldiers. And I
read somewhere there's another tidbit that
her laboratory notebooks are still so
radioactive. They're, like, in containers
and boxes so that you can't touch
them with your bare hands. You have,
like, you stick them to those lead
line gloves, and then you can turn
the pages in the notebook like that,
because that's just we didn't know. Yeah,
I mean, they just discovered
radioactivity.
Right?
They had no idea. Everybody thought that
it was good, and they put it
in all sorts of products and everything,
and they talked about how wonderful
radioactivity is. And then later on, we
decided maybe not so much.
She's incredible, and I think she's a
great role model for young girls today
that are looking into getting into the
stem field.
Yeah, she really took what could be
like a terrible year for her when
her husband passed and decided to just
keep working on everything. And also she
started teaching at Sore Bone, and she
was the first woman to teach there,
so within the year right after he
passed. So she's incredible. And there's
lots of I think there's a movie
about Marie Curie that just recently came
out a couple of years ago. That
was pretty good. It was very interesting.
Another female for Women's History Month,
I noticed, is Catherine Esau. She was
born in 1898 and passed in 1997.
She's a Russian born botanist, and she
did pioneering research and laid the
groundwork for modern scientists studying
plant structure and cell function. And she
continues to influence generations of many
botany students. Esau began studying
agriculture in Moscow and then Berlin.
After her family emigrated to the United
States, she received her doctorate from
the University of California at Berkeley.
Her early career in botany centered around
researching the hybridization and viruses
of crops and later focused on light
microscope studies of plant anatomy as
technology advanced, foam, the food
conducting tissue in plants was a major
subject of her research. Her popular 1953
textbook, Plant Anatomy, is still an often
assigned classic in the field of botany.
So 1953, it's still up to date,
and it's still correct even right now
in 2023, which is awesome. When she
was a professor at the University of
California at Santa Barbara in 1989, ESA
was awarded the National Medal of Science
for her work, becoming the first trained
botanist to receive that award. So she's
pretty cool.
Nobody surprised Harley picked a botanist.
No.
Not a theme here, Harley.
Just wait for the next one.
So I'm going to talk a little
bit about Mary Leakey. She was born
in 1913 and died in 1996. And
she was a British paleoanthropologist, and
she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey.
And they discovered the first fossilized
Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is
now believed to be ancestral to humans.
She also discovered the robots Xen
xanthropist skull at the Oldevai Gorge in
Tanzania. Eastern Africa. So they spent
all of their working lives in Africa,
in the Oldevai Gorge, and they uncovered
fossils of ancient hominids and the
earliest hominins, as well as stone tools
produced by the earliest hominins. She
developed a system for classifying the
stone tools that they found during her
career. She discovered 15 new species of
animal, and she also brought about the
naming of a new genus. She was
honored by the Royal Mail in the
United Kingdom as one of six people
selected as subjects for the Great
Britain's commemorative postage stamp that
was issued in April 2013. And the
Leakies were the ones that discovered
Lucy. And our Columbian redtail boa
constrictor is named Lucy after that. I
mean, her name was Lucy. Anyway, when
we got her, so we said, okay,
well, let's go find something that
correlation. Yeah, we found a correlation.
Sometimes we try and do that. And
so she was named after those remains
that the Leakies found in Africa.
So the next one we're going to
talk about is Sally Ride. She was
born in 1951 and passed away in
2012. Sally was instrumental in creating
career and educational opportunities for
women and girls in science and
mathematics. As an astronaut, she became
the first American woman in space in
1983. She was the youngest American
astronaut to have flown in space, having
done so at the age of 32
on NASA's second and third space shuttle
missions. Her job was to work at
the robotic arm, which was used to
put satellites into space. After she left
NASA in 1987 to take up a
two year fellowship at the Stanford
University Center for International
Security and Arms Control, she researched
means by which nuclear warheads could be
counted and verified from space. But the
impending end of the Cold War made
this a much less pressing issue. From
the mid 1990s forward. Sally led two
public outreach programs for NASA the ISS
Earthcam and Grail Mooncam projects in
cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and Ucsd. The programs allowed
middle school students to request images
of the Earth and the moon. Sally
also received numerous awards throughout
her lifetime and afterwards, including an
induction into the National Women's Hall
of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of
Fame.
I think we have a picture of
her in our women's restroom because it's
a great quote that she said, you
can't be what you can't see. So
that was kind of like the kickoff
quote to us decorating our women's
restroom in the way that we have
with all of these incredible women in
Stem fields throughout the course of
history. And it kind of started with
that idea of you can't be what
you can't see. So we wanted to
make sure that everybody can see
themselves in these career fields, in
these roles, in these research
opportunities. So the next step, we're
going to talk about Flossy Wang Staal.
