WOMEN IN SCIENCE

WOMEN IN SCIENCE 4ºESO1

11TH FEBRUARY INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SCIENCE

1. TINA NEGUS BY JAIRO DÍAZ

The zoologist Tina Negus said the unspeakable. At age 15, she proposed a theory that seemed absurd, so no one believed it.

Neither her geology professor, nor the researchers at the local museum. However, that didn't mean that she was wrong. In fact, she was not, but she was only a teenager when she claimed to have seen a fossil that proved a life of complex organisms when life was still non-existent.

Tina noted that it predated the Cambrian era. Later, it was found that, indeed, it was a form of life that lived during the Ediacaran period. So she was right. It was an unrivalled discovery that does not bear her name because, by the time she realized it, she had already disappeared from the place where she had found it.

No one knew at the time that this fossil was also being investigated by another young man, named Roger Mason. But he had contacts with an academic geologist, who confirmed that the find was genuine. So he removed the piece. And his last name gave the fossil its name: Charnia Masoni.

Answer these questions on the text about Tina Negus: 1.How old was Tina Negus when she proposed her theory?

2. What did Tina see to propose that theory?

3. In what period did this form of life inhabit?

4. Why was the discovery not named after her?

5. Who also investigated the fossil?

What name did she give the fossil?

2. DOROTHEA BATE BY HÉCTOR DURÁN

In 1898 it was still unthinkable that women would be hired to carry out their work as scientists. What's more, it was considered nonsense.

However, at the age of 19, Bate was clear about where to start her first steps without caring about the rules that prevailed at that time.

The Museum of Natural History seemed like a good place to do it.

The Zoologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe agreed to Bate's request to verify that, without having studies that supported her knowledge, she was almost an expert on mammalian fossils. However, not everyone agreed with that decision.

She travelled alone to remote locations and when she needed help, she hired local men as guides and interpreters. Between 1901 and 1911, she explored the mountainous areas of Crete, Cyprus and the Balearic Islands. In the former two, she found fossils of pygmy elephants and hippos. In Majorca she discovered the Myotragus balearicus. Many of her findings were new to science. One of the

greatest discoveries she made on the Mediterranean islands had to do with the rapid evolutionary changes of species. Bate found a tooth between 10,000 and 800,000 years old. She was the evidence that proved the existence of elephants and dwarf deer. Her discoveries have greatly paved the way for zooarchaeology and there are studies that have followed her path.

Answer these questions on the text about Dorothea Bate: 1.Where did she start her first steps?

2.What level of studies did she have?

3.Where did she travel in her career?

4.What discovery did she find in the Mediterranean islands?

5.What evidence did she discover in the Mediterranean Islands?

3.ETHELDRED BENETT BY HÉCTOR FERNÁNDEZ

In 1836, the Imperial Society of Natural History in Moscow accepted a new member to an English fossil expert. Tsar Nicholas I promoted to the newcomer to the title of doctor honoris causa in Civil Law by the University of Saint Petersburg. The whole process almost ended in an international politics problem when it was discovered that the new member of that society was a woman.

The fossil expert was Etheldred Benett. As her name was not very common, she was often taken for a man. In addition to this was the fact that no one could think that a young lady would be dedicated to search and classification of fossils. Very few women were dedicated to science, and those that did so, were little known.

So the Russian officers assumed her gender was male. Benett herself commented that “scientists, in general, had a very low opinion of the abilities of my sex”. But for the Tsar´s mistake, Etheldred Benett became a doctor at a time when women could not go to university.

The independent work of female geologists in the 19th century probably began with her. She has been described as "the most distinguished of the first women to work in geology ”from Great

Britain. She dedicated her life to fossils, to collecting samples and ultimately, to science. Her collection of fossils was interesting for the experts of the time. In fact, it is still cited for the knowledge of the evolution of many groups of invertebrates.

Answer these questions on the text about Etheldred Benett: 1.Who promoted the newcomer for the title of Doctor Honoris Causa in Civil Law by the University of Saint Petersburg?

2. What was discovered about the new member of that society?

3. What was wrong with Etheldred Benett´s name?

4. What did Etheldred Benett achieve, that other women of her time couldn't?

5. How has Etheldred Benett been described?

4.

MARIE MORISAWA BY ELENA GARCÍA

This American geomorphologist of Japanese ascendance was one of the promoters of the revolution that her job experimented in the 50’s and 60’s. In those years geomorphology stopped being a discipline merely descriptive and began to equip itself with quantitative techniques and tools that allowed her to do statistical analysis of her investigations impact of her different phenomena.

As a part of her investigations, she studied rivers’ geomorphology, the impact of the plate tectonic movement and geological threats and risks, among many other issues.

