Susan La Flesche was the first Native American to earn a medical degree. She proceeded to become the physician for the Omaha Nation, traveling by horse and buggy to care for a community spread across an area the size of Rhode Island.

Babes of Science is a podcast that seeks to answer two questions: Who are the women who changed the trajectory of science? And why has it taken us so long to recognize their work?

Image courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society Photograph Collections.

Music in this episode:
Chance, Luck, Errors in Nature, Fate, Destruction As a Finale by Chris Zabriskie
Violins And Tea (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond
Young, Tough And Terrible by The Losers
Third in Line by Blue Dot Sessions
Slow Strutt by Blue Dot Sessions
Keep The Prices Down by Podington Bear
Ice Cream Sandwich by Podington Bear
Periodicals by Blue Dot Sessions
Cedarleaf by Rho

Every early chemist has heard of Boyle’s law -- the equation that relates a gas’s pressure to its volume. But even if you have some awareness of Robert Boyle himself, it’s unlikely that you’ve heard of his sister...even though she was probably talking him through his ideas, either in person or by letter.

This episode of Babes of Science was produced in collaboration with Distillations Podcast. 

Babes of Science is a podcast that seeks to answer two questions: Who are the women who changed the trajectory of science? And why has it taken us so long to recognize their work?

Music in this episode:
Theme: Showers by Podington Bear
Day Into Night by Rho
Daydream Shelshock by Wolf Asylum
Am I The Devil YEYEY
History Explains Itself by The Losers
Like Swimming Broke For Free
Insatiable Toad by Blue Dot Sessions
One And by Broke For Free
Modulation of the Spirit
Melt by Broke For Free
Eleanor by The Losers
I Am A Man Who Will Fight For Your Honor by Chris Zabriskie
Tidal Wave by YEYEY

Marguerite Perey identified a new element called Francium while she was working in the Curie laboratory. So why don't we know her name?

MUSIC:

Mile Post 1 by Alex Fitch
Drifting Spade by Blue Dot Sessions
Building The Sun by Broke For Free
Biolumina L2 by Little Glass Men
History Explains Itself by The Losers
Summer Spliffs by Broke For Free

Henrietta Lacks developed an aggressive form of cervical cancer, and died at the age of 31. The cells from the tumor on her cervix, however, are still alive today. More than twenty tons of her cells have grown in labs, participating in disease research for the polio vaccine and for AIDS treatment. And Henrietta's cells have literally traveled to space and back.

MUSIC:

Secret Place by Alex Fitch
Kelp Grooves by Little Glass Men
Love is Not by Broke For Free
Tiptoe (Instrumental) by YEYEY
Is That You Or Are You You? Chris Zabriskie
Deadpanned by Jahzzar
With Many Tears by Candlegravity
Stakes and Things by Blue Dot Sessions
Melt by Broke for Free

Bertha Pappenheim was spending each night by her sick father's bed when she began hallucinating. Josef Breuer would diagnose her with hysteria and spend two years practicing "the talking cure." He and Sigmund Freud later published her account as a case study under the name Anna O.

To support the show, head to patreon.com/babesofscience. Or visit babesofscience.com for more information on Babes of Science. You can also follow @babescience on twitter for fun facts about women in science history.

Music in this episode:
Dream Blaze by Little Glass Men
Delta by Podington Bear
Slow Slow Sky by Blue Dot Sessions
From Here to Iceland (Full) by Loch Lomond
A Suicide by Candlegravity
You Bastard! by The Losers
Daydreamer by Podington Bear
Jupiter The Blue by Gillicuddy
The Temperature on the Bow of the Kaleetan by Chis Zabriskie
How it Fades by Scott Gratton
Be Mine and Be Kind (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond

 

 

 

Irène Joliot-Curie found that radioactivity wasn't just something to be found in the earth's elements -- scientists could make other metals radioactive. And then her research took her right up to nuclear fission...and World War II.

To support the show, head to patreon.com/babesofscience. Or visit babesofscience.com for more information on Babes of Science. You can also follow @babescience on twitter for fun facts about women in science history.

Music in this episode:
Thematic by Blue Dot Sessions
Divider by Chris Zabriskie
John Stockton Slow Drag by Chris Zabriskie
Frog Legs Rag by James Scott from 1906 piano roll
Keep The Prices Down by Podington Bear
Morning Mist by Podington Bear
The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions
Beachhead by Podington Bear
Grand Fell by Blue Dot Sessions
Because You Hold Me Tight by Alex Fitch

Margaret Cavendish used her writing to debate philosophy with some of the great thinkers of the scientific revolution. And she was the only woman to visit the Royal Society meetings for at least its first hundred years.

