Lost Women of Science

Svetlana Mojsov: The Woman Behind GLP-1

In 1983, working with pencil and paper at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, Svetlana Mojsov spotted what everyone else had missed: the active form of a n

A pioneer behind x-ray crystallography, Isabella Karle

In high school, Isabella Karle had to take a science class to fulfill a prerequisite. She chose chemistry at random. Karle would go on to become one of the most important

Conversations: The Rediscovery of I Who Have Never Known Men

In this episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, host Elah Feder explores the remarkable resurgence of I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman’s 1995 novel

La mujer que demostró el efecto invernadero

En 1856, décadas antes de que se acuñara el término “gas de efecto invernadero”, Eunice Newton Foote demostró el efecto invernadero en su laboratorio casero. Colocó un ci

Best Of: The Woman Who Demonstrated the Greenhouse Effect

In 1856, decades before the term “greenhouse gas” was coined, Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated the greenhouse effect in her home laboratory. She placed a glass cylinder f

Tilly Edinger: The Paleoneurologist Saved By Her Science

How much can you understand about a brain when that brain is long gone? Tilly Edinger, a Jewish paleontologist, used fossilized skulls to study the evolution of brains. T

Kamala Sohonie: The Chemist who Wanted to Feed a Nation

In 1930s India, Kamala Baghvat dreamed of working alongside the world's greatest scientific minds. But she was repeatedly told “no” when she tried to work in the then mal

Sharla Boehm: The Programmer Whose Code Underpins the Internet

Sharla Boehm earned a teaching degree from UCLA before channeling her talent for math into computer programming. While working at the Rand Corporation, she built a ground

Best Of: Chemistry Professor and Crime Buster: The Remarkable Life of Mary Louisa Willard

“The only time I ever saw something that I thought was abnormal…there was a human arm in the refrigerator,” said J. Peter Willard about his aunt, Mary Louisa Willard. Oth

Profesora de química y caza criminales: La extraordinaria vida de Mary Louisa Willard

“La única vez que vi algo que me pareció anormal… había un brazo humano en el refrigerador”, dijo J. Peter Willard sobre su tía, Mary Louisa Willard. Por lo demás, insist

Elizabeth Roboz Einstein: The Determined Genius Behind a Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough

Elizabeth Roboz Einstein’s life was shaped by the forces of history. She studied bioorganic chemistry at the University of Vienna in the 1920s and then left her home coun

Conversation: If I Am Right, and I Know I Am: Inge Lehmann, the Woman Who Discovered Earth’s Innermost Secret

In this episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, host Carol Sutton Lewis speaks with science writer Hanne Strager about her biography of Inge Lehmann, the pioneeri

BONUS: Agnes Pockels and the Kitchen Sink Myth

This bonus episode is a co-production with Distillations, a podcast produced by the Science History Institute. Agnes Pockels did pioneering work in surface science. Her

Layers of Brilliance: Vanishing Act -- Episode Six

How is a legacy preserved, and how is someone forgotten? Determined to make a final name for himself, Irving Langmuir ventures into science that even he might classify as

Layers of Brilliance: The Self You Have to Live With - Episode Five

Katharine’s relatives lead the production team to a collection of papers and artifacts stored in a New England storage unit, revealing an inner struggle she kept carefull

Layers of Brilliance: The Breakthrough - Episode Four

The 1930s prove to be an exceptional decade for research at The General Electric Company. Katharine Burr Blodgett works closely alongside her boss, Irving Langmuir who, i

Layers of Brilliance: The Air She Breathed -- Episode Three

The only woman in a laboratory filled with men, Katharine Burr Blodgett soon becomes indispensable as an assistant to The General Electric Company’s most famous scientist

Layers of Brilliance: The 'House of Magic' -- Episode Two

Katharine Burr Blodgett arrives at The General Electric Company’s legendary research laboratory in Schenectady, New York, known as the “House of Magic.” She was just 20 y

Layers of Brilliance: The Chemical Genius of Katharine Burr Blodgett - Episode One

In the first of this five-part season we trace Katharine’s early years as she picks up European languages, her early scientific education at a progressive New York school

Layers of Brilliance

Introducing Layers of Brilliance, a six-part season that brings to life the story of a woman whose discoveries in materials science quietly shape our everyday world – but