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The calculations behind the first American astronaut in space, the unearthing of the first complete fossil of a dinosaur, and the discovery of greenhouse gasses. What do these achievements have in common?

That’s right. They are all achievements first made by women. Women and girls across the world have long fought for representation and equality in the scientific field. While some female scientists, such as Marie Curie, have since become household names, others remain lesser known.

����tv Bitesize takes a look at the women behind the remarkable science that has shaped how we look at the world today.

Katherine Johnson: Helped send the first American astronaut into space

Katherine Johnson is recognised as a key figure in the United States of America’s space history. Her genius was discovered at a young age. She attended high school at 10 years old and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and French eight years later. In 1939, she was one of the first three African American students selected to enrol in a graduate program at West Virginia University.

Johnson’s life changed forever when she joined NACA, later called NASA, as a ‘computer’. In the 1950s, there were no computers like today, so people had to solve complex maths problems themselves.

During this time, she was instrumental in calculating trajectories, launching window opportunities and creating emergency return paths for spacecrafts during the Space Race. As a result of Johnson’s intricate manual calculations and pioneering use of computers, NASA was able to fly Alan B. Shepard Jr, the first U.S. astronaut, into space and Earth’s orbit in 1961, as well as sending the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

Johnson has since been the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2016 NASA named a building, the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility, after her. That same year 20th Century Studios released Hidden Figures, a biographical film that dramatised her time at the space agency.

Eunice Newton Foote: Discovered the existence of greenhouse gases

Scientist, inventor and women’s rights campaigner, Eunice Newton Foote achieved a lot in her lifetime, but it wasn’t truly acknowledged until the 21st Century.

Newton Foote was born to parents Theriza Newton and Isaac Newton Jr, a distant relative of the famous mathematician and physicist. As an amateur scientist in the mid-1800s, Newton Foote discovered the existence of greenhouse gases and their potential to affect change in climate.

She unearthed this while conducting experiments that compared the temperatures within cylinders filled with different gases. The results of this showed that water vapor and carbon dioxide had the ability to raise temperatures.

From this, Newton Foote made the ground-breaking hypothesis that Earth would be substantially warmer if carbon dioxide levels were higher, and thus discovered the greenhouse effect.

While her work was presented at an 1856 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, it was done so by a male colleague of hers.

It wasn’t until a geologist accidentally rediscovered her work in 2011, that this climate science pioneer became known to the public.

Mary Anning: Unearthed the some of the first complete dinosaur skeletons

Ever wondered why the coastline stretching across Dorset and Devon is referred to as the Jurassic Coast? It might have something to do with Mary Anning, a palaeontologist and fossil collector from Lyme Regis.

Anning was born into a poor family in 1799, and her family members relied on the sale of ‘curiosities’, which she later learnt were fossils. She and her family would collect them from along the English Channel in order to make a living.

At the age of 12, she discovered an ancient reptile called an ichthyosaur, meaning ‘fish lizard’. Later in life she also found a long-necked marine reptile called a plesiosaur.

When Anning was alive only men were permitted to publish work in the scientific community, but this didn’t stop her from documenting her findings to improve her understanding of the dinosaur fossils she found.

Her most renowned find happened in 1824, when she discovered and excavated the first ever intact Dimorphodon skeleton.

Anning’s legacy has not been forgotten and she is recognised for some of the most significant geological discoveries of all time.

Her contribution shed light on and led to new ideas about the history of the Earth and now, thousand of tourists visit Lyme Regis to search the beach for fossils each year, just as Anning did.

This article was published February 2023