Today's newsletter, with updates about the parliamentary debate on ALD and women in STEM, as well as news about our sister project, the eco-comedy podcast, Fieldwork. adalovelaceday.substack.com/p/ald-news-a...

Have you ever tracked, in photos, the retrograde movement of a planet? 🔭 Or perhaps you're planning to capture the retrograde motion of Mercury and Jupiter this month? (1/2)

Update on our scheduled posts situation – turns out that I'm gonna have to rewrite most of them, as there's a discrepancy between how Bluesky counts characters here on the web vs via their API, which is very annoying. So it might seem a bit quiet here for a while. ALD is now basically a hobby...

I've had to pause all the scheduled posts for now, because SocialChamp keeps breaking all the links. Sorry about that. Meanwhile, to the women in STEM following us, if we were to totally rethink Ada Lovelace Day and how we support you, what services would you most like to see us provide? 1/2

Hao Yichun was a pioneer in the fields of stratigraphy, micropaleontology and paleoceanography. She co-authored Paleontology, China’s first textbook on the subject, and deepened understanding of foraminifera, single-celled organisms found in seawater. adalovelaceday.subst...

Tsai-Fan Yu was a renowned Chinese-American medical doctor whose pioneering research helped make gout a curable disease, linked gout to hypertension and diabetes, and established one of the first systematised lab tests for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis. adalovelaceday.subst...

Lina Stern, a biochemist and neurophysiologist, was one of the first researchers to identify what is now known as the blood-brain barrier, and conducted pioneering research on the central nervous system. adalovelaceday.subst...

Lin Lanying was an engineer and physicist who developed semiconductor and aerospace materials, particularly monocrystalline silicon, a key semiconductor used as a component in virtually all modern electronic equipment. adalovelaceday.subst...

Michiyo Tsujimura was an agricultural scientist, biochemist and the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in agriculture in Japan. She discovered that green tea contains vitamin C and is credited with helping to popularise the drink internationally. adalovelaceday.subst...

Helen Quinn, a particle physicist and educator, co-developed a theory to explain why the symmetry between matter and antimatter breaks in weak interactions, which drive nuclear decay, but not in strong interactions, which hold matter together. adalovelaceday.subst...

Susan Krumdieck is a mechanical and energy systems engineer. She co-founded the transition engineering movement, which develops innovative methods and technologies to help the world adapt to rapidly reduced fossil fuel production and consumption. adalovelaceday.subst...

Leone Norwood Farrell invented the Toronto Method for large-scale vaccine production, making childhood immunisation programmes more affordable and facilitating the mass production of Jonas Salk's polio vaccine in the 1950s. adalovelaceday.subst...

As one of NASA’s first African-American employees, Annie Easley helped develop software for the Centaur rocket stage, which enabled several landmark spaceflights in the later 20th century. She also helped develop early battery powered vehicles. adalovelaceday.subst...

Idelisa Bonnelly de Calventi was a marine biologist who pioneered the study of marine sciences in the Dominican Republic. She dedicated her career to protecting ocean biodiversity and created one of the first sanctuaries for humpback whales. adalovelaceday.subst...

Valeria Correa Vaz de Paiva is a Brazilian mathematician, logician, computer scientist and computational linguist who introduced new ways to model linear logic in advanced programming languages. adalovelaceday.subst...

Isabella Aiona Abbott was the first Native Hawaiian woman to receive a PhD in science and a leading expert on Pacific marine algae. She discovered over 200 seaweed species and her work is still influential today. adalovelaceday.subst...

Frances Wagner was one of the first women to carry out field research for the Geological Survey of Canada and became a distinguished expert in the use of micropaleontology to study marine geology. adalovelaceday.subst...

Nadine Caron is the first Canadian female general endocrine surgeon and graduate of medicine from British Columbia University who is of First Nations descent (Ojibway). She advocates for improved public health for First Nations communities. adalovelaceday.subst...

Jewel Plummer Cobb discovered how skin cells produce melanin and how they become cancerous. She also discovered that methotrexate was an effective treatment for some skin and lung cancers and childhood leukaemia. adalovelaceday.subst...

Marie Maynard Daly co-discovered the link between high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and the clogged arteries that can cause heart disease and strokes. She also investigated the damage that cigarettes have on the heart and lung circulatory systems. adalovelaceday.subst...

V Narry Kim is a biochemist and microbiologist who has developed new technology to reduce cancer cell proliferation by eliminating specific microRNAs. Her work may lead to new gene therapies. adalovelaceday.subst...

Fumiko Yonezawa was a theoretical physicist who studied amorphous materials, semiconductors and liquid metals. She used computational models to show how, at an atomic level, liquids become crystals or amorphous solids. adalovelaceday.subst...

Janaki Ammal crossbred sugarcane species to create a hybrid with a higher sucrose yield that could flourish in India's tropical climate. She was instrumental in saving the botanically diverse Silent Valley in India. adalovelaceday.subst...

Firdausi Qadri is a Bangladeshi immunologist and infectious disease researcher. She developed an affordable oral cholera vaccine and the typhoid conjugate vaccine, and led mass vaccinations to prevent cholera outbreaks. adalovelaceday.subst...

Hailan Hu studies the neurological mechanisms behind emotional & social experiences, & how they change the brain’s neural circuitry. She discovered how ketamine acts to reduce depression in rats, making way for new approaches to treating mental illness. adalovelaceday.subst...

