Introductions Necessary

Dr. Betty Harris has been a teacher and researcher since earning her BS in chemistry at the age of 19. Image: Los Alamos National Laboratory. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Before she was enthralling children with tales of a mischievous rabbit Beatrix Potter was delving deep into the world of mycology. Image: Wikimedia. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Ruth E Dayhoff is a licensed physician, a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics, and the daughter of Dr. Margaret Dayhoff. Image: Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Many people love to marvel at the beauty of the cosmos that is observable with our eyes – but what about the beauty that is observable with our ears? Dr. Janna Levin says that the universe has a soundtrack that is played on space itself. Image: Fronteiras do Pensamento (CC BY-SA 2.0). Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www...

July 25th marks the birth of the first child conceived using in vitro fertilization, or IVF, to couple in England. The first American child born by IVF was thanks to the team of Dr. Georgeanna Seegar Jones and her pioneering career in obstetrics and reproductive health. Image via Changing the Face of Medicine. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join...

Bringing the same rigorous standards used in high quality academic research institutions to the FDA Dr. Frances Kelsey stopped the drug thalidomide from causing serve birth defects in American children and changed the drug approval process at the same time. Image: U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreo...

Eileen Collins is one of only two women to ever command a space shuttle mission. Image: NASA. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

In the 2016 film Ghostbusters, much of the sets from Dr. Erin Gilbert’s lecture equations to Dr. Jillian Holtzmann’s lab equipment were the real deal, courtesy of science consultants like MIT Assistant Professor of Physics Lindley Winslow. Image via MIT Department of Physics Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.c...

July 21st marks the anniversary of man first stepping on the moon and the software that made it possible was created by a team led by Margaret Hamilton. Image: NASA. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Making the decision to major in mathematics in college was two-fold for Frances “Poppy” Montgomery first she had an aptitude for the subject, but she also had an eye on her future employment opportunities. Knowing that mathematics was still considered a man’s job she went into it thinking that it would open careers that would keep her out of what was considered traditionally women’s work. Image: N...

On July 19, 2013, the Cassini spacecraft turned to take an image of much of our solar system that included Saturn, Mars, Venus, and the Earth. This historic picture of The Day the Earth Smiled was possible thanks to planetary scientist Dr. Carolyn Porco. Image: Cmichel57/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon:...

Dr. Kariko spent most of her career working in the much-maligned field of RNA research – which was finally brought into the spotlight when it was used to create two of the COVID-19 vaccines. Image: Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Part of the Amazing Race winning team, the Sweet Scientists, Dr. Maya Warren was honored to represent women in science and to inspire young people to get into the field as well. Image via drmayawarren.com Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

As the first African American woman to be granted a patent for a medical purpose Dr. Patricia Bath has dedicated her career to protecting and improving the eyesight of all people. Image via Black Past. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Discovering pulsars, a type of neutron star, Dr. Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, changed the way we understood the death of massive stars. That instead of the supernova explosion scattering all of a dying star’s material into the universe there is a very small core of very dense material left over that gives off regular radio pulses. Image: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CC-BY SA 3.0). Sources a...

Dr. Florence Bascom worked for the U.S. Geological Survey and founded the geology program at Bryn Mawr College. Image: Wikimedia. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Sheila Widnall spent the majority of her career balancing research, teaching, and public service. She was the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force and was the first woman to head a branch of the military. Image: Wikimedia. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 2009, Dr. Mildred Cohn has also been awarded the National Medal of Science. Image: Science History Institute (CC BY-SA 3.0) Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Since 2014 Dr. Joanna Haigh has been the co-director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College. Image: Carbon Brief (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Stricken by polio at the age of three, Dr. Florence Seibert turned to academics because she couldn’t go out and dance and play like other children. Image: Wikimedia. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Mildred Dresselhaus, known as the Queen of Carbon Chemistry, has been a trailblazer since her early days. Image: Pete Souza/US White House Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Chiaki Mukai was already an established cardiac surgeon when she became the first Japanese woman to go to space. Image: Wikimedia. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Dr. Nettie Stevens’ career as a geneticist wasn’t very long, lasting only about 11 years, but in that short time she was able to make huge strides in understanding genetic traits. Image: Wikimedia. Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

Engineer, artist, and inventor Ayah Bdeir has focused her career on democratizing hardware to make education and innovation more accessible. Image: Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED). Sources and additional reading are available at https://introductionsnecessary.com Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ninehourfilms

When it was suggested that Marie Curie’s husband had actually been the one to discover the element radium Hertha Ayrton, a friend and colleague, quickly and publicly came to Curie’s defense stating, “errors are notoriously hard to kill, but an error that ascribes to a man what was actually the work of a woman has more lives than a cat.” And she would know as she often faced the same misattribution...