Did you know that Charles Darwin wasn’t the only one to come up with the theory of evolution by natural selection? Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist, also developed similar ideas while studying plants and animals in Southeast Asia. He even sent a letter to Darwin about his findings, which led to both of them presenting their work in 1858. However, when Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, Wallace’s contributions were largely forgotten.
Many scientists have made significant contributions but haven’t received the recognition they deserve. For example, Lise Meitner, an Austrian physicist, worked with Otto Hahn on nuclear fission, a discovery that led to the atomic age. Unfortunately, when Hahn received the Nobel Prize, Meitner’s role was overlooked.
Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist, took crucial photographs of DNA that helped reveal its double helix structure. Despite her work, three other scientists—James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins—won the Nobel Prize for this discovery, leaving Franklin unrecognized.
Chien-Shiung Wu was a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. effort to build nuclear weapons. She designed experiments that challenged existing physics laws, contributing to the standard model of particle physics. However, her colleagues received the Nobel Prize, while she did not.
Alice Augusta Ball developed a new treatment for leprosy in 1915, saving many lives. Sadly, she died young, and her work was initially credited to someone else. Fortunately, her contributions were later recognized.
Mary Anning, a British fossil collector, discovered important fossils that helped shape paleontology. Despite her significant finds, she struggled financially due to her lack of formal education.
Vera Rubin, an astronomer, discovered that stars in spiral galaxies move in unexpected ways, leading to the theory of dark matter. Her work was so influential that a new telescope was named in her honor.
Charles Drew, an African-American medical researcher, developed methods for storing blood plasma and organized blood donations during World War II. He protested against the segregation of blood donations, resigning from the military in protest.
Francis Beaufort created a scale to measure wind speeds, which sailors still use today. Luke Howard developed a system for naming clouds, inspiring artists and poets alike.
Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist, explored South America and developed a theory of nature as an interconnected web. His work influenced many areas of science and culture.
James Hutton, a Scottish geologist, proposed that Earth’s features were shaped over millions of years, a theory that was later proven correct.
Charles Henry Turner studied insect behavior and made discoveries about how insects perceive the world. Mary Golda Ross, a Native American aerospace engineer, contributed to early space exploration projects.
Eunice Foote, an amateur climatologist, conducted experiments showing how carbon dioxide affects heat, foreshadowing modern climate science.
Augustin Jean Fresnel improved lighthouse lenses, making them more effective and saving countless sailors’ lives.
Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer and naturalist, helped survey Washington, D.C., and published almanacs that earned him recognition for his scientific work and advocacy against slavery.
Caroline Herschel, an astronomer, discovered several comets and published a star catalogue that earned her membership in leading scientific societies.
Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, completing a solo mission aboard Vostok 6 and orbiting Earth multiple times.
These scientists made remarkable contributions to their fields, and their stories remind us of the importance of recognizing all voices in science.
Choose one of the scientists mentioned in the article and conduct further research on their life and contributions. Prepare a short presentation to share with the class, highlighting why their work was significant and how it impacted the scientific community.
Work in groups to create a timeline that includes the discoveries and contributions of the scientists mentioned in the article. Include key dates, events, and a brief description of each scientist’s work. Present your timeline to the class.
Imagine you could write a letter to one of the overlooked scientists. In your letter, express your appreciation for their contributions and discuss how their work has inspired you. Share your letter with a classmate and discuss your thoughts.
Create a poster that celebrates the achievements of one of the scientists from the article. Use images, quotes, and key facts to illustrate their contributions. Display your poster in the classroom to educate others about their work.
Participate in a class debate on the topic of recognition in science. Discuss why some scientists receive more recognition than others and how this affects scientific progress. Use examples from the article to support your arguments.
Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
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Did you know that another scientist came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection at the same time as Charles Darwin? Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, editor-in-chief of Mental Floss. Alfred Russel Wallace was a naturalist who studied how plants and animals adapted to their environment, coining the phrase “survival of the fittest.” While in Southeast Asia recovering from malaria, he sent a letter to Darwin outlining his ideas. This spurred Darwin to action, and in 1858, both of them had papers on the subject presented before the Linnaean Society of London. Then Darwin published “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, and unfortunately, Wallace’s contributions were largely forgotten.
