Special Note: This will still be the American Food/World of Business blog, but every so often, I’d like to feature a science article. One reason is because science can overlap into and with many diverse fields, including business and food.

The other reason? Please continue:

I have recently fallen in love with the field of science, realized during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, and continuing strong today.

It wasn’t always so; while growing up and attending school, I (like many women then-and a lot of men too) thought science was one of the most boring topics on the earth, comparable to “watching paint dry.”

I now know that the problem was the way the subject was taught and presented.

In my own humble way, a personal mission will be attempted to make science as accessible and interesting as possible.

To start off, here are a few Did You Know That…..

80 percent of all code breakers during World War II were female.

That paper bag your take-out comes in? It was invented by a female.

The process that made the shirt on your back possible, the first computer program, wireless tech, or nuclear fission? All were invented, discovered, or created by women.

A woman named Rosamund Franklin was also instrumental in the discovery of DNA, instead of only James Watson and Francis Crick. By January 1953, Franklin concluded that DNA takes the double-helix form (you’ve seen it). She then sent her findings to a prestigious science journal-a full day before Watson and Crick completed their model of the structure. No coincidence here; Watson and Crick’s model was based on a photo of the double helix that Franklin had taken, which they got their hands on through nefarious means. Watson even told Franklin to her face that he didn’t think she was smart enough to interpret her own photos correctly. Watson and Crick were awarded a Nobel prize in 1962; Franklin never was.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell actually discovered pulsars, but her male supervisor was awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize instead.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was a British mathematician and programmer who created the first-ever computer program. She was a visionary, the first person to ever develop theories on the potential importance of computers. These theories and further notes influenced Alan Turing’s 1940s work on the first legit computers. The U.S. Dept. of Defense has a computer language named Ada in her honor, and there’s an Ada Lovelace Day every October 13th, to raise the profile of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

On January 23rd, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) became the first woman in America to earn a medical degree.

Her younger sister, Emily Blackwell (1826-1910) also became a doctor, earning her medical degree in 1854.

Of the more than five million U.S. patents that have been granted since 1790, only about 5 percent have a woman’s name on them.

White men often took credit for women’s inventions, sometimes at the request of women of color who feared that white consumers wouldn’t want to purchase their items. Or women of color would pass as “white” (inventors didn’t have to put their race on patent applications). Women in general were often denied access to education and tools that made it possible to invent stuff in the first place.

Mary Sherman Morgan (1921-2004) was one of the world’s first female rocket scientists.

She developed hydyne fuel, a combustion powerful enough to propel a satellite all the way into space (a feat the U.S. had not yet accomplished). Hydyne increased thrust by 12 percent and effectively launched the United States’ first satellite, Explorer I, into orbit on January 1, 1958 (but the spacecraft’s designer, Wehner von Braun, was credited and lauded as the savior of the space program; NASA was developed that July).

Morgan’s passing in 2004 received no major accolades, but that was about to change due to one of her four children, son George. A play (2008) and complete biography (2013) of his mom’s life and work, Rocket Girl, received wide acclaim.

Elizabeth Magie (1866-1948) actually invented the Monopoly board game. In 1903, Magie developed and patented what was then called the “Landlord’s Game.” But Charles Darrow is credited with the invention; he had played a version of Magie’s game, copied the rules, and then sold it to Parker Brothers. Darrow went on to make millions.

Ruth Wakefield (ca. 1903-1977) created the first chocolate chip cookie in 1938.

Wakefield was a dietician, food lecturer, and graduate of the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts in Massachusetts.

She and her husband bought a tourist lodge near Boston in 1930. It was called the Toll House Inn and became famous due to Ruth’s cooking (her chocolate chip treat was originally called Toll House Cookies).

In 1939, Wakefield sold the recipe rights and the Toll House name to Nestle for $1.

She became a company consultant (hopefully, with really decent money) for many years.

Grace Hopper (1906-1992) developed COBOL, the most used computer programming language of all time, and created the first compiler (a program that translates high-programming language into machine code for computers to read. Hopper also worked at Harvard on one of the first computers as part of the Mark I programming staff and as a member of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during World War II.

The late actress Hedy LaMarr (1914-2000) was best known as a sultry screen siren, but she was also an amazing inventor, often collaborating with composer George Antheil.

During World War II, LaMarr developed the technology to auto-target torpedoes.

At the time, an enemy could easily send the weapons off course by broadcasting interference at the same frequency as the signal that controlled them. 

LaMarr randomized the frequencies controlling the torpedoes, with Antheil assisting.

This same technology was later used to develop Wi-Fi!

For further interest in STEM, medicine, and exploration/adventure, check out:

girldevelopit.com-A nonprofit that provides affordable, accessible software-development programs across the U.S.

girlswhocode.com-Offers a wide variety of programs to help gain computing skills; the Summer Immersion Program has seven weeks of intensive training.

hackbrightacademy.com has a ten-week,women-only course that takes you from beginner to software engineer (90% of the graduates get job offers!). There are also scholarships for those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds.

girlsintech.org-for women interested in tech and entrepreneurship. There are conferences, a two-month bootcamp, mentorships, and much more.

Million Women Mentors; their website is mwm.stemconnector.com-If you’re interested in medicine or medical science, but not sure where or how to start, look here.

amwa-doc.org-This is the American Women’s Medical Association, which fights for improvements for women in medical science. Anyone in health services (doctor, nurse, resident, med student, health care worker, caregiver, for a few examples) or who is simply a supporter of women in medicine can join.

women.nasa.gov/outreach-programs/-Encouraging all women of any age to get involved in outer space.

exxpedition.com-Offers a series of all-women voyages that focus on data gathering concerning the harmful effects of toxins in our environment. The trips go everywhere and women with all kinds of skills are needed, from filmmakers, scientists, maintenance, cooks, etc.

Source: “Wonder Women-25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History” by Sam Maggs (female), and my own recollections