It is fair to say that we have always been fascinated by the world around us. Without countless discoveries achieved by brilliant minds across the globe, we would not be where we are today.
Over the centuries, an array of bright and influential women have contributed to enhancing our knowledge of illnesses, chemistry, flora and fauna, and the universe. Between 200–400 AD, Greek physician Metrodora wrote On the Diseases and Cures of Women, a medical text detailing revolutionary therapies and surgical techniques. Hypatia of Alexandria, who lived in the late 4th century, led the life of a respected academic, thriving both in mathematics and philosophy. In the hundreds of years to come, many illuminating women have followed suit, dedicating their professional careers to the wonderful world of science.
If you are browsing through life-science jobs and are in need of some inspiration, take some time to read about the extraordinary work of renowned female scientists. Here, we showcase five exceptional women in science to reveal their resounding achievements, highlighting how they transformed the sector for the better.
Caroline Herschel (1750–1848)
Born and raised in Germany, Caroline Herschel grew up in a large family with a true soft spot for music. Indeed, at the age of 22, she joined her older brother William in the city of Bath to train as a singer and work as an organist. However, the siblings soon took a strong interest in astronomy and began to build their own telescopes. Caroline, specifically, focused on producing and polishing accurate lenses to scrutinise the night sky.
Caroline’s technical efforts helped William discover the planet Uranus in 1781 and, between them, the Herschels recorded over 2,500 star clusters and nebulae. What’s more, in 1786, Caroline identified a mysterious, luminescent object flying across the night sky. It was an outstanding discovery, as she’d just become the first woman in history to register the existence of comets.
Over the next decade, she would unearth another ten, and submitted about 550 celestial bodies to extend England’s existing star catalogue.
Marie Curie (1867–1934)
Marie Curie, née Maria Sk?odowska, is one of the most famous scientists of all time. In the early 1900s, Marie was appointed head of the physics lab at the University of Sorbonne in France, lecturing and sharing precious knowledge when only very few women taught science at an academic level.
Before that, Marie worked alongside her husband Pierre to investigate the enticing sphere of radioactivity. In 1898, the couple discovered two new chemical elements – polonium and radium. Their ground-breaking research led to the invention of a mobile X-ray unit, employed frequently during World War I to treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
Marie’s findings and inventions brought her to become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics (1903). As if one award was not enough, she also received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which truly crowned her as one of the most influential women in the history of science.
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012)
Rita Levi-Montalcini is a prime example of how passion and ambition can pave the way to a career rich in outstanding achievements. Born in Turin in 1909, Rita was raised by an old-fashioned authoritarian father who disapproved of women’s post-school education. Despite this, she convinced him to let her study medicine and crammed years’ worth of maths, Latin, and Greek in a few months to fill the gap with her educated peers.
Rita’s Jewish origins meant that, following Mussolini’s 1938 race laws, she was kicked out of university, where she had started advanced studies in psychology and neurology. Dr Levi-Montalcini, however, was far from discouraged, and set up a makeshift lab in her bedroom, experimenting on chicken embryos.
Rita’s life-long research has been recognised to have driven our modern understanding of severe conditions such as cancer and senile dementia. In fact, she disc...