Alfred Russel Wallace is just one of many unsung scientists I want to highlight today. There’s a long tradition of scientists being overlooked, especially when it comes to prestigious awards like the Nobel Prize. Before World War II, Austrian physicist Lise Meitner collaborated with German chemist Otto Hahn to demonstrate nuclear fission, which is when a heavy nucleus, such as uranium, splits into lighter nuclei, releasing a massive amount of energy. This discovery launched the atomic age, but Meitner, who was Jewish, had to flee to Sweden when Germany invaded Austria in 1938. Over time, Hahn downplayed Meitner’s involvement, and when he won the Nobel Prize in the mid-1940s, her contributions went unacknowledged.
Thanks to a writer named Aza Landrazgon, we received many great suggestions in the YouTube comments about other underappreciated scientists. We might have to create a list of more unsung scientists later this year. If you want to be featured in our next list, drop your favorite fact about Millennials in the comments below. The generation everyone loves to hate will be the subject of our next episode.
Rosalind Franklin was a British chemist who specialized in taking photographs that revealed the molecular structure of various compounds. Her lab photographed DNA, which was critical for the discovery of its double helix structure. Three other scientists—James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins—used Franklin’s findings without her permission when they won the Nobel Prize in Physiology for their collective work in 1962. Franklin was left out of the honors, having died in 1958.
Another physicist who deserves more recognition is Chien-Shiung Wu. She worked on the Manhattan Project, the United States’ secret effort to build nuclear weapons. While the moral implications of this work are debatable, it’s a fact that many leading physicists, excluding Lise Meitner, were involved in its scientific research. Wu designed experiments that disproved the law of conservation of parity, showing that mirror image particles do not necessarily behave as expected. This contributed to the development of the standard model of particle physics, but her colleagues won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, while she did not.
Alice Augusta Ball was a brilliant chemist at what is now the University of Hawaii. Around 1915, she developed a method for creating a new injectable treatment for leprosy, saving thousands of patients. Tragically, she died at just 24 years old, and the president of the university later published a paper taking credit for her work. Fortunately, a physician named Harry T. Holman set the record straight in a 1922 journal article, recognizing her contributions.
Some scientists lived in times when society did not appreciate their talents. Mary Anning, born in 1799, was a British fossil collector who unearthed some of the most important fossils in history, including the first complete skeleton of an ichthyosaur. She pioneered the field of paleontology and challenged existing ideas about how life developed on Earth, but as a self-educated woman, she struggled financially. Today, the Jurassic Coast in Southwest England, which she made famous as a fossil hotspot, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
As a child, Vera Rubin mapped the movement of stars outside her bedroom window, leading her to pursue a career in astronomy. In the 1940s, she applied to Princeton but was told that its astronomy program did not accept women. Rubin earned her degrees elsewhere and eventually embarked on her most important project: discovering why stars on the edge of spiral galaxies spin as fast as those at the center, where gravity is stronger. This observation led to the conclusion that the universe must be made chiefly of dark matter. To honor her groundbreaking work, the National Science Foundation announced that its newest telescope will be named the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
Charles Drew fought against segregation while developing life-saving technology. The innovative African-American medical researcher discovered new techniques for preserving and storing blood plasma and launched a vast network of blood donations to help soldiers during World War II. He even created the system of bloodmobiles we still use today. However, Drew resigned from the armed services in protest when the military insisted on segregating blood donated by African Americans from that of whites.
Some scientists lived at the right point in history for their talents, but that point was long ago, and memories fade. Francis Beaufort, while commanding a British naval ship around 1805, devised a scale for categorizing wind speeds, allowing sailors to accurately record weather conditions. The Beaufort scale, which ranges from zero (calm) to twelve (hurricane force), is still used today.
Luke Howard was an early British meteorologist who developed a naming system for clouds in 1803, coining the terms cumulus, stratus, and cirrus. His writings may have inspired cloud paintings by artist John Constable and poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Fun fact: after Percy drowned in a storm, his wife Mary Shelley kept his heart in a jar for the rest of her life.
You might have heard of Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist who explored vast stretches of South America in the early 19th century. He developed a theory of nature as an interconnected web, with forces in one part of the world affecting others. His best-selling books made him a global scientific celebrity, and many plants, animals, geographical landmarks, cultural institutions, towns, and even asteroids were named after him.