Visit babesofscience.com for more information on Babes of Science, or follow @babescience on twitter for fun facts about women in science history.

Music in this episode:
Panoramic Showers by Podington Bear
Rise by Igor Khabarov
Periodicals by Blue Dot Sessions
The Sun is Scheduled to Come Out Tomorrow by Chris Zabriskie
Feels Like Home by Fabian Measures
Not Drunk (no vocals) by The Joy Drops
Sunset by Lee Rosevere
Five by Marcel Pequel
Pens From Spain (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond
K-Eyes by Rho
Nobody Here But Us Charles Dickens!
Holy Roller by YACHT
Spontaneous Existence by Little Glass Men

Rita Levi-Montalcini worked with homemade tools in her bedroom laboratory when she and her family were forced into hiding during World War II. The findings from her bedroom lab were the beginning of her Nobel-winning research and life obsession.

Music in this episode:
Illway by Blue Dot Sessions
Pineapple by Podington Bear
New England is Interesting by BOPD
Poppyseed by Podington Bear
Sunset Part 2 by Podington Bear
Wonder Cycle by Chris Zabriskie
Uneasy by Blue Dot Sessions
Cylinder Two by Chris Zabriskie
Books by Jahzzar
Danse Morialta by Kevin MacLeod
Autumn Fields by Lee Rosevere
Golden by Little Glass Men
Silver Felt (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond

Maria Sibylla Merian painted caterpillars with their corresponding cocoons and butterflies on a host plant. While most of Maria's peers in the 17th century admired her for her artistry, now her work is considered one of the earliest examples of ecology.

Image courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries.

Music in this episode:

The Everlasting Itch For Things Remote by Gillicuddy
Violins and Tea (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond
Skirting Boards by Bleak House
Alchemical by Blue Dot Sessions
Tweedlebugs by Podington Bear
Betrayal, Lies and Disaster by The Losers
A Garden And A Library by Gillicuddy
Eight by Marcel Pequel
2 Spring_Summer by Dustin Wong
Is That You Or Are You You? by Chris Zabriskie
A Simple Shroud by Blue Dot Sessions
Idea by Kai Engel
Chromium Blush by Blue Dot Sessions

Imagine you're a PhD student, just getting started. And you realize you can't hear anything out of one ear, and THEN you learn that's because there's a tumor wrapped around the nerve starting at your inner ear and heading into the brain.

That's what happened to Brittany Bushnell. She was studying neuroscience...and then she became the class example for abnormal visual reflexes.

Music in this episode:
Modulation of the Spirit by Little Glass Men
Barometer by Bleak House
The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan by Chris Zabriskie
Because You Hold Me Tight by Alex Fitch
The Terrarium by Blue Dot Sessions
February by Kai Engel
Chinese Blues by Moore and Gardner from 1916 George Gershwin piano roll
Tipsy Xylo by Podington Bear
Trundle by Podington Bear
All Eventualities by Gillicuddy
Pens From Spain (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond

Zora Neale Hurston collected folklore and stories from communities throughout the rural south. Her stories were some of the first that represented black people with pride, and not with a feeling of distance or exoticism.

*for links to Zora Neale Hurston's recordings with the Federal Writers' Project, check babesofscience.com

Music in this episode:
Tilly Lend Me Your Pigeon performed by Zora Neale Hurston
Mule On The Mount performed by Zora Neale Hurston
F.I.B by Ben McElroy
Eola by Alex Fitch
Coloured Lead Crayons by Bleak House
Cylinder Six by Chris Zabriskie
Papageno Drunk by Ergo Phizmiz
Isolated by Kevin MacLeod
Dream Blaze by Little Glass Men
Betrayal, Lies and Disaster by The Losers
Mama Don’t Want No Peas No Rice performed by Zora Neale Hurston
The First by Scott Gratton

Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. one hundred years ago this week. The clinic only lasted ten days, but Margaret was just getting started.

