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Barbara McClintock helped us to understand just how genes make us so different before we even knew the structure of DNA. Learn about her life and work with purple corn! Read More
Ada Lovelace imagined and understood a world of computers that was over a century ahead of her time. Let’s learn more about this famous female of computer programming. Read More

Today's Famous Female is Katharine Blodgett, who invented invisible glass as well as many other amazing things.

 

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Today's Famous Female is Agnes Pockels, who managed to do science with dishwater and became a founder of 'surface science'! Read More

Claudia Alexander was a planetary scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was the 17th African American woman to get a PhD in physics or astronomy. She was the last project manager of NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and until the time of her passing had served as project manager and scientist of NASA's role in the Rosetta mission to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Remember the rendezvous with the comet last year?) In her spare time, Alexander wrote books on science for children and mentored young people, especially African American girls. "She wanted children of color to see themselves as scientists," her sister told reporters. Love that.

“This is among the purposes of my life — to take us from states of ignorance to states of understanding with bold exploration that you can’t do every day.” - Claudia Alexander


It's Wonder Woman Wednesday, and we are honoring Alice Bowman, the FIRST female Mission Operations Manager, of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab and the Space Department’s Space Mission Operations Group. New Horizons, APL's mission to Pluto, is her charge.

Bowman was a chemistry and physics major in college, and her interest in space exploration was sparked by the shows Star Trek and Lost in Space, which she would watch with other eight-year-olds in her neighborhood. We are SO glad that Alice did not lose interest in science during the time when most girls' confidence in STEM subjects wanes. We are so inspired by this amazing woman. -- But then again, we are a little partial to chemistry majors. 


It is incredibly important for girls to see successful women in science careers. Eugenie Clark was one of those women. Known as the Shark Lady, she was a renowned ichthyologist, who discovered the first effective shark repellent in secretions from a flatfish called Moses sole that lives in the Red Sea. A pioneer in the use of scuba gear to conduct underwater scientific research and a veteran of more than 70 deep dives in submersibles, Clark continued diving into her nineties, even after being diagnosed with non-smoking-related lung cancer. You can read more about her in this National Geographic article, which will help inspire and keep girls interested in pursuing a career in science.

miss piggy

Move over Emma Watson and Lena Dunham, Miss Piggy is here to claim her rightful place as a feminist icon.

"I mean that moi is now and has always been an ardent feminist and champion of women’s rights," the Muppet "wrote" for TIME Magazine. She goes on to say, "I believe any woman who is willing to struggle, strive -- and if necessary learn karate -- to make their mark in the world is a feminist. And, yes, I believe that any woman, who cares about her appearance, her star billing and most especially her percentage of the gross, is a feminist. Moi is all of these things."

We'd like to congratulate Miss Piggy on receiving the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art Award, alongside Toni Morrison and Sandra Day O'Connor.

#FeministFriday

Read entire article at the Huffington Post here.