Celebrating Science

As a girl in the 18^th century, Mary had little formal education but her intelligence and thirst for knowledge led to her studying mathematics, Latin and astronomy and she became both an exceptionally accomplished scientist and science communicator. In 1826, she presented her paper ‘The Magnetic Properties of the Violet Rays of the Solar Spectrum’ to the Royal Society and, alongside Caroline Herschel (another pioneering female scientist), was the first woman elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835. By that time, she had already published two books, explaining complex concepts in ways that could be more widely understood, and a subsequent book – Physical Geography – became a teaching staple in schools and universities until the turn of the 20^th century.  Mary was still publishing scientific works as she approached her 90s and, just a few years before her death, was the first signatory on the first petition to Parliament for women’s suffrage.  Today, amongst many other legacies and memorials, Somerville College, Oxford, is named after her and she features on the Scottish £10.

As the first English woman to qualify as a doctor, Elizabeth undoubtedly made her mark.  Her determination to study medicine was extraordinary; medical schools would not allow her to study and, when she gained a certificate from the Society of Apothecaries that would allow her to become a doctor, the rules were changed to prevent other women joining the profession in the same way.  Determined to become a qualified doctor, she learnt French and completed a medical degree in Paris, but the British Medical Register still would not recognise the qualification. Having set up her own dispensary for women in 1870, she founded the New Hospital for Women in 1872, which was staff entirely by women.  Her dedication and determination paved the way for the women who followed her, and an act was passed to allow women to enter medical professions in 1876.  Elizabeth’s trailblazing approach to life did not end there – in her retirement she became the first female mayor in England.

Marjory studied natural sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge, at a time when women were excluded from the university’s chemistry and zoology labs, and she became a biochemist who defined her own path and had a lasting impact on her field.  The First World War, during which she served in the Red Cross and VAD and was awarded an MBE, interrupted her early career but she returned to Cambridge to teach and research after the war. She authored and co-authored many papers and Bacterial Metabolism, her book which was first published in 1930 but which was last reprinted as late as 1966, became a standard textbook for microbiologists and biochemists. Alongside Kathleen Lonsdale (another fascinating female scientist), in 1945 Marjory was one of the first women to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society. She was a founder of the Society for General Microbiology and the Society still awards a biennial prize in her honour.

A chemist who studied at Somerville College, Oxford and undertook her doctoral research at Cambridge, Dorothy is the only British women to be awarded a Nobel Prize for science. In 1934, Dorothy returned to Oxford where she became a fellow and tutor in chemistry and began studying X-rays of insulin: work that she would continue for the next 35 years and which ultimately led to the feasible mass production of insulin. Dorothy made several important discoveries during her career, including solving the structure of penicillin (an achievement recognised by her election to the Royal Society) and describing the structure of vitamin B12 in the 1950s.  Throughout her career, she was instrumental in developing X-ray crystallography techniques, which she used in her work on B12, and it was publishing the final structure of B12 that led to her being awarded the Nobel Prize.