At this festive time of year, when many people are bringing trees into their homes to decorate for the holidays,... more

Two female botanists – Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter – made headlines for riding the rapids of the Colorado River... more

Carolyn Beatrice Parker came from a family of doctors and academics and worked during World War II as a physicist... more

Anna Von Mertens' thoughtful new exploration of Henrietta Swan Leavitt's life describes and illuminates Leavitt's decades-long study of stars, including... more

Although initial clinical trials of tamoxifen as a treatment of breast cancer were positive, Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) did not... more

In the early 1960s, chemist Dr. Dora Richardson synthesized a chemical compound that became one of the most important drugs... more

While researching her book about thalidomide in America, Jennifer Vanderbes discovered that there were far more survivors in the U.S.... more

It’s September 2024 and a group of American thalidomide survivors arrive in Washington D.C. to lobby the government for support.... more

It’s the summer of 1962 and thalidomide has been off the market in Europe for months. But in the U.S.,... more

It’s 1961 and Widukind Lenz, a German pediatrician, is going door to door in his efforts to find out what... more

It’s the early 1960s and the German pharmaceutical market is booming. A sedative called Contergan is one of the bestselling... more

In this first chapter of a new five-part season we meet Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, a physician and pharmacologist who... more

In the 1950s, a German drug company developed a new sedative that was supposed to be 100% safe: thalidomide. So... more

In the 1920s, when newspapers and magazines started to showcase stories about science, many of the early science journalists were... more

By the second half of the 20th century, physicists were on a mission to find the ultimate building blocks of... more

Dr. Jess Wade is a physicist at Imperial College London who’s made it her mission to write and update the... more

Dr. Nancy Hopkins, a molecular biologist who made major discoveries in cancer genetics, became an unlikely activist in her early... more

“The only time I ever saw something that I thought was abnormal…there was a human arm in the refrigerator,” said... more

When Laura J. Martin decided to write a history of ecological restoration, she didn’t think she would have to go... more

In our final episode, we explore Dorothy Andersen’s legacy — what she left behind and how her work has lived... more

The missing portrait of Dr. Andersen takes us on a journey into the perils of memorialization and who gets to... more

Our associate producer, Sophie McNulty, rummages through boxes in a Connecticut basement, looking for clues to Dorothy Andersen’s life story.... more

A few important things have happened in the three years since we first aired The Pathologist in the Basement, the... more

When poet Jessy Randall started researching the lives of female scientists she became angry. And we certainly can relate here... more

“We were each put on earth to torment the other,” says cognitive scientist Steven Pinker of Elizabeth Bates, a psychologist... more

Melba Phillips, who grew up on a farm in Indiana at the turn of the 20th century, was one of... more

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was in her early 20s when she figured out what the stars are made of. Both she and... more

The year is 1897 and Annie Maunder, an amateur astronomer, is boarding a steamship bound for India from England. Her... more

In this episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, Michelle Nijhuis talks to historian Catherine McNeur about how she rediscovered... more

While working at the Salk Institute in California, Ursula Bellugi discovered that sign language was made up of specific building... more

Katharine “Kay” Way was a nuclear physicist who worked at multiple Manhattan Project sites. She was an expert in radioactive... more

“Hoots and derision, which did not worry me at all,” Lilian Bland wrote, describing her visit to an airshow in... more

In the first of a new series we’re calling Lost Women of Science Conversations—and a fitting choice for Black History... more

Sara Little Turnbull was a force in the world of material science and industrial design. It’s safe to say most... more

The Australian physicist Ruby Payne-Scott helped lay the groundwork for a whole new kind of astronomy: radio astronomy. By scanning... more

Sallie Pero Mead was first hired at AT&T in 1915 as a “computer”—a human calculator—shortly after completing her master’s degree... more

Scientist Leona Zacharias was a rare woman. She graduated from Barnard College in 1927 with a degree in biology, followed... more

Vera Peters began her career studying treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma. She used techniques that had seen positive outcomes on Hodgkin’s... more

Annie Montague Alexander was an adventurer, amateur paleontologist, and the founding benefactor of two venerated research collections at UC Berkeley... more

Emma Unson Rotor took leave from her job as a math teacher in the Philippines to study physics at Johns... more

In 1925, a young anthropologist named Margaret Mead traveled to Samoa to explore the impact of cultural factors on adolescent... more