Rukhmabai Raut was the second woman to become a practising physician in India. She studied at the Royal Free Hospital & London School of Medicine for Women, before returning to India to become the Chief Medical Officer at the Women's Hospital in Surat. adalovelaceday.subst...

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African American woman to become a licensed nurse and to work professionally as a nurse in the USA. She was one of only three to successfully graduate from her class of 42 women and the only African American to do so. adalovelaceday.subst...

Maryna Viazovska, Марина Вязовська, is a mathematician known for her work in sphere packing, which explores how to pack spheres in the densest way possible in a given number of dimensions. In 2022, she became only the second woman to win the Fields Medal. adalovelaceday.subst...

Katalin Karikó co-discovered that modifications to mRNA could prevent an immune reaction, allowing it to be used to order cells to make any protein, & developed an mRNA purification technique. Her work laid the foundations for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. adalovelaceday.subst...

Claudia J Alexander was a Canadian-American geophysicist and planetary scientist who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where she oversaw Galileo's plunge into Jupiter. Read and subscribe: adalovelaceday.subst...

Bertha Yeawas “Birdie” Parker Pallan was the first female Native American archaeologist. She discovered, excavated & documented the pueblo site of Scorpion Hill. At Gypsum Cave, she discovered the then earliest record of human habitation in North America. adalovelaceday.subst...

Flossie Wong-Staal, née Wong Yee Ching, 黄以静, was a virologist and molecular biologist who was the first to molecularly clone HIV. She also created a map of its genes, which was crucial to proving that HIV causes AIDS. Read more and subscribe: adalovelaceday.subst...

Edith Clarke was an electrical engineer & the first female professor of electrical engineering in the USA. She developed a method to calculate the maximum power that a power transmission line could carry and remain stable. Read more & subscribe: adalovelaceday.subst...

Inge Lehmann, a Danish seismologist & geophysicist, discovered evidence of the Earth's solid inner core & molten outer core. Her work was confirmed by computer models decades later, but she did all her data collection & calculations by hand. More: adalovelaceday.subst...

It was absolutely fantastic yesterday to visit Parliament for the Westminster Hall Debate on Ada Lovelace Day and government support for women in STEM, which was organised by the fabulous @lizzicollinge.bsky.social.

Dr Elizabeth Rona was a nuclear chemist and expert on isotope separation & polonium preparation. She confirmed the existence of thorium 231, paving the way for mass spectrography, and co-developed the use of radioactive elements as tracers. Read more: adalovelaceday.subst...

If you'd like to read the speeches that were made yesterday about Ada Lovelace Day and women in STEM, you can find them here: hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2025... I'll share the right Parliament TV link as soon as the debate is up!

Maria Vasilievna Pavlova, Мария Павлова, was a palaeontologist who discovered several hoofed mammals & proved Hipparion was not the direct ancestor of modern horses, but an offshoot, changing our understanding of the ancestry of horses in Eurasia. adalovelaceday.subst...

Huge thanks to @lizzicollinge.bsky.social for organising today’s Westminster Hall debate celebrating Ada Lovelace Day and support for women in STEM. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I am so honoured to have been recognised this way.

Sitting in the committee room waiting for the Westminster Hall debate on Ada Lovelace Day and women in STEM. No photos allowed but rest assured it’s a glorious room!! #ALD25

Rita Levi-Montalcini was a neurobiologist who discovered nerve growth factor in collaboration with her colleague, Stanley Cohen. They were both awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 & she was only the 4th woman to receive it. adalovelaceday.subst...

Danielle N Lee is a biologist whose research focuses on the connections between ecology, evolution and animal behaviour. She studies the African giant pouched rat's behavioural syndromes and the potential role of genetics in these behaviours. Read more: adalovelaceday.subst...

Irene C Peden is an electrical engineer & was the first woman scientist to live and work in the interior of the Antarctic, developing techniques for studying deep glacial ice using radio waves. Cliffs in Antarctica have been named after her. Find out more: adalovelaceday.subst...

One of my standouts as a fellow computer nerd is, Margaret Hamilton, computer scientist & former director if MIT Instrumentation Lab. Software engineer for the Apollo Space Program. 👩🏻‍🔬🖥️🚀

Happy Ada Lovelace Day! My daughter is named Ada; it is a name my husband and I treasured long before we had kids. Here's to the women who broke boundaries before society at large realized that the boundaries are worth breaking!

That's it for Ada Lovelace Day 2025! I hope you've enjoyed this journey deep into our archives! But, what's the future for Ada Lovelace Day? How can we evolve to better serve women in STEM? We'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas. www.youtube.com/watc... #ALD25

Podcast: Geologist Hazel Gibson talks about geoscience cognition and communication, and Dr Erik Klemetti tells us about the work of vulcanologist Professor Anita Grunder. findingada.com/blog/... #ALD25

More Passion for Science: Journeys Into the Unknown shines a light on women's stories, from the derring do of the Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII, to the rigorous physical and psychological testing of Mercury astronaut hopefuls. Read more: findingada.com/shop/... #ALD25

If you've appreciated our work over the years, why not chuck us a fiver over on GoFundMe. We have no corporate sponsors anymore, so everything depends on your generosity. www.gofundme.com/man... #ALD25

Sarah Al Amiri is the Chair of the UAE Space Agency and the UAE Council of Scientists. She played a key role in the Emirates Mars Mission and is currently overseeing a Venus flyby. adalovelaceday.subst...