Music in this episode:
Surly Bonds by Blue Dot Sessions
Idea by Kai Engel
Bliss by Podington Bear
City Limits by Blue Dot Sessions
I Am Running With Temporary Success From A Monstrous Vacuum In Pursuit by Chris Zabriskie
Grey Sunday by Lee Rosevere
Tipsy Xylo by Podington Bear
One by Marcel Pequel
Screaming Silence by Natus
Set The Dogs (Instrumental) by YEYEY
Is That You or Are You You? By Chris Zabriskie
you better take your eyes by The Rebel

 

Ada Lovelace defined modern computing and wrote the first computer program...for an imaginary machine. Because the computer as a usable, physical object wouldn't exist for almost another century. Music in this episode: Heliotrope, Blue Dot Sessions An Opus in Bb, Blue Dot Sessions First Fist, Rho Marble Chase, Blue Dot Sessions Books, Jahzzar The Third, Scott Gratton Wonder Cycle, Chris Zabriskie Candlepower, Chris Zabriskie Danse Morialta, Kevin MacLeod The Fourth, Scott Gratton

Barbara McClintock suggested that genes jump from chromosome to chromosome, so people called her crazy. Decades later, they figured out that she was absolutely right. Music in this episode: A Way to Get By, Scott Gratton piano lesson, The Rebel Golden, Little Glass Men Little Strings, The Losers Divider, Chris Zabriskie Modulation of the Spirit, Little Glass Men Spontaneous Existence, Little Glass Men Pieces of the Present, Scott Gratton

Mary Anning found the some of the first evidence of giant dinosaur-like lizards. And actual dinosaurs. And also vampires. Music in this episode: Because You Hold Me Tight, Alex Fitch Dash and Slope, Blue Dot Sessions Vibe Drive, Podington Bear Dark Water, Podington Bear Slider, Blue Dot Sessions Bliss, Podington Bear Day Into Night, Rho

After being denied entry to medical school and just barely squeezing into a PhD program, Rosalyn Sussman Yalow developed a tool that could measure hormones in the bloodstream using nuclear medicine. Music in this episode: Showers, Podington Bear Beeth, Blue Dot Sessions K-Eyes, Rho Leadin, Blue Dot Sessions Grey Sunday, Lee Rosevere Ash Gray, Pictures of the Floating World Idea, Kai Engel Widow's Plea For Her Son, The Joy Drops Skyline Horizon, Rho

Once upon a time, everything from timing to the temperature at conception could get blamed for the sex of a baby. Even the baby's mom. Nettie Stevens first suggested that there's no blame to be had; a people's sex is all in their chromosomes. Music in this episode: Along the Hwy, Alex Fitch Winter Theme, Blue Dot Sessions Bouncing, Blue Dot Sessions CGI Snake, Chris Zabriskie John the Whale, Ben McElroy Highway Acrylic, Bleak House Stance Gives You Balance, Hogan Grip

IN THIS EPISODE Poncie talks about Alice Ball, who found one of the first treatments for leprosy. After Alice Ball's method was used, some of the first patients from leper colonies are released from isolation, and can return to their families. Music in this episode by Bleak House, Blue Dot Sessions, Ben McElroy, Podington Bear, and Dustin Wong.

IN THIS EPISODE Poncie talks about Florence Nightingale, who changed nursing from a field where ladies would hunt for husbands to one where women prevented the spread of disease. Music in this episode by Podington Bear, Blue Dot Sessions, Albin Andersson, and Ben McElroy.

Babes of Science is a podcast about women who made an impact in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Learn more at babesofscience.com IN THIS EPISODE Poncie talks about Maria Mitchell, one of the first women to discover a comet. She spent decades predicting how stars would move through the night sky, became the first professor hired at Vassar, and in her spare time, advocated for women's education. Music in this episode by Broke For Free, Podington Bear, Kevin MacLeod, Coldnoise, Igor Khabarov, and Kai Engel. Portrait by H. Dassell, 1851.

Babes of Science is a podcast about women who made an impact in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Learn more at babesofscience.com IN THIS EPISODE Poncie talks about Hedy Lamarr, who suggested and then patented spread spectrum, or frequency hopping, to aid torpedoes during World War II. It later became the basis for bluetooth, cell phone communications, and some internet connections. She also happened to be a movie star. Music in this episode by George Antheil and Podington Bear.

Babes of Science is a podcast about women who made an impact in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Learn more at babesofscience.com IN THIS EPISODE Poncie talks about Tilly Edinger, who studied fossil brains to understand how different animals' brains evolved. She also escaped Germany just before World War II started. Music in this episode by Little People, Ulrich Schnauss, and Podington Bear.

Babes of Science is a podcast about women who made an impact in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Learn more at babesofscience.com IN THIS EPISODE Poncie talks about Alice Hamilton, who studied how the environment at factories impacted the health of the laborers who worked there. She also put cocaine in her eyes (for science of course). Music in this episode by Zero 7, Alt-J, Podington Bear, and Melodium.

Babes of Science is a podcast about women who made an impact in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Learn more at babesofscience.com IN THIS EPISODE Poncie wanders downtown Boulder and then the Boulder public library in search of female scientists...and nearly comes up empty-handed. Music in this episode by Podington Bear and Thomas Dolby.