She was born in 1946 and just
passed away in 2020. She was a
Chinese American virologist and molecular
biologist. She was the first scientist to
clone HIV and determine the function of
its genes, which was a major step
in proving that HIV was the cause
of AIDS. She conducted research in the
late 1970s on the human retrovirus human
T cell leukemia virus and determined that
it was a causative agent in human
adult T cell leukemia. Her team
specifically studied the molecular
virology by examining its transcriptional,
activators, and posttranslational
regulators. This discovery was significant
in the study of human retroviruses, as
there was prior debate as to whether
retroviruses could cause human diseases.
From 1990 to 2002, she held the
Florence Rifford Chair in AIDS Research at
the University of California, San Diego.
She continued her research into the HIV
AIDS at Ucsd, focusing on gene therapy,
using a ribbon molecular knife to repass
HIV and stem cells. The protocol she
developed was the second to be funded
by the US. Government. A team of
researchers performed tests on a variety
of cells that carried the Tat protein
with a viral strain of HIV and
observed the rate of cell proliferation in
cells affected by HIV and a controlled
set of cells. Their findings from this
research were essential in developing new
treatments for HIV AIDS patients who
suffer from lesions.
Wow, that's cool.
Yeah, a lot of work.
Our next woman is RBG. Ruth Bader
Ginsburg. She was born in 1933 and
passed in 2020. She's not a scientist,
but science supporter for sure. She was
also a huge champion of women's rights
and just passed away at only 87.
She was the first female Jewish Supreme
Court Justice, and she was only one
of six female justices in history. She
was also a huge supporter of environmental
laws, which is important for science. And
although she passed, her name still lives
on in the textbooks and in a
new species of praying mantis. Probably
didn't think we were going to tie
Ruth Beard Ginsburg to bugs, but here
we are. This species name is Elo
mantis Ginsburgh. So a new species of
the prank mantis has been identified,
actually based on female genitals for the
first time. And this is a break
from the traditional use of male genitalia
for insect species classification. Insects
typically with, like, a hook shaped
genitalia might be classified as one
species, where those with, like, a curved
one might be classified as, like, another.
The male genitalia have been preferred
because of their seemingly wider, and it's
easier to see, basically, and just
different shapes and sizes. But elo mantis
ginsburg A is a leaf dwelling mantis
from Madagascar, according to a new study
in insect systematics and evolution. It
was named in honor of US. Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, strong
supporter of gender equality and a regular
wearer of the jabo collars, which resemble
the neck plate of the insect. So
the scientists hope that this new
identification will help make species
classification easier by increasing the
number of possible ways to differentiate
bugs.
She also has one of my favorite
quotes. We were playing a game in
the CyPAD the other day, and one
of the questions was, what is your
favorite quote? Jacie. You made the game.
So you know what I was, and
this was for a nonprofit training group.
And the quote essentially, I'm
paraphrasing it because I don't remember
exactly, it says, fight for the things
that you believe in, but do it
in such a way that other people
want to join you. And I think
everybody has things that they're
passionate about, and sometimes we can
become a little overbearing in our
passion. But I also think that that's
a good way to sort of temper
your passions, to make sure that whatever
it is that you're passionate about, that
you're doing it in such a way
that people will look at you and
go, oh, okay, yeah, I get why
you feel that way. So I just
think that's a great quote.
Yeah, you almost got it right on
the nail. To fight for the things
that you care about, but do it
in a way that will lead others
to join you.
Beautiful.
Good job.
All right, so the next scientist that
we're going to talk about is Gladys
May West. So she was born in
1930 and she is still alive today.
So Gladys is an American mathematician
known for her contributions to the
mathematical modeling of the shape of the
Earth and her work on the development
of the satellite geodesy models that were
eventually incorporated into the Global
Positioning System, or the GPS. In 1956,
west was hired to work as the
Naval Surface Warfare Center, where she
was the second black woman ever hired
and one of only four black employees.
She was a programmer in their Dahlgren
division for large scale computers and a
project manager for data processing
systems using the analysis of satellite
data. At the same time, she earned
a second Master's degree in Public
Administration from the University of
Oklahoma. In the early 1960s, she
participated in an award winning
astronomical study that proved the
regularity of pluto's motion relative to
Neptune. Subsequently, west began to
analyze data from satellites, especially
satellite Ultimators such as Geos Three,
putting together models of the Earth's
shape. She became project Manager for the
Csat Radar Altimetry project, the first
satellite that could remotely sense
oceans. She consistently put in extra
hours, cutting her team's processing time
in half. From the mid 1970s through
the 1980s, west programmed an IBM 70
30 stretch computer to deliver
increasingly precise calculations to model
the shape of the Earth. An ellipsoid
with additional undulations known as the
Geoid. Generating an extremely accurate
geopotential model required her to employ
complex algorithms to account for
variations in gravitational, tidal and
other forces that distort Earth's shape.
