Today's Women in Music Spotlight falls upon my secret favorite woman composer of the 19th century, Emilie Mayer (1812-1883), the pharmacist's daughter who rose to become a composer of some of the century's most delightful and evergreen symphonies. #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹📖 Book out now in the UK!

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fay Ajzenberg-Selove's birth! For four decades she was responsible for the collection and publication of the planet's most accurate and up-to-date data on the energy levels of the light elements. Here is her dramatic story! tinyurl.com/ycyeamnx #WomenInSTEM ⚛️🧪

Today our Women in Music Spotlight falls on Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946), one of the most beloved American songwriters of the late 19th/early 20th century, who also established a highly successful music publishing company. We think it's high time for a Jacobs-Bond revival! #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹📖

Mathematician Hanna Neumann was born 112 years ago today. Her 1967 text on Varieties of Groups is an absolute classic, and her efforts to re-inject pure mathematics into the British and Australian educational systems were widely recognized in her time. tinyurl.com/5fre2ch3 #WomenInSTEM #MathSky 🧮

For today's Women in Music Spotlight we look at Patsy Montana (1908-1996), one of the most popular performers on the early National Barn Dance broadcasts of the 1930s who pioneered the "cowgirl" type of country western singer. #WomenInMusic #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹📖 Book out now in the UK!

Psychologist Bernice Neugarten was born 110 years ago today. She was a trailblazer in the 60s and 70s of the psychology of aging, combatting some of the West's more entrenched stereotypes of the process, and documenting the breadth of experience of the "young old" population. #WomenInSTEM #PsychSky

Today's Women in Music Spotlight falls on Doris Norton, who crafted the legendary soundscapes of Jacula in the 1970s, and went on to a groundbreaking career in the early 1980s of producing computerized music. I recommend Personal Computer as a good starting point! #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹

Agnes Clerke was born 184 years ago today. She was THE great astronomy communicator of the 19th century, known for books of great technical detail presenting the new world of spectroscopic analysis, but that were also highly approachable. tinyurl.com/3bwwvzvc #WomenInSTEM #AstroSky 🔭

It is Launch Day UK for my new book, A History of Women in Music from Antiquity to Present Day. Read about your favorites like Dolly and Billie and Taylor and Madonna, and meet some new figures to love, like the DeZurik Sisters, Bai Yushuang, and XRay Spex! tinyurl.com/crzzetah #BookSky #Music 🎹

Today we induct Ann Trow, better known as Madame Restell, into the Archive. For four decades in the 19th century she was reviled as the grand exemplar of the "lady abortionist" while her services were widely sought after by rich and poor alike. tinyurl.com/ycyhj2mp #WomenInSTEM #Abortion #MedSky ⚕️

Groundbreaking geneticist Ruth Sager was born 108 years ago yesterday. In the 1950s, she noticed non-Mendelian inheritance in algae she was studying, which led her to the discovery of non-nuclear genetic inheritance, though it took 18 years for her to be made a full professor. #WomenInSTEM 🧪🧬

Today's Women in Music Spotlight falls on Laura Logic, part of the groundbreaking punk band X-Ray Spex (1976-79), before forming Essential Logic (1978-81), which featured punk's madcap spirit melded with angular musical structures. Give it a listen! www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Aya... #MusicSky 🎹

Today's Women In Music Spotlight falls on Saori Minami (b. 1956), one of the "Three Girls" who are considered the wellspring of the Idol movement in Japan. Here is a performance of hers from a few years after her 1971 debut! www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCq... #WomenInMusic #JPop 🎹 Book coming Feb 28

Physician Bethenia Owens-Adair was born 186 years ago today. Fleeing her marriage, she headed West to become one of Oregon's premiere medical practitioners, but was also caught up in the eugenics movement. Here is her story, because we can't just do the fun ones. tinyurl.com/436n22yf #WomenInSTEM

Amphibian biologist Margaret Stewart would have been 99 years old today. Her globe-spanning career was spent researching the frog populations of Africa, the Caribbean, and North America, and studying the forces that put these populations in danger. tinyurl.com/2cjmz8f7 #WomenInSTEM #BioSky 🧪🐸

Brazilian botanist Terezinha Rego was born 93 years ago today. She devoted her career to the study of endangered rain forest plants that carried medicinal properties, and founded a 10,800 species herbarium at UFMA, where she taught in the 1980s. #WomenInSTEM #Botany #PlantSky 🧪⚕️🌱

