According to a survey, girls lacked the confidence and ability to take up a career in the fields of STEM. But on what basis was this conclusion drawn? Not a test that would compare results of male vs female scientists but on the very beliefs we are brought up with. It’s not about one’s ability but about their beliefs. Here are some stories of women who inspire us to be passionate and determined to find our purpose.
Elizabeth Blackburn – “Telomeres in DNA”
Elizabeth Blackburn was born in Hobart on the island of Tasmania, Australia. Both of her parents were doctors. She took an early interest in animals and nature and went on to study biochemistry at the university in Melbourne. She later received her PhD from Cambridge University, England. She has taken an interest in the ethical implications of research and has contributed to the creation of a code regulating the field.
In 1980, Elizabeth Blackburn discovered that telomeres have a particular DNA. In 1982, together with Jack Szostak, she further proved that this DNA prevents chromosomes from being broken down. Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider discovered the enzyme telomerase, which produces the telomeres' DNA, in 1984.
Dr Candace Pert – “Mother of Psychoneuroimmunology”
Dr Candace Pert (1946-2013) was an internationally recognized neuroscientist and pharmacologist who published over 250 research articles and was a significant contributor to the emergence of “mind-body” medicine as an area of legitimate scientific research in the 1980s.
In addition to being a highly creative neuroscientist, Dr. Pert was also an activist. She leads the movement to advance the cultural and scientific context in which we understand, experience, and employ our imagination, beliefs, and expectations for the purpose of activating our highest realm of potentiality. The mechanism through which this was to be achieved was through our emotions and their stored memories in what she called the “body-mind”.In this concept, Candace realized the unified and integrated level at which physiology, mind, and consciousness access one another to enhance or diminish wellness.
While these concepts are currently accepted in current healing and medical practices, they were considered laughable, radical, and even heretical to the medical cannon thirty years ago when Dr. Pert authored her first scientific papers and popular books on these themes. Despite this resistance, Dr. Pert did not waiver in her advocacy and new knowledge has supported and extended her ground-breaking ideas since that time.
Rosalind Franklin – “A crucial contributor”
Rosalind Franklin made a crucial contribution to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, but some would say she got a raw deal. Indeed, Franklin is in the shadows of science history, for while her work on DNA was crucial to the discovery of its structure, her contribution to that landmark discovery is little known.
Friends and close colleagues considered Franklin a brilliant scientist and a kind-hearted woman. However, she could also be short-tempered and stubborn, and some fellow scientists found working with her to be a challenge. Among them was Maurice Wilkins, the man she was to work with at King's College.
A misunderstanding resulted in immediate friction between Wilkins and Franklin, and their clashing personalities served to deepen the divide. The two were to work together on finding the structure of DNA, but their conflicts led to them working in relative isolation.
Unknown to Franklin, Watson and Crick saw some of her unpublished data, including the beautiful "photo 51," shown to Watson by Wilkins. This X-ray diffraction picture of a DNA molecule was Watson's inspiration (the pattern was clearly a helix). Using Franklin's photograph and their own data, Watson and Crick created their famous DNA model. Franklin's contribution was not acknowledged, but after her death, Crick said that her contribution had been critical.
By:
Aarushi Chitkara
FYBSC P-C-LSc
202271
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