Everyone has heard of Darwin, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. They weren›t the only ones, though, who greatly improved our grasp of the physical cosmos. Unfortunately, many more men and women (with a focus on women, whose contributions to science have traditionally but predictably been criminally neglected) never received the credit they deserved for their tireless efforts and ground-breaking discoveries.
Barbara McClintock
McClintock made a ground-breaking discovery in the 1940s: she unveiled the existence of mobile genetic elements, known as transposons or “jumping genes,” which can change their position within the genome. Sounds a little convoluted, we’ll admit, but this discovery challenged the prevailing notion that genes were static entities and shed light on the dynamic nature of genetic regulation.
Gerty and Carl Cori
In the early 20th century, the Coris focused their research on understanding the intricate processes by which carbohydrates are broken down and utilized in the body. They elucidated the biochemical pathway now known as the Cori cycle, explaining how glucose is converted into energy and stored as glycogen in the liver. This discovery was instrumental in unravelling the complexities of carbohydrate metabolism and provided key insights into disorders such as diabetes and glycogen storage diseases.
Georges Lamaitre
The name Georges Lemaitre is one that deserves a lot more recognition than it actually gets. This Belgian priest, mathematician, and astronomer proposed a radical idea in the early 20th century: that the universe originated from an initial, infinitesimally small singularity and expanded rapidly: a cosmic explosion known ever after as the “Big Bang.”
Norman Borlaug
Borlaug dedicated his life to developing high-yielding and disease-resistant crop varieties, launching the “Green Revolution.” By crossbreeding different strains of wheat and incorporating modern farming techniques, Borlaug achieved astonishing results, successfully developing varieties that could withstand harsh conditions and deliver higher yields, helping to feed a rapidly growing global population.
Rosalind Franklin
Everyone’s heard of James Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered the distinctive double helix structure of DNA. But let’s not forget Rosalind Franklin, the unsung hero of this scientific saga, whose pioneering work in X-ray crystallography gave us crucial images that helped crack the code. In particular, “Photo 51,” one of her many X-ray diffraction photographs, provided the smoking gun Watson and Crick later used to make their ground-breaking discovery.
