This originally appeared on LinkedIn on July 22, 2024.
As a girl, I was always into working with my hands and figuring out how stuff works. Thanks to my dad, I learned how to use tools and learned about cars. Thanks to my mom I learned how to sew, bake, cook, and TONS of crafts. (Yes this sounds like gender stereotypes but that was my experience growing up.) And thanks to my junior high and high school, I got to do physics, chemistry and biology experiments, build stuff in wood shop, make stained glass windows, develop film and photos that I had shot and more. I even won first prize in the school science fair by measuring the affect different liquids had on bending laser beams (water vs. oil vs. water with various things dissolved in it, etc.).
It wasn't until well into my career in consumer products that I learned how lopsided the gender equation is in STEM fields, especially in the United States.
Part of my personal mission is to encourage girls and women to becoming involved in -- and stay in -- STEM fields, especially if I can help them become part of the Space ecosystem. To that end, I want to highlight a few women who have made significant contributions throughout history, or as I am coining them, "The OG Women of STEM"
Let's start with Émilie du Châtelet, a French woman who was instrumental in popularizing Isaac Newton's work in Europe.
When a principle or a theory becomes widely accepted as “true,” we often overlook the time, effort and acknowledgement that it took to make it so. Issac Newton published The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (aka Principia) in 1687. It explains Newtonian laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. It took over a hundred years for scientists to accept Principia as “the exemplar of science at its most successful.”
One French woman was instrumental in popularizing Newton’s work in Europe.
Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749) is remembered for a French translation and explanatory work of Isaac Newton’s Principia, published in 1759. Voltaire (1694-1778) called her “divine Émilie.” They remained close as intellectual companions for 15 years until her death.
Émilie became interested in science and mathematics at a young age. Her interests were considered inappropriate at that time. Fortunately, her father, a high-ranking official in Louis XIV’s court, recognized her intelligence. Women were barred from science and academia in France and Britain in the 18th century, so he arranged for her to learn astronomy from prominent scientists at home.
Émilie’s education in astronomy led her to geometry and mathematics since they help to describe extraterrestrial phenomena and make sense of what is happening in space. Her Fundamentals of Physics, an explicative scientific work on Newton’s Principia, published posthumously in 1759 (ten years after her death), introduced Newtonian mechanics into the mainstream of French scientific life, despite the objections of Cartesian physicists and the Church.
Because Émilie was one of the few people in Europe at the time -- men or women -- who could understand and use calculus, she was able to discuss the difficulties involved in what is now known as the “three body problem,” which raised thorny complications for Newton's theory. It led Alexis Clairaut (1713-1765) to doubt the inverse square law (the law that the gravitational attraction of, for example, the sun on a planet, drops off inversely as the square of the distance between them).
Émilie’s work was widely used at the University of Bologna, inspiring trailblazers such as Laura Bassi (1711-1778), a Newtonian and the first official female professor in all of Europe, and Mary Sommerville (1780-1872).
Today, women who know calculus are not a rare species anymore. They use their advanced knowledge to develop theories and technologies that might very well have the potential to reshape our worldview, just like Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Will you be the Voltaire of our time and the first to hear their ideas? Will you support their STEM endeavors that could change the way we think about biologic life or key scientific principles which have the potential to benefit all of humanity?
If the answer is yes, talk to us at Space Bridge Partners.
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