Introductions Necessary

It’s Wear Red Day, a day to raise awareness of women’s risks for heart disease. In honor of the day, meet Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, a cardiologist who is changing the understanding of women’s health. Image: NIH (CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed) Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green is pioneering the use of lasers and nanoparticles to fight cancer. Image Courtesy of the Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Aprille Ericsson-Jackson is an aerospace engineer at NASA, and was the first African-American woman to get a PhD in engineering at Howard University. Image: NASA. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Wanda M. Austin started at The Aerospace Corporation as an entry level engineer rising all the way to CEO and President. Image: NASA. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Laurel Clark was a decorated Navy medic before she became an astronaut aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Image: NASA. Don't forget to check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Four new elements are joining the periodic table. Three of them thanks to a team led by Dawn Shaughnessy. Image: Wikimedia. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Andrea Mueller has always loved racing, and now she’s a lead race engineer in NASCAR helping lead Team Penske to victory. Image: Wikimedia. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Thanks to the work of Alice Evans, we can drink milk knowing that it’s been pasteurized to remove harmful bacteria. Image: Wikimedia. Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the tragic explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger which killed its seven crew members including mission specialist Judith Resnik. Image: NASA

Lilli Hornig was a member of the Manhattan Project, and witnessed the first atomic bomb tests. Image: Wikimedia / Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Meet Esther Lederberg, a microbiologist who made many influential discoveries. Image: Wikimedia.

Meet the first woman to drive on Mars, NASA’s Ashley Stroupe. Image: NASA/JPL.

Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon found star classification systems didn’t fit her needs, so she created a new one that we still use today. Image: Wikimedia.

Meet Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a medical degree. Image: Wikimedia

Roberta Bondar was both the first neurologist and the first Canadian woman in space. Image: Wikimedia.

In the 1970’s Tu Youyou used research into traditional Chinese medicine to discover and synthesize a revolutionary malaria treatment. Image Source: Wikimedia (Bengt Nyman, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Restrictions of her time kept Marie-Anne Lavoisier from becoming a chemist herself, but she was integral to her husband’s work and the two changed chemistry forever. Image: Wikimedia

in 2006, NASA launched the New Horizons probe towards Pluto. Thanks to Yanping Guo, it reached its destination exactly on time. Image Source: NASA

Meet Carolina Cruz-Neira, a computer engineer who is the co-inventor of the CAVE automatic virtual environment and a pioneer in virtual reality. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

American Anita Borg was a pioneering programmer and women’s advocate who co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Image Courtesy of the Anita Borg Institute.

In December 1966 Dian Fossey arrived in Africa to begin her long term study of the mountain gorilla. Learn more about her work in today’s episode. Image: Alamy Stock Photo

Meet Katherine Johnson, a mathematician involved in many of America’s greatest achievements during the space race. Image: Wikimedia.

During awards season, many people in the U.S. have their eyes towards Hollywood. If you looked up the nominees and winners of the Golden Globes or the Oscars using a WiFi signal, then you have a different Hollywood star to thank: Hedy Lamarr. Image: Wikimedia.

Astronaut Susan Helms holds a record for the longest spacewalk at 8 hours and 56 minutes. Learn more about her NASA career in today’s episode. Image: Wikimedia.

A pioneer of the use of solar energy, Maria Telkes, is often referred to as the “Sun Queen” and the ‘Mother of the Solar Home.” Image: Wikimedia.