Jordan Hunter
Chemistry I
Unsung Hero
3/16/13
Dr. Barnes-Johnson
According to the official oxford dictionary, the word unsung is an adjective
meaning not celebrated or praised, and the word hero is a noun for a person who is
admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities, so I must
assume that an unsung hero is someone who has preformed outstanding achievements
without being celebrated.
The two unsung heroes I have had the pleasure of learning
about are Marie Curie and Marie Daly. Marie Curie once said, “Life is not easy for any
of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in
ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be
obtained”. Both Maries had to overcome the discrimination against their gender and
Marie Daly with her race, however, like Marie Curie said, we must have perseverance.
My nuclear scientist was Marie Curie (1867-1934), she was born in Warsaw,
Russia and moved to Paris so that she could get a Licentiateship in Physics and the
Mathematical Sciences.
Her physics professor, Pierre Curie became her husband, she
later became the head of the physics department and her husband’s boss.
Her and her
husband worked to try to prove that radiation exists. The two processed approximately
a ton of pitchblende to discover the new element radium (Ra), and produce a gram of it,
not to mention that this proved that radiation was real.
She also discovered polonium
(Po). Marie Curie was not very unsung as far as unsung heroes go, she was the first
person to ever win two Nobel Prizes and is the most recognized female scientist in
history. An element with radioactive qualities discovered ten years after her death was
named after her for her work with radiation, it was called Curium (Cm).
Marie Daly (1921-2003) was born in Corona, Queens, a neighborhood of New
York City. Daly had to overcome obstacles of gender and racial discriminations, not to
mention she wasn’t in the best situation economically. Daly attended Hunter College
High School, an all-female institution, where she developed her love of chemistry, she
was encouraged to continue with science.
In 1942, Daly graduated Queens College with
a B.S. degree. The next year she received her M.S. from New York University and left
for Columbia University where she entered the doctoral program for biochemistry. In
1948 she made history as the first African American woman to receive her PhD in
chemistry.
After completing two years of teaching at Howard university she joined
Alfred E. Mirsky, a pioneer in molecular biology, at the Rockefeller Institute in New
York, where for seven years she worked on the composition and metabolism of
components of the cell nucleus, among other studies. Her initial studies on the purine
and pyrimidine content of DNA preceded the work by John Watson and Francis Crick,
the founders of the structure of DNA, by six or seven years.
In addition to her research
Daly was committed to developing programs to increase the enrollment of minority
students in medical school and graduate science programs. In 1988 she established a
scholarship fund for African American science students at Queens College in honor of
her father, who was forced to drop out of Cornell due to lack of money.
If these brave heroes lived today, it would be much different.
Marie Currie
wouldn’t be in the side of textbooks as the token woman scientist and Marie Daly would
have been able to peruse a more effective career in organ functions and extending
lifespan. Marie Curie would be included in the chapters of textbooks as a major
contributing nuclear scientist to discovering elements and radiation.
Marie Daly would
have gone to a girls and boys school, and most likely tested out of high school and gone
to Harvard which her insurmountable intellect.
Dr. Daly made so many contributions in
her life and is only recognized as the first African American woman to graduate with a
PhD in chemistry.
Marie Curie gained her Doctor of Sciences degree at the School of
Physics, which is also where she attained her first teaching job, met her husband, and
then became his boss, which seems to not be in existence anymore since information
cannot be found on such a place.
Marie Daly got her PhD at Columbia University, in
2011-2012 19 people graduated with biochemistry as their interdepartmental major, no
one had it as their major.
Marie Curie
Marie Daly
Sources:
http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/unsung?q=Unsung
http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/hero?q=hero
Ruge, Michael E. Quote-a-quote: To Your Success: Health, Wealth & Happiness. Vol. 1.
Paradise Pub, 2005.
Brown, Jeannette. African American Women Chemists. OUP USA, 2012.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/marie-curie.html
http://cuentos-cuanticos.com/2012/09/16/fisicas-en-el-frente/
http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/online-resources/chemistry-in-history/themes/bio
molecules/proteins-and-sugars/daly.aspx
"Marie M. Daly." World of Chemistry. Gale, 2006. Science In Context. Web. 27 Feb.
2013.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/opir/abstract/opir_ccug_degrees_by_program_1.htm