Susan La Flesche was the first Native American to earn a medical degree. She proceeded to become the physician for the Omaha Nation, traveling by horse and buggy to care for a community spread across an area the size of Rhode Island.

Babes of Science is a podcast that seeks to answer two questions: Who are the women who changed the trajectory of science? And why has it taken us so long to recognize their work?

Image courtesy of the Nebraska State Historical Society Photograph Collections.

Music in this episode: Chance, Luck, Errors in Nature, Fate, Destruction As a Finale by Chris ZabriskieViolins And Tea (Instrumental) by Loch LomondYoung, Tough And Terrible by The LosersThird in Line by Blue Dot SessionsSlow Strutt by Blue Dot SessionsKeep The Prices Down by Podington BearIce Cream Sandwich by Podington BearPeriodicals by Blue Dot SessionsCedarleaf by Rho

Every early chemist has heard of Boyle’s law -- the equation that relates a gas’s pressure to its volume. But even if you have some awareness of Robert Boyle himself, it’s unlikely that you’ve heard of his sister...even though she was probably talking him through his ideas, either in person or by letter.

This episode of Babes of Science was produced in collaboration with Distillations Podcast. 

Babes of Science is a podcast that seeks to answer two questions: Who are the women who changed the trajectory of science? And why has it taken us so long to recognize their work?

Music in this episode: Theme: Showers by Podington BearDay Into Night by RhoDaydream Shelshock by Wolf AsylumAm I The Devil YEYEYHistory Explains Itself by The LosersLike Swimming Broke For FreeInsatiable Toad by Blue Dot SessionsOne And by Broke For FreeModulation of the SpiritMelt by Broke For FreeEleanor by The LosersI Am A Man Who Will Fight For Your Honor by Chris ZabriskieTidal Wave by YEYEY

Marguerite Perey identified a new element called Francium while she was working in the Curie laboratory. So why don't we know her name?

MUSIC:

Mile Post 1 by Alex Fitch Drifting Spade by Blue Dot Sessions Building The Sun by Broke For Free Biolumina L2 by Little Glass Men History Explains Itself by The Losers Summer Spliffs by Broke For Free

Henrietta Lacks developed an aggressive form of cervical cancer, and died at the age of 31. The cells from the tumor on her cervix, however, are still alive today. More than twenty tons of her cells have grown in labs, participating in disease research for the polio vaccine and for AIDS treatment. And Henrietta's cells have literally traveled to space and back.

MUSIC:

Secret Place by Alex Fitch Kelp Grooves by Little Glass Men Love is Not by Broke For Free Tiptoe (Instrumental) by YEYEY Is That You Or Are You You? Chris Zabriskie Deadpanned by Jahzzar With Many Tears by Candlegravity Stakes and Things by Blue Dot Sessions Melt by Broke for Free

Bertha Pappenheim was spending each night by her sick father's bed when she began hallucinating. Josef Breuer would diagnose her with hysteria and spend two years practicing "the talking cure." He and Sigmund Freud later published her account as a case study under the name Anna O.

To support the show, head to patreon.com/babesofscience. Or visit babesofscience.com for more information on Babes of Science. You can also follow @babescience on twitter for fun facts about women in science history.

Music in this episode: Dream Blaze by Little Glass Men Delta by Podington Bear Slow Slow Sky by Blue Dot Sessions From Here to Iceland (Full) by Loch Lomond A Suicide by Candlegravity You Bastard! by The Losers Daydreamer by Podington Bear Jupiter The Blue by Gillicuddy The Temperature on the Bow of the Kaleetan by Chis Zabriskie How it Fades by Scott Gratton Be Mine and Be Kind (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond

Irène Joliot-Curie found that radioactivity wasn't just something to be found in the earth's elements -- scientists could make other metals radioactive. And then her research took her right up to nuclear fission...and World War II.

To support the show, head to patreon.com/babesofscience. Or visit babesofscience.com for more information on Babes of Science. You can also follow @babescience on twitter for fun facts about women in science history.

