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Today scientific discovery is wide open to both men and women. Celebrate these pioneering Women in Science, and help others remember their contributions to society.
Dr. Jane C. Wright began chemotherapy research in 1949, working at her father's cancer research foundation. She was among the first researchers to test chemotherapy drugs on humans, which produced effective dosing levels and helped save lives.
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She and her husband shared the prize in physics in 1903 for their discovery of the new element, Radium. In 1911, she received the Nobel prize in chemistry for her discovery of Polonium, making her the first person to win a second Nobel prize.
Rachel Carson's best-known work, Silent Spring, (pub. 1952), is still considered the cornerstone of the new environmentalism. She wrote the book to expose the proliferation of chemical environmental pollutants.
In 1897, Dr. Alice Hamilton became a resident of Hull House in Chicago, where she lived and researched for 22 years, alerting her to the "dangerous trades", such as lead and match factories. She led the crusade for protective health legislation in the workplace before any laws existed. Her campaign inspired the founding of OSHA in 1971.
Dr. Barbara McClintock pioneered the field of maize cytogenetics, the cellular analysis of genetic phenomena in corn, which provided a visual connection between inheritable traits and their physical basis in the chromosome. In 1983, McClintock was awarded the Nobel prize in genetics.
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