Our Neighbor, Australopithecus: The Anthropology of Mary Leakey (1913-1996)
"It was a totally improbable, beautifully human find that not only proved the bipedalism of Australopithecus, but captured the imagination of the world."
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Dale DeBakcsy
Making All Nurses Equal: The Many Battles of Estelle Massey Osborne (1901-1981)
While president of National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, Estelle Massey provided the blueprint for overcoming the worst of the profession's inequalities....
The Chemistry of Beauty: Hazel Bishop, Inventor Of First Marketable Indelible Lipstick
Bishop's lipsticks accounted for twenty-five percent of the industry and threatened Revlon itself, which launched a famous "lipstick war" to bury the upstart company....
Casualty of Marriage: The Tragedy Of Clara Immerwahr, Germany’s First Doctor Of Chemistry
Clara Immerwahr's work earned her Germany’s first ever doctorate in chemistry for a woman in 1900. But that’s only part of this remarkable woman’s story....
Maestro Of Trajectories: The Fascinating Tale Of Katherine Johnson’s Orbital Mathematics
"I had a wonderful, wonderful career at NASA. I don't imagine everyone can say that, but it's true in my case. I have always loved the idea of going into space - I still do."...
Legacy, Suspended: Vera Rubin And The Ongoing Saga Of Dark Matter
In honor of what astronomer Vera Rubin did and fought for, we get down to the real nature of her revolutionary contributions to astronomy....
The Enemy is Ignorance: Marine Biologist Sylvia Earle Speaks for the Oceans
Earle's greatest foe is not nitrogen or industry, it is ignorance, the crushing force of people acting destructively because they simply don't know the harm they are doing. ...
Sex, Cards, and Calculus: A Day with Badass Mathematician Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749)
Starting from virtual scratch at the age of 28, Émilie du Châtelet made of herself one of the leading European mathematicians......
Announcing ‘Women In Science Wednesday’ An Exclusive New Series Celebrating Women Scientists
I wanted to produce something that would show my students how every field of science had all manner of women doing brilliant work......
Dale DeBakcsy
Dale DeBakcsy is the writer and artist of the Women In Science and Cartoon History of Humanism columns, and has, since 2007, co-written the webcomic Frederick the Great: A Most Lamentable Comedy with Geoffrey Schaeffer. He is also a regular contributor to The Freethinker, Philosophy Now, Free Inquiry, and Skeptical Inquirer. He studied intellectual history at Stanford and UC Berkeley before becoming a teacher of mathematics and drawer of historical frippery.