Women in their element

On the evening of 12 November, Dr Brigitte van Tiggelen gave a virtual talk to the section on 'Women in Science' and in particular their contribution to the chemical sciences. Brigitte is joint editor of a recent significant book on the subject -'Women in their Element' - that traces the contributions of many women to shaping the chemical sciences and the evolution of the Periodic Table.

When telling the history of the periodic system, it often seems that only (white and often bearded) men contributed. Women however are far from absent. Brigitte’s talk focused on a number of significant female contributions, beyond the well-known personalities such as Marie Curie or Lise Meitner, with the aim of making historical women chemists more visible, and also to shed light on the multifaceted character of their work on the chemical elements and their periodic relationships. Her stories of female contributions looked to create new stories that may contribute to a better understanding of the collaborative nature of science as opposed to the traditional depiction of the lone genius.

The stories of female scientific input illustrated by Dr van Tiggelen also provided a spectrum of 'recognition' covering the full range from universal fame to invisibility. For instance, Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her discovery of polonium and radium in collaboration with her husband Pierre Curie are well celebrated by the general public: she rose to fame, even during her lifetime, as the awardee of two Nobel prizes, among other achievements. The same goes, to a lesser extent, for Lise Meitner or Irène Joliot-Curie. But others, like Harriet Brooks, Stefanie Horovitz, Erika Cremer or Yvette Cauchois are known only to specialised circles of scholars despite their important contributions. Indeed many female contributions have remained almost invisible, for example Toshiko Mayeda or Maria Del Carmen Brugger and Trinidad Salinas, even though they spent most of their life working at the laboratory bench, and participating actively to their field of interest.

Biography

Brigitte Van Tiggelen is Director for European Operations at the Science History Institute, Philadelphia, USA and member of the Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

Her latest book is devoted to Women’s contribution to the Periodic System: Women in Their Element, ed. with Annette Lykknes, published in August 2019.

G4G IV: The Global Experiment

At the start of the RSC's Chemistry Week RSC Belgium took the RSC Global Experiment 2013 to the fourth Greenlight for Girls Day in Brussels on Saturday November 16. In all around 100 girls took part in the experiment in two packed workshop sessions. The venue for G4G IV was the International School of Brussels in Watermael-Boitsfort. The RSC team had a great time running the workshops in which the girls measured the vitamin C content of fruits and vegetables.

Puctured above is the RSC Belgium team for the day with a couple of G4G enthusiasts. The RSC Belgium team consisted of (from left to right above) ElisaMaupas, Sophie Hollanders, Kim Eekelers and RSC executive committee member Becki Scott with section secretary Tim Reynolds (behind the camera). 

Each of the workshops brought together around an enthusiastic group of fifty young women aged 11 to 15. Most participants were anglophone but the RSC Belgium team was ready and able to work with the girls in French and Dutch too. 

Each of the students got to do the RSC Global experiment calibrating for vitamin 'C' and then assessing the vitamin in  a range of fruit and vegetable: apple, kiwi fruit, oranges, cauliflower and broccoli. Amazingly, despite the vast numbers, no one painted themselves in iodine! 

"The kids had a really good time," said Tim Reynolds. "It was challenging to get everything done in the 45 minutes allocated to the workshop sessions - but everyone got to do some 'hands-on chemistry' - and we all had some good fun."

Other chemical based workshops offered during the day included sessions on cosmetics and fragrances, 'bath bombs' and experiments from the hit TV series the 'Big Bang Theory'. Other workshops focused on IT, physics, engineering and biotechnology.

Over 200 young ladies attended the day had all had a great time taking some fantastic memories, a goody bag and their own personalised labcoats. RSC pens, stickers and fluffies were in great demand! 

About G4G
The Greenlight for Girls organisation is a Brussels-based, international non-profit organization that works to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to girls of all ages and backgrounds. The main aim is to stimulate greater participation of girls, young women and career-age women in STEM-related studies and careers. To achieve this mission, G4G carry out a range of activities around the world, with a special focus on reaching less-advantaged communities.

RSC Belgium has supported the GreenlightforGirls initiative from its inception in Brussels and provided workshop session at all four of the annual events so far.