Music in this episode: Thematic by Blue Dot Sessions Divider by Chris Zabriskie John Stockton Slow Drag by Chris Zabriskie Frog Legs Rag by James Scott from 1906 piano roll Keep The Prices Down by Podington Bear Morning Mist by Podington Bear The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions Beachhead by Podington Bear Grand Fell by Blue Dot Sessions Because You Hold Me Tight by Alex Fitch

Margaret Cavendish used her writing to debate philosophy with some of the great thinkers of the scientific revolution. And she was the only woman to visit the Royal Society meetings for at least its first hundred years.

Visit babesofscience.com for more information on Babes of Science, or follow @babescience on twitter for fun facts about women in science history.

Music in this episode: Panoramic Showers by Podington Bear Rise by Igor Khabarov Periodicals by Blue Dot Sessions The Sun is Scheduled to Come Out Tomorrow by Chris Zabriskie Feels Like Home by Fabian Measures Not Drunk (no vocals) by The Joy Drops Sunset by Lee Rosevere Five by Marcel Pequel Pens From Spain (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond K-Eyes by Rho Nobody Here But Us Charles Dickens! Holy Roller by YACHT Spontaneous Existence by Little Glass Men

Rita Levi-Montalcini worked with homemade tools in her bedroom laboratory when she and her family were forced into hiding during World War II. The findings from her bedroom lab were the beginning of her Nobel-winning research and life obsession.

Music in this episode: Illway by Blue Dot Sessions Pineapple by Podington Bear New England is Interesting by BOPD Poppyseed by Podington Bear Sunset Part 2 by Podington Bear Wonder Cycle by Chris Zabriskie Uneasy by Blue Dot Sessions Cylinder Two by Chris Zabriskie Books by Jahzzar Danse Morialta by Kevin MacLeod Autumn Fields by Lee Rosevere Golden by Little Glass Men Silver Felt (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond

Maria Sibylla Merian painted caterpillars with their corresponding cocoons and butterflies on a host plant. While most of Maria's peers in the 17th century admired her for her artistry, now her work is considered one of the earliest examples of ecology.

Image courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries.

Music in this episode:

The Everlasting Itch For Things Remote by Gillicuddy Violins and Tea (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond Skirting Boards by Bleak House Alchemical by Blue Dot Sessions Tweedlebugs by Podington Bear Betrayal, Lies and Disaster by The Losers A Garden And A Library by Gillicuddy Eight by Marcel Pequel 2 Spring_Summer by Dustin Wong Is That You Or Are You You? by Chris Zabriskie A Simple Shroud by Blue Dot Sessions Idea by Kai Engel Chromium Blush by Blue Dot Sessions

Imagine you're a PhD student, just getting started. And you realize you can't hear anything out of one ear, and THEN you learn that's because there's a tumor wrapped around the nerve starting at your inner ear and heading into the brain.

That's what happened to Brittany Bushnell. She was studying neuroscience...and then she became the class example for abnormal visual reflexes.

Music in this episode: Modulation of the Spirit by Little Glass Men Barometer by Bleak House The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan by Chris Zabriskie Because You Hold Me Tight by Alex Fitch The Terrarium by Blue Dot Sessions February by Kai Engel Chinese Blues by Moore and Gardner from 1916 George Gershwin piano roll Tipsy Xylo by Podington Bear Trundle by Podington Bear All Eventualities by Gillicuddy Pens From Spain (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond

Zora Neale Hurston collected folklore and stories from communities throughout the rural south. Her stories were some of the first that represented black people with pride, and not with a feeling of distance or exoticism.

*for links to Zora Neale Hurston's recordings with the Federal Writers' Project, check babesofscience.com

Music in this episode: Tilly Lend Me Your Pigeon performed by Zora Neale Hurston Mule On The Mount performed by Zora Neale Hurston F.I.B by Ben McElroy Eola by Alex Fitch Coloured Lead Crayons by Bleak House Cylinder Six by Chris Zabriskie Papageno Drunk by Ergo Phizmiz Isolated by Kevin MacLeod Dream Blaze by Little Glass Men Betrayal, Lies and Disaster by The Losers Mama Don’t Want No Peas No Rice performed by Zora Neale Hurston The First by Scott Gratton