During her career, she was interested in a wide spectrum of phenomena, like earthquakes, landslides, floods and volcanic activity.

She was also interested in other geomorphology’s aspects, like tectonic plates or the examination of the coasts. All of this served to begin the study of environmental geomorphology.

She won many scholarships and awards during her career. She felt especially proud of the recognition as Distinguished Student of the University of Wyoming. She also was also proud of the award as Outstanding Educator of the Association of Geoscientists Women.

She was vice president of the Geology and Geomorphology Division of Quaternary, belonging to the Geological Society of The United States. But it was her dedication to teaching and her students that brought her the most personal satisfaction.

Answer these questions on the text about Marie Morisawa: 1. During her career, in what phenomena was she interested?

2.What did Marie love to do?

3.In what geomorphology's aspects was she interested?

4. Name one of the awards she won: 5.What's her nationality and ascendance?

5. CATHERINE ALICE RAISIN Y JULIO GARVÍN

When she was born, in 1855, Catherine Alice Raisin was the only daughter and the youngest of all the children in Daniel Francis raisin and Sarah Catherine Woodgate´s marriage. It must have been the first and only time when Catherine was the last at something.

All her life she devoted herself to tearing down doors that, up to that point, had been closed to the people of her sex.

From a very young time, she had a special interest in geology.

When she became 18, she began attending University College London. It was where she started this field and then she continued to study mineralogy, a discipline that would end up becoming her specialty.

Since 1878, the University of London began admitting women among their students. Raisin was examined and passed the access test. She prepared herself to get her degree, equivalent to a bachelor's degree in geology and zoology, and then the doctorate.

When he got it, in 1898, she became the second English woman to obtain this degree.

Raisin became famous for her study and knowledge of serpentines, a type of mineral formed from the alteration of silicates and their appearance resembles that of the skin of a snake. In her

publications she described a collection of some 270 different serpentines from different regions of England.

She is also known for her commitment, dedication and support for women's education. At the age of 25, in 1880, she helped found the Club Somerville, a debate forum for women who were eager for this kind of intellectual stimuli, but were vetoed into the clubs mainly for men.

Answer these questions on the text about Catherine A. Raisin: 1.What did Catherine feel interested in?

2.In what year did women begin to be admitted as students at the University of London?

3.What was the bachelor's degree she got?

4.How many serpentines did she describe?

5.Which club did she help to found?

6. ZONIA BABER BY JAVIER MUÑOZ

This geographer and geologist was born in Illinois, United States, in the second half of the 19th century. She stood out for her work in teaching geography. She insisted on the importance of the work in the field, because the simple memorization of names and places was not the goal. In addition, she was a relevant figure in the claim for equal rights for women and minorities.

For Baber, contextualization and mapping were essential to teach geography. She wanted to convey to her students that maps have symbols that correspond to real places and people. She thought that instead of copying the maps, students should create their own method for making them. In this way, they would interpret them in real terms.

In 1920, she published "A Proposal to Rename Solar Circles in the Journal of Geography". Her proposal was to rename the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer as the North Tropic and the Southern Tropic.

Although today both terms are accepted in the world of geography, no official change of nomenclature was made.

The following quotation summarizes her understanding of teaching: "The understanding of geographical facts requires knowledge of science, mathematics and history, and demands expression in reading, writing, modelling, drawing, painting and creation."

Answer these questions on the text about Zonia Barber: 1.Where and when was Zonia Barber born?

2.What did Zonia Baber insist on?

3.What did she want to convey to their students?

4.What was her proposal and when did she publish it?

5.How does she summarize her understanding of teaching?

7. MARÍA GORDÓN BY ALEXANDRA ORTIZ

This geologist and paleontologist turned several things upside down in her time. The best known was the idea people had about how the Dolomites (a group of mountains in South Tyrol, in the Alps) were formed. In the area there was a great abundance of coral fossils. For that, the general belief at the time was that they had been formed from the remains of a coral atoll of an ancient sea. Gordon contradicted that assumption. She suggested that the mountains had been formed by the twisting and folding of the earth's crust. It would have raised the strata to hundreds of meters above sea level geological sites that were once hundreds of meters below. But no less important was her fight to break down barriers for women.She insisted on doing what no other woman had been allowed to do before. Gordon was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in sciences in the UK and also the first to do so in the University of Munich.

She was a pioneer at her time, but above all, a scientist. That was what gave her more satisfaction during her life.

Answer these questions on the text about María Gordón: 1.Apart from being a geologist, what other degree did she have?

2. What was her best known idea?

3.What did she suggest about the mountains?

4.What was she first as a woman?

5.What did she dedicate her life to, apart from geology and paleontology?