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A medical researcher in Maoist China Tu Youyou in a pharmacology lab with a colleague in the 1950s. “When I first studied the Song Sparrows,” Nice wrote, “I had looked upon Song Sparrow 4M as a truculent, meddlesome neighbor but … I discovered him to be a delightful bird, spirited, an accomplished songster and a devoted father.”ĭespite earning no advanced degrees and being considered an amateur, Nice promoted innovations like the “use of colored leg bands to distinguish individual birds,” gained the respect of her better-known peers, and enjoyed a long, successful career. Rochester Institute of Technology professor of science, technology, and society Kristoffer Whitney recounted what Nice called her “phenomenological method,” acknowledging the obvious “affection and anthropomorphism” you can see in her descriptions. Most famously she observed song sparrows in the 1920s and ‘30s. Margaret Morse Nice was a field biologist who got into the minds of her study subjects to garner new insights into animal behavior.
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That’s part of why, OConnell writes, “I believe Tharp should be as famous as Jane Goodall or Neil Armstrong.” 2. But she was right, and her insight was a key contribution to plate tectonic theory. Her discovery of a rift valley in the North Atlantic shook the world of geology – her supervisor on the ship dismissed her idea as “girl talk,” and Jacques Cousteau was determined to prove her wrong. One of her innovations was to translate this data into topographical sketches of what the seafloor looked like. Aboard research ships, she would carefully record the depth of the ocean, point by point, using sonar. In 1957, she and her research partner started publishing detailed hand-drawn maps of the ocean floor, complete with rugged mountains, valleys, and deep trenches. (c) Sketches features are shown on the profiles. (a) Shows the position of two ship tracks (A, B) moving across the surface. Revealing and mapping the ocean floorĪs late as the 1950s, wrote Wesleyan University geoscientist Suzanne OConnell, “many scientists assumed the seabed was featureless.” An illustration of Marie Tharp’s mapping process. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the estate of Marie Tharp 1. Rolled sonar profiles of the ocean floor are on the shelf behind her. Marie Tharp with an undersea map at her desk.
WHO MAPPED OUT THE OCEAN FLOOR IN 1952 ARCHIVE
Of course, there are far too many to all fit on one list.īut here are five profiles from The Conversation’s archive that highlight the brilliance, grit, and unique perspectives of five women who worked in geosciences, math, ornithology, pharmacology, and physics during the 20th century. Behind some of the most fascinating scientific discoveries and innovations are women whose names might not be familiar but whose stories are worth knowing.