Christine Ladd-Franklin is best known for her theory of the evolution of color vision, but her research spanned math, symbolic... more

There's a test that we at Lost Women of Science seem to fail again and again: the Finkbeiner Test. Named for the science... more

Today we tell the story of Mária Telkes, one of the developers of solar thermal storage systems, who was so... more

In 1856, decades before the term “greenhouse gas” was coined, Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated the greenhouse effect in her home... more

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, born in 1831, was the first African American female medical doctor in the U.S. and is... more

In the 1960s, a Black home economist at Howard University recruited kids for an experimental preschool program. All were Black... more

Harriet Jane Lawrence was one of the first female pathologists in the U.S. In the early 1900s she worked in... more

Known as “America’s first female cryptanalyst,” Elizebeth Smith Friedman was a master codebreaker who played a pivotal role in both... more

Christine Essenberg had an unusual life and an unusual career trajectory. She was married, then divorced, and earned her PhD... more

Born in 1850, Sarah Loguen found her calling as a child, when she helped her parents and Harriet Tubman bandage... more

In the late 1920s, Lillian Gilbreth enlisted her children — she had 11— in an experiment: bake a strawberry shortcake... more

We continue the story of Jewish physicist Lise Meitner, the first person to understand that the atom had been split.... more

New translations of hundreds of letters explain, in a two-part episode of Lost Women of Science, why physicist Lise Meitner... more

In the early 1990s, two physicists, Ruth Howes and Caroline Herzenberg, began looking into a question that had aroused their... more

Katharine “Kay” Way was a nuclear physicist who worked at multiple Manhattan Project sites. She was an expert in radioactive... more

Lilli Hornig was only 23 years old when she arrived at Los Alamos to contribute to the development of an... more

Naomi Livesay, born in 1916 in the northern reaches of Montana, aspired to one career: mathematics. She earned a bachelor’s... more

Floy Agnes Lee was a hematologist at Los Alamos. Recruited to the Manhattan Project while still  a student at University... more

Leona Woods Marshall Libby was the only woman hired onto Enrico Fermi's team at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University... more

During World War II, thousands of scientists and engineers worked on the Manhattan project, the top secret push to develop... more

Welcome to the first in our From Our Inbox series, in which we give listeners a taste of the mail... more

Cecilia Payne was in her early 20s when she figured out what the stars are made of. Both she and... more

In 1992, a Dutch doctor named Josh von Soer Clemm von Hohenberg wrote a letter to Henning Voscherau, the mayor... more

Marie Nyswander died in 1986. She’d achieved almost everything she set out to, but she wanted more: even better medications... more

A reminder that our next episode is scheduled to come out next Thursday! In the meantime, we’ve hit a slight snag—Katie... more

Marie Nyswander and her team at Rockefeller unveil their findings at last: methadone has utterly transformed their patients. They’re going... more

After years of disappointing results in her quest to treat heroin addiction, Marie Nyswander was more than ready to try... more

In the early 1950s, Marie Nyswander was ready to move on from addiction. She set up a private practice and... more

In 1946, Marie Nyswander, a recent medical school graduate, joined the U.S. Public Health Service looking for adventure abroad. Instead,... more

In 1965, a team of doctors at Rockefeller University announced what sounded like a miracle—they’d found a treatment for heroin... more

In 1909, the Mayor of Tokyo sent a gift of 2,000 prized cherry trees to Washington, D.C. But the iconic... more

Scientist Leona Zacharias was a rare woman. She graduated from Barnard College in 1927 with a degree in biology, followed... more

Each season of Lost Women of Science tells the story of one remarkable female scientist, but hundreds more remain overlooked.... more

We’re hard at work producing the next season of Lost Women of Science, but we wanted to bring you this... more

There's a test that we at Lost Women of Science seem to fail again and again: the Finkbeiner Test. Named... more

This week, we’re bringing you an episode from another podcast hosted and produced by Katie Hafner, Our Mothers Ourselves. It’s... more

YY taught at Tennessee State University, a historically Black university, for 55 years. In this episode, we hear from YY’s... more

What is mechanical engineering? What was YY actually doing? This episode is about the work itself – specifically, the work... more

When YY started college at Howard University as a mechanical engineering student, there were three things she swore she’d never... more