Women Technology

What does it take to be a STEM genius? Check out these exciting, highly listenable profiles of a dozen contemporary women who are on the cutting edge of scientific research.

Mary Somerville née Fairfax (1780-1872), was a self-taught mathematician and polymath from Jedburgh in Scotland. She is the person for whom the word scientist was invented. She studied mathematics and astronomy and was admitted as one of the first female members of the Royal Astronomical Society, together with Caroline Herschel. She was also a tutor and friend to Ada Lovelace.

It Began with a Dream is the story of Dr. Gladys B. West, who played an integral role in the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a mathematician with navy. Born in 1930, in the poor farming community of Sutherland, Virginia, she rose from poverty despite segregation, The Great Depression, and Jim Crow laws to become one of the first professional black women hired at the Dahlgren Naval Proving Grounds in Virginia (now Dahlgren Surface Naval Warfare Center). Dr. West takes us on her incredible life journey in this heartwarming and unforgettable memoir.

In 1961, Wally Funk was among the Mercury 13, the first group of American pilots to pass the ‘Women in Space’ programme. Wally sailed through a series of rigorous physical and mental tests, her scores beating many of the male candidates, including those of John Glenn, the first American in orbit. But just one week before she was due to enter the final phase of training, the programme was abruptly cancelled. A combination of politics and prejudice meant that none of the women ever flew into space.

What's wrong with preferring domestic assistants with feminine personalities? We like our assistants to conform to gender stereotypes - so what? For one thing, Strengers and Kennedy remind us, the design of gendered devices reinscribes outdated and unfounded stereotypes. Strengers and Kennedy offer a Smart Wife "manifesta", proposing a rebooted Smart Wife that would promote a revaluing of femininity in society in all her glorious diversity.

We now know that the universe is mostly dark, made up of particles and forces undetectable by our most powerful telescopes. The discovery signaled a Copernican-like revolution in astronomy: not only are we not the center of the universe, neither is the stuff of which we're made. Vera Rubin played a pivotal role in this discovery. By showing that some astronomical objects seem to defy gravity, Rubin helped convince the scientific community of the possibility of dark matter. In Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond, Ashley Jean Yeager tells the story of Rubin's life and work.

In this one-of-a-kind memoir, Jack Clemons - a former lead engineer in support of NASA - takes listeners behind the scenes and into the inner workings of the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs during their most exciting years. Discover the people, the events, and the risks involved in one of the most important parts of space missions: bringing the astronauts back home to Earth. Clemons joined Project Apollo in 1968, a young engineer inspired by science fiction and electrified by John F. Kennedy's challenge to the nation to put a man on the moon.

Equal parts coming-of-age tale, civil rights history, and reflection on the power of education, Overnight Code is the inspiring story of a Raye Montague, a groundbreaking African American female engineer who created the first computer-designed ship for the US Navy.

Seduced by the Light is the first and only biography of Mina Miller Edison, the wife of Thomas Edison, the woman who created and shaped the myth of one of the most seminal figures in America’s history. The Thomas Edison we think we know was essentially created by Mina Miller Edison. Exhaustively researched by author Alexandra Rimer, this account draws on unprecedented access to Edison family diaries, memoirs, and letters to look below the surface of the Edison family during the Gilded Age from the little-known perspective of this female protagonist.

I sei brevi romanzi in cui perdersi in questo audiolibro sono quelli di Marie Curie (1867-1934), Lise Meitner (1878-1968), Emmy Noether (1882-1935), Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) e Mileva Marić (1875-1948). Per molti saranno nomi sconosciuti, eppure queste sei donne sono state delle pioniere. Sono nate tutte nell'arco di cinquant'anni e hanno operato negli anni cruciali e ruggenti del Novecento, che sono stati anni di guerre terribili, ma anche di avanzamenti scientifici epocali.

Jeanne Villepreux-Power was never expected to be a scientist. Born in 1794 in a French village more than 100 miles from the ocean, she pursued an improbable path that brought her to the island of Sicily. There, she took up natural history and solved the two-thousand-year-old mystery of how the argonaut octopus gets its shell. In an era when most research focused on dead specimens, Jeanne was determined to experiment on living animals. And to keep sea creatures alive for her studies, she had to invent a contraption to hold them: the aquarium.

In 1911, some of the greatest minds in science convened at the First Solvay Conference in Physics, a meeting like no other. Almost half of the attendees had won or would go on to win the Nobel Prize. Over the course of those few days, these minds began to realize that classical physics was about to give way to quantum theory, a seismic shift in our history and how we understand not just our world, but the universe.

Mulheres que voam é uma homenagem a todas as mulheres e, em particular, às aviadoras, que tiveram grande influência na emancipação da mulher numa sociedade repleta de preconceitos contra aquelas que queriam ser mais do que filha, esposa e mãe. A cada capítulo, o ouvinte é apresentado às primeiras aviadoras de dez diferentes países a receber o brevê oficial (a carta de aviação), algumas das quais tiveram importante participação na Segunda Guerra Mundial.

A meningitis outbreak in their underprivileged neighborhood left Sylvia Acevedo's family forever altered. As she struggled in the aftermath of loss, young Sylvia's life transformed when she joined the Brownies. The Girl Scouts taught her how to take control of her world and nourished her love of numbers and science.

Through her pranks, sketches, and videos about everyday life, Jenn has become a mouthpiece for millennials and one of YouTube's fastest rising stars! Jenn McAllister, better known as JennxPenn, has been obsessed with making videos since she found her parents' video camera at the age of eight. A shy child, Jenn turned to film because, unlike with life, you can always have a do-over. Really Professional Internet Person offers both an insider's guide to building a successful YouTube channel and an intimate portrait of the surreality of insta-fame.

Published on the 50th anniversary of her seminal book Silent Spring, here is an indelible new portrait of Rachel Carson, founder of the modern environmental movement. Carson loved the ocean and wrote three books about its mysteries, including the international best seller The Sea around Us. But it was with her fourth book, Silent Spring, that this unassuming biologist transformed our relationship with the natural world.

Diverse teams are more effective and get more done than homogenous ones. Yet, despite decades of effort, many tech teams are failing at hiring and retaining women. The reason: we’re looking in the wrong place. Hiring women doesn’t start with recruiting. It starts with creating a work environment that’s safe and equal for all. By listening to this audiobook, you will learn an agile, iterative framework for hiring and retaining women that’s practical and easy to use for any team, big or small.

Sugar substitutes have been a part of American life since saccharin was introduced at the 1893 World's Fair. In Empty Pleasures, the first history of artificial sweeteners in America, Carolyn de la Pena blends popular culture with business and women's history, examining the invention, production, marketing, regulation, and consumption of sugar substitutes such as saccharin, Sucaryl, NutraSweet, and Splenda.

Part memoir, part searing revelation, Seen Yet Unseen takes listeners behind the scenes of some of the world’s biggest tech companies and exposes the way their exclusion of and, at times, hostility toward Black women have lasting impacts on the technology we use every day.

Through detailed anecdotes and captivating narratives, The Woman Who Unveiled DNA: Rosalind Franklin not only highlights her scientific achievements but also sheds light on the ethical debates surrounding her work and the recognition she received posthumously. This book aims to inspire young listeners to pursue their passions, embrace curiosity, and see Rosalind Franklin as a role model whose legacy continues to impact modern science and medicine.