I really appreciated the fact that Dr. Cogan asked us to reflect upon what factors attribute to a scientific revolution. When it comes to the background of the scientists of the time, they tended to be wealthy, educated males who were naturally curious and competitive, wanting all the recognition for themselves. The state of the field of scientific study was also very exclusive, with the many scientific cohorts, and the majority of the discoveries at the time were accidental. However, I was taken back when Dr. Cogan asked whether all the greatest discoveries have already been made. Today, we can’t tinker around in our kitchen and make a new discovery; it’s already been done. Yet, there’s still so much about space, the ocean, etc. that remains unknown. Thus, are there more scientific revolutions to come? Are we technically already apart of a scientific revolution currently as we speak?

I think it is very important to acknowledge women’s accomplishments throughout history. I found it interesting to see that most of the women that were mentioned had connections to wealthy men. It showed that if a woman wanted to have an education or participate in science, she had to be from a high class background. One exception to this was Mary Anning. She had no connections and was often in poverty. This made it even easier for men to claim her discoveries as their own. In class, we talked about some potential reasons that women are left out of history. These include lack of access and the fact that women were written out of history. Many had their ideas accredited to men and had no power to correct this. Some of the women presented very fairly famous, but others I had never heard of before. I enjoyed learning more about each female scientist and hope we continue to explore this in class.

I was already familiar with some of the more well known early women scientists Dr. Breitenberger mentioned, but a lot of the women mentioned, and the accomplishments of some of the women I was already familiar with were new to me. I knew of Marie Curie, for example, but didn’t realize that she’d won not 1 but 2 nobel prizes, or that her daughter, Irene Curie-Joliot, also won a nobel prize for her work on radioisotopes.

Dr. Breitenberger mentioned that when women were able to be involved in science early on, they were generally doing field work, or more general data collection or analysis. Bill Bryson mentions this as well in the context of astronomy. I study mycology myself, and in my research I’ve come across a surprisingly high number of late 19th and early 20th century field mycologists.

I really enjoyed Dr. Breitenberger’s presentation on women scientists in Europe. I thought that I would know most of them, but she presented many that I didn’t know, such as Mary Anning and Marie-Anne Livoisier. Although they were both mentioned briefly in Bryson’s book, I had never heard about them outside of this class. I am glad Dr. Breitenberger thought it was important for the class to learn about some Women in STEM and their contributions. For both projects, I am hoping to focus on women in science as it is a topic I am really passionate about. I think it is important to draw attention to their accomplishments, especially as more women are entering the STEM field. This presentation gave me more women to potentially focus on besides some of the more well known scientists such as Rosalind Franklin and Marie Curie.

I really enjoyed Dr. Breitenberger’s presentation on women in science. I think understanding the societal aspects and difficulties that many women faced when attempting to pursue their career and personal goals was very important during our discussion. I was particularly captivated by the achievements of Caroline Herschel; I couldn’t believe she was able to spot and identify comets that seldomly pass the Earth! After the talk, I did a bit more research on comets and their orbits in our solar system (I didn’t know comets move in an elliptical orbit around the sun). I was also very interested in the work done by Mary Anning and her discoveries. I’m excited to do more research on the impact that women have had on the world of science.

I really appreciated the fact that Dr. Breitenberger took the time to research and present notable women in science.  Although women have been entering the STEMM field at a more elaborate rate now a days, men still dominate the STEMM field. Like Dr. Breitenberger mentioned, this dominance can be partly attributed to the gender roles seen throughout our history, leading to many scientific findings discovered by women being accredited to men. For example, although Caroline Herschel was the original discoverer of the periodic comet in 1789, Roger Rigollet rediscovered the comet in 1939 and thus the comet was named 35P/Herschel-Rigollet. Again, we see this with Rosalind Franklin, who’s X-ray crystallography was essential to the understanding of the structure of DNA, not being credited for the discovery of the double helix. (As we know, Watson and Crick are accredited with this discovery.)

The discussion of Mary Anning caught my attention the most, however. We were first introduced to Marry Anning during Dr. Dale Gnidiovic’s presentation, then again in Bryson’s book. I’m amazed by how young she was when she was accredited with the discovery of the first ichthyosaur and how detailed her excavations were for being self-taught with minimal tools. Thus, I’m excited to see Mary Annig’s discoveries in the Natural History Museum when we travel to London!

I was obsessed with Dr. Dale Gnidovec! From the dinosaur skull on his belt buckle and his dinosaur tie, to his extreme enthusiasm and passion for paleontology and geology, he captured all of my attention! I really enjoyed how he was able to connect  American geological discoveries (even some specifically from Ohio) to some of the museums we will soon be seeing when we travel abroad. Thanks to Dr. Dale Gnidovec, I’m most excited to see the Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie Comparée! Although I’m a biology major, if I could major in anything, it would be anatomy. Being on a prevet track, I’m very interested in comparative anatomy; thus, this museum is right up my alley! I can’t wait to see with my own eyes the room full of skeletons and all the fossils that Dr. Dale Gnidovec showed us during his presentation!