On today's Women In Music Spotlight, we look at the amazing Linda Perhacs, whose 1970 album Parallelograms took folk music into bold new sonic waters, but whose follow up album did not come for 44 years. Here is the haunting and gorgeous Chimacum Rain: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuYL... 🎹

Today's Women In Music Spotlight falls on Laurie Anderson (b. 1947), who fused experimental music and pop in the early 1980s to create some of the most distinct soundscapes of that era, including this, her 1981 hit O Superman: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfp... #WomenInMusic #MusicSky 🎹

No birthdays on our Big Birthday List today so instead we'll do our regular reminder that any books you pick up in the Women In Science series have the profits put directly back into keeping the Archive up and running and free for educators and students to access! #BookSky #WomenInSTEM #AstroSky 🧮⚕️

Today's Women in Music Spotlight falls upon the figure of Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704), a prolific composer of sonatas and motets in the great 17th century tradition of women composers fostered in the musical environment of the convent system. #WomenInMusic #Music #BookSky 🎹🎵 Book coming Feb 28!

Elizabeth Blackwell was born 205 years ago today. The first woman to earn a modern medical degree, she was also responsible for constructing the first institutions that allowed women to gain experience in the medical field. tinyurl.com/3mxw76hv #WomenInSTEM #MedSky 🧪⚕️

#histbookchat My book is now out. All about the women merchant navy seafarers who died due to enemy action in the two world wars. www.lulu.com/shop/nina-ba... If any museums or other shops are interested in selling this, DM me for wholesale price.

For today's Women In Music spotlight I'm heading to Turkey, home to some of my all time favorite women vocalists and songwriters. This is from the legendary Second Wave of Turkish women pop performers - Nil Burak's (b. 1948) iconic Tatlı Tatlı. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCoa... #WomenInMusic 🎹🎤

Marine biologist Marie Poland Fish died on this day 37 years ago. In the 1940s and 1950s her research was the first to describe the sounds produced by marine organisms, and the mechanisms by which they produced them. She wrote some 200 articles in her career. #WomenInSTEM #BioSky 🧪🐟

Today marks the 130th anniversary of Russian mathematician Sofia Ianovskaia's birth. She specialized in logic and the history of mathematics, working mostly at Moscow State University, where she aided the cause of Soviet mathematics through her research on Marx's math works. #WomenInSTEM #MathSky 🧮

Today's slice of Women in Music history comes from living legend Wanda Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly, who will be celebrating her 89th birthday this year. Her distinctive vocals and infectious energy paved a new direction for women country musicians in the 1950s. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMf...

Microbiologist Alice Catherine Evans was born #OTD in 1881. She proved that the bacterium 𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘴 caused brucellosis (aka undulant fever) in humans & cattle. This led to the pasteurization of milk in the US in 1930. First woman president, Society of American Bacteriologists. #WomenInSTEM

Welllllll shucks - looks like A History of Women in Music's UK launch date has been pushed back a month. But, hey, that's just more time that I can share some super cool figures in it with y'all! Here's a favorite from vocal experimentalist Joan La Barbara! www.youtube.com/watch?v=M95V... 🎹 📖

Astronomer Paris Pişmiş was born 115 years ago today. Born in Turkey, she spent most of her career in Mexico where she was a central figure in building up the Mexican astronomy program, serving for a half century at UNAM and establishing the Tonantzintla Observatory. #WomenInSTEM #AstroSky 🧪🔭

Tomorrow is Launch Day UK for my new book, A History of Women in Music, with tales stretching from the ancient past to the tumultuous present! For our last countdown figure I've chosen Nina Hagen, whose blend of rock, punk, opera, goth, and kitsch was a true highlight of the MTV years. #BookSky 🎹

Wishing a happy 79th birthday to Nobel Laureate Linda Buck, whose publications in the early 1990s unveiled the genes that code for our myriad olfactory receptors, and the process by which the proteins they make contribute to our sense of smell. #WomenInSTEM #BioSky #NeuroSky 🧪🧠👃

Continuing our Countdown to Launch Day UK, today's figure is Jenny Lind, one of a group of sopranos from the 19th century who launched women's vocal art to global levels of recognition, known as much for the beauty of her voice as for her extensive works of charity. #WomenInMusic #BookSky #MusicSky

For today's Countdown to Launch Day UK figure, I want to highlight Bessie Smith, whose larger than life persona and powerful approach to blues singing continue to be a touchstone to this day, driving her massively successful record and touring career. #WomenInMusic #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹🎷

Today's Countdown To Launch Day UK figure is the legendary Chinese opera star Bai Yushuang (1907-1942). She was sold into the profession as a child, and lived a short life full of grand drama. You can see her in the 1936 film Red Begonia. #WomenInMusic #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹 Book Coming Jan 30!

