In 2013, the pioneering rocket scientist Yvonne Brill died. In her obituary, The New York Times opened with the facepalm-inducing line: “She made a mean beef stroganoff.”
A lot of the time when you read about a female scientist, there’s an underlying tone of surprise that they chose a career in science. Either that, or the emphasis is not on their great minds and their achievements, but their appearance, or love life... Or their stroganoff recipe.
To challenge these very unscientific assumptions, Twitter user Daurmith has written a series of short biographies of male scientists as if they were women. The tweets were originally written in Spanish, but translated by popular demand.
«Pierre Curie, married and proud father of two, found time for love and family during his short scientific career.»
— Daurmith (@Daurmith) January 30, 2016
«A devout husband and father, Darwin balanced his family duties with the study of the specimes he brought from his travels.»
— Daurmith (@Daurmith) January 30, 2016
«His dour personality made everyone think he’d never marry. Even so, Schrödinger got a wife and a Nobel Prize."
— Daurmith (@Daurmith) January 30, 2016
«He had the body of an athlete and the face of a movie star. But Oliver Sacks chose science over glamour.»
— Daurmith (@Daurmith) January 30, 2016