In 1986, she published data processing
system specifications for the Geosat
satellite radar altimeter, a 51 page
tentacle report from the Naval Service
Weapon Center, Nswc. The guide was
published to explain how to increase the
accuracy of the estimation of geoid
heights and vertical deflection important
components of satellite geodesy. She
worked at Dalgreen for 42 years, retiring
in 1998, which was the year I
was born. So that's kind of crazy
to think about. After retiring, she
completed a PhD in public administration
from Virginia Tech. She was inducted into
the United States Air Force Hall of
Fame in 2018 and awarded the Webb
Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th
Annual Webby Awards for the development of
the Geodesy satellite models.
Our next woman we have is Sylvia
Earl. She was born in 1935 and
she is still alive today. Sylvia Earl
is an American oceanographer and explorer
known for her research on marine algae
and her books and documentaries designed
to raise awareness of the threats that
overfishing and pollution rose to the
world's oceans. One of these documentaries
she has done is actually on Netflix,
and it's called Mission Blue. I have
watched it, I think, five times. It's
very, very good. It's also, like, very
eye opening and can be a little
sad, but she is wonderful in it.
Sylvia was also a pioneer in the
use of modern self contained underwater
breathing apparatus known as scuba gear
and the development of deep sea
submersibles. Earl also has held the world
record for the deepest untethered dive.
During the early 1980s, Earl founded the
Deep Ocean Engineering and Deep Ocean
Technology with British engineer Graham
Hawks. Together, they designed the
Submersible Deep Rover, a vehicle capable
of reaching depths of 914 meters, which
is about 3000ft. And this is beneath
the surface of the ocean. She is
also sometimes fondly referred to as her
deepness. She has set records for solo
diving, lived in underwater laboratories,
and navigated dark corners of the oceans
in small submarines. In the course of
her research and exploration, she has
spent more than 7000 hours underwater
marveling at the diversity of the oceans.
That's a long time.
I know. She's a fish.
Next up, we're going to talk about
Mary and Croke. She was born in
1955 and she is still presently alive.
So the great question is, and you
guys will not remember this dial up
Internet.
I had dial up Internet.
Oh, did you? When you were one?
No, I think I was it was
like lower elementary.
Okay.
Yeah.
So if you remember dial up Internet,
we can thank Mary and Croke for
no longer having to use it. She
invented Voice over Internet Protocol, or
VoIP. It allows us to communicate verbally
via the Internet, specifically a broadband
connection. This technology enables us to
talk on FaceTime, Zoom and other apps
that connect friends and family around the
world. Today, the widespread use of VoIP
technology is vital for remote working and
conferencing. And we know we've all used
a lot of zoom over the last
couple of years.
Do you still have Kate on there?
Yes, we do.
In 2022, Mary, an owner of 200
plus US. Patents, was one of the
first black women to be inducted into
the Inventors Hall of Fame. Among her
inventions is the text to donate function
that her team helped create in the
wake of hurricane Katrina, which has
helped raise millions of dollars for
disaster relief efforts since it launched
in 2005. She is now president of
engineering at Google.
All right. And so the last female
scientist will highlight some day is Nina
Tandon. She was born in 1980 and
is still presently alive. Today. Nina is
an American biomedical engineer. She is
the CEO and co founder of EpiBone.
She currently serves as an adjunct
professor of electrical engineering at
Cooper Union, and is a Senior Fellow
at the Lab for Stem Cells and
Tissue Engineering at Columbia. Nina
attended college at Cooper Union,
graduating with a bachelor of electrical
engineering in 2001. While completing her
undergraduate education, she built an
electronic musical instrument which is
played through human bodies
electromagnetic waves. From 2003 to 2004.
Nina attended the University of Rome tor
Vergata. There, she worked on the
development of libra nose, analyzing
patient breath samples to determine the
feasibility of a noninvasive cancer
smelling device. In 2006. She graduated
from MIT with an Ms in electrical
engineering, having received an MIT
Presidential Fellowship in 2004. She later
studied at Columbia University, graduating
in 2009 with a PhD in biomedical
Engineering with a concentration in
cardiac tissue engineering. As a
biomedical engineer, nina worked at
Columbia University to force growth and
stimulation of cells using electrical
currents. Currently, she has grown cells
on rat hearts to beat, but her
ultimate goal is to have the ability
to create a process where scientists can
grow entire human organs. She later co
founded Epibone and currently serves as
the company's CEO. EpiBone is a
biomedical engineering company that is
developing technology to create bone
tissue from a patient's medicine chemical
stem cells in vitro for use in
bone grafts.
She's also 43.
Yeah, that's it.
Pretty young.
Pretty young. I like to point out
that we're recording this episode on the
first day of Women's History Month. Yes.
So that being said, we do have
other female scientists that we are
spotlighting or highlighting this month
that we'll be sharing information about on
our blog and social posts. So blogs
every Wednesday, and then also on Thursday
on social media, so you guys can
check those out as well. There's some
pretty cool ones in there. Cool. So
that's it for the episode. We'll see
you guys in two weeks.
Bye bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's
episode of Cultivate Curiosity.
If you have any questions, feel free
to email us at socialmedia@ecscience.org.
Tune in for our next episode in
two weeks.