My next favorite figure from A History of Women in Music is The Boswell Sisters. It is hard to overstate their importance - Connie Boswell's innovative vocal arrangements and sense of musical play paved the way for so much to come. They deserve a permanent place in our memory. #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹

For today's Countdown to Launch Day UK I want to feature the magnificent MS Subbulakshmi (1916-2004), the immortal classical Carnatic singer whose career spanned six decades and crossed into film in the 1940s. #WomenInMusic #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹♀️ Book coming January 30, 2026!

Continuing the countdown to Launch Day UK, today I want to highlight Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729), the French prodigy embraced by the Sun King's court who went on to work marvels on the harpsichord and in the cantata form. #WomenInMusic #BookSky #MusicSky 🎹♀️ Coming January 30!

8 days until Launch Day UK for my new book, A History of Women in Music! We're celebrating with a little countdown of my favorite figures, and are starting with the wonderful DeZurik Sisters, who in the late 1930s released a series of records showcasing their stunt yodeling. #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹♀️

Cover drop for my new book, A History of Women in Music From Antiquity to Present Day, coming out in the UK on January 30 and in the US in March! Available for pre-order now from @penandswordbooks.bsky.social or on Amazon! Check it out! #BookSky #MusicSky #WomensHistory

31 years ago today, Circle of Life was released as a single, and promptly went platinum in the UK & US. What I love is how Elton uses a move from tightly controlled chord movements to larger tonal leaps to expansively tell us the story of Life Itself. #EltonJohn #LionKing #BookSky #MusicSky 🎹

Hey Folks - if you're from the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm going to be having an Elton John event at Hayward's Books on B on August 16 from 5:00 to 7:00. I'll be spinning & chatting about selections from some of my favorite Elton tracks, so come by and say hi! #EltonJohn #BookSky #MusicSky🎹

Forty one years ago today, #EltonJohn released the single "Passengers." Featuring a Bernie lyric about apartheid in Africa, Elton decided to musically match the theme by pulling sections of the melody from South African singer Phines Mkhize's 1963 song Isonto Lezayoni. #MusicSky #BookSky 🎹

In celebration of astronomer Maria Mitchell's 207th birthday, here's the comic I did for our original @wisarchive.bsky.social piece on her back in 2015! The bit about Vassar making her sleep on a cot is 100% true! #WomenInSTEM #AstroSky #HistSci 🔭🧪

Honky Cat was released as a single 53 years ago today! The density of the musical layers places us in this space of intense overwhelming but seductive activity, making us FEEL like the lost country mice that Bernie describes. Just pitch perfect musical architecture. #MusicSky #EltonJohn #BookSky 🎹

Awww, I can't say how much Tom Lehrer meant to me as a kid. His phrasing and timing are in my head whenever I write, and his songs are a touchstone my father shared with me and I have shared with my kids in turn. I hope he was aware of even a fraction of how much love there is out there for him.

And in honor of Mildred Cohn's 112th birthday, here's the comic I originally did to accompany the @wisarchive.bsky.social feature on her life and work, just for funsies! #WomenInSTEM #Biochemistry #HistSci 🧪

Mildred Cohn was born 112 years ago today. In the middle of the century she pioneered the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to probe the chemical processes governing the storage and release of energy in ATP. Here is her story! tinyurl.com/3xn9hhs2 #WomenInSTEM #ChemSky #HistSci

"Electricity", Elton's 63rd UK Top-40 hit, came out 20 years ago today! It was the hit single from his musical Billy Elliot, which launched in 2005 and racked up some 13 Tony nominations. For all the drama kids out there, what's your favorite BE song? #MusicSky #BookSky #Musicals #Drama

It's Launch Day USA for Elton John: Album By Album! 44 albums! Over 500 songs! So cuddle up with a copy, some of your favorite Elton albums, and a cup of tea, and dig into the stories and structures of Elton's unique craft! Available At: tinyurl.com/zb7ms3zc #BookSky #MusicSky #MusicHistory 🎹