Scottish geologist James Hutton challenged the prevailing belief that Earth was shaped by a single biblical flood. He observed how wind and rain shaped the landscape and developed the theory of gradualism, which posited that Earth’s rocks, mountains, and canyons were formed by continuous upheaval and erosion over millions of years. Although Hutton isn’t a household name today, the evidence eventually proved his theory correct.
Charles Henry Turner was a behavioral scientist who published over 70 papers in the emerging field of insect behavior, despite facing challenges in funding and lab access. Among his findings, he discovered that honeybees can see color and patterns, insects can hear, and cockroaches can learn from experience.
Mary Golda Ross is thought to be the first Native American aerospace engineer. She credited the Cherokee tradition of educating boys and girls equally as her launchpad in life. Ross worked for Lockheed’s top-secret think tank, where she was the only woman and only Native person. She designed concepts for interplanetary spacecraft, Earth orbiters, satellites, and rockets at the dawn of the Space Age. Most of her work remains classified.
Eunice Foote was an amateur climatologist who conducted experiments in the 1850s demonstrating that water vapor and carbon dioxide influence solar heat. She found that a cylinder filled with carbon dioxide got hotter than a control cylinder and took longer to cool down, foreshadowing further study of how CO2 can heat Earth’s atmosphere.
Augustin Jean Fresnel was an engineer specializing in optics. While working for France’s lighthouse commission, he designed more effective beehive-shaped lenses for lighthouse lamps, which concentrated the brightness of the light source into a beam, making warning beacons visible far out to sea. His invention saved countless sailors’ lives and continues to be used in various applications today.
Benjamin Banneker, born in 1731 near Baltimore, Maryland, helped survey the land that would become Washington, D.C. The multi-talented astronomer and naturalist translated his meteorological observations into a series of almanacs, earning praise for both his scientific work and his advocacy for the abolition of slavery.
We’ll wrap up our list of unsung scientists with two more women who looked to the heavens. Caroline Herschel, only four foot three, was a giant among astronomers in the 18th century. While her brother William discovered the planet Uranus, Caroline discovered her first comet in 1786 and eventually found seven more, along with numerous nebulae and star clusters. She published a massive catalogue of stars that led to her admission as an honorary member of leading astronomy societies.
Finally, we come to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel to space. Before being chosen for the Soviet space program, her main interest was parachuting, which paved the way for her rigorous training for spaceflight. In 1963, she completed a solo mission aboard Vostok 6, making over 40 trips around the planet during her 70-hour and 50-minute flight before parachuting safely back to Earth.
Don’t forget to subscribe to Mental Floss and leave your favorite fact about Millennials in the comments below. That episode will be up on March 18th. Also, I would love it if you could wish my favorite millennial, my little brother, a happy birthday. Happy birthday, Dave!
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This version removes any informal language, personal anecdotes, and extraneous details while maintaining the core information about the scientists mentioned.
Evolution – The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth. – Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution explains how species adapt over time through natural selection.
Scientists – Individuals who conduct scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of interest. – Scientists use experiments and observations to understand the natural world and develop new technologies.
Contributions – Something given or added to a common purpose, especially in the context of scientific advancements. – Marie Curie’s contributions to the field of radioactivity were groundbreaking and earned her two Nobel Prizes.
Physics – The branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. – Physics helps us understand fundamental forces like gravity and electromagnetism that govern the universe.
Fossils – The preserved remains or impressions of organisms from the remote past, typically found in sedimentary rock. – Fossils provide crucial evidence for scientists studying the history of life on Earth.
Astronomy – The scientific study of celestial objects, space, and the universe as a whole. – Astronomy has revealed the vastness of the universe and the existence of countless galaxies beyond our own.
Climate – The long-term pattern of weather conditions in a particular area. – Scientists study climate change to understand how human activities impact global temperatures and weather patterns.
Discoveries – The act of finding or learning something for the first time, often leading to new knowledge or understanding. – The discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming revolutionized medicine by introducing antibiotics.
Research – The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources to establish facts and reach new conclusions. – Research in renewable energy sources is crucial for developing sustainable solutions to meet future energy demands.
Recognition – Acknowledgment or appreciation of someone’s work or achievements, often in a scientific context. – Albert Einstein received recognition for his theory of relativity, which transformed our understanding of space and time.
