211108 Trailer Lost Women of Science

Listen to This New Podcast: "Lost Women of Science"

By Katie Hafner, The Lost Women of Science Initiative on November 8, 2021

Katie Hafner: Hello Science Talk Audience. I'm Katie Hafner, and I'm the host of a new podcast called Lost Women of Science. I've been writing about science and technology for decades, most of that time for The New York Times, but very rarely did I write about a woman who was a major figure. I don't remember it bothering me very much at the time. It just seemed normal.

I believed I was writing about the most important people in their fields, but it became clear, as my career went on, that important figures were missing, namely women. I started asking why this was a couple of years ago. And I kept coming back to something called the Matilda Effect, which is basically a bias against acknowledging【承认（属实）  承认（权威、地位）】 women for their work in science. Instead, the credit goes to a man. 

A good example I saw in the news recently is Jocelyn Bell Burnell. She's a radio astronomer【射电天文学家】 who discovered the first two pulsars【脉冲星】, but the Nobel prize went to a man. If we don't catch these misattributions【对书、画等原作者的）张冠李戴；错误认定，错误归属】, these women can just fade away from our consciousness【清醒状态；知觉  觉察；感觉；意识  观念；看法】, and we'll never know the truth about their story and about our history.

I started this podcast to retrieve【取回；索回recover扭转颓势；挽回；找回】 these scientists from oblivion【无意识状态；沉睡；昏迷被遗忘；被忘却；湮没obscurity被摧毁；被毁灭；被夷平】. We put together a trailer【（电影或电视节目的）预告片】 for this series and here it is: 

[Trailer plays]

Katie Hafner: I'm Katie Hafner, host of a new podcast called Lost Women of Science. Through history women have made hundreds of scientific breakthroughs. 

Scott Baird: She had a sixth sense【第六感觉；直觉[sing.]】 about this disease that enabled her to sort of pick out, um, I think important clues.

Celia Ores: She was helpful in a very different unnoticed【未被看见；未受到注意；被忽视】 way.

Brian O'Sullivan: She put this puzzle together.

Katie Hafner: But many, if not, most of these scientists are missing from the public's consciousness.

Scott Baird: And as I added up all this data in my head, it gradually became clear that her place had been ignored.

Katie Hafner: Each season, we'll explore and celebrate【赞美；颂扬；歌颂】 the life and work of one woman who shaped our understanding of the world.

And we'll delve into【探索；探究；查考】 some of the reasons you might not know her name.

Bijal Trivedi: I mean, why, why is it that Rosalind Franklin wasn't given credit for her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA? I think it's the same type of thing. 

Katie Hafner: We'll be looking at the obstacles these women faced, but also their passion, their drive【冲劲；干劲；精力（人的）强烈欲望，本能需求】, their sheer【（用来强调事物的大小、程度或数量）完全的；纯粹的；十足的】 perseverance【毅力；韧性；不屈不挠的精神】.

We're revisiting【重提；再次讨论】 the historical record one extraordinary scientist at a time. 

Scott Baird: ButI finally figured out, wait a second. There's an alternative【可供替代的非传统的；另类的】 story here. 

Katie Hafner: Join us as we honor these remarkable untold stories. Lost Women of Science coming November 4th, wherever you get your podcasts.

[End of trailer]

Katie Hafner: Getting to these stories requires lots of digging【寻找，搜寻（物品）】. We at Lost Women of Science go searching in archives, in museums, in hospitals, in people's basements to piece these people's lives back together after they've been neglected for many, many decades. Our first season is about a pathologist【病理学医生；病理学家】 named Dorothy Andersen, the first person to identify cystic【胞囊的; 膀胱的; 胆囊的】 fibrosis【纤维化】【囊性纤维变性；囊性纤维化】 in a patient in the 1930s. Her work is the foundation for the treatments available for the disease today. 

In the Lost Women of Science podcast, we break down【划成部分（以便分析）】 the science and we try to figure out who these people were and what the world around them was like then. It's like a science podcast meets a period piece meets a mystery. 

The more I do this research, the more I realized that women were at the heart of some of the most important developments in science. A couple of examples: in the early 1900s, Alice Ball, a young black chemist came up with the most effective treatment for leprosy【麻风】. And the work of Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian biochemist has been crucial to the development of the Pfiz and Moder COV vaccine. 

Please join us here at Scientific American or wherever you get your podcasts. Just look for Lost Women of Science and you'll find us.

The Matilda effect is the systematic【成体系的；系统的；有条理的；有计划有步骤的】 repression【压制；镇压抑制；克制；压抑】 and denial of the contribution of women scientists in research, whose work is often attributed【认为是…所为（或说、写、作）】 to their male colleagues. This effect was first described in 1993 by science historian Margaret W. Rossiter. It is named after the U.S. women's rights activist Matilda Joslyn Gage, who first observed this phenomenon at the end of the 19th century. The Matilda effect is related to the Matthew effect, since eminent【（尤指在某专业中）卓越的，著名的，显赫的非凡的；杰出的】 scientists will often get more credit than a comparatively unknown researcher, even if their work is shared or similar. Rossiter provides several examples of this effect: Trotula, an Italian physician (11th–12th centuries), wrote books which were attributed to male authors after her death, and hostility【敌意；对抗（对思想、计划或情形的）愤怒反对，愤怒反抗】 towards women as teachers and healers【用自然力（而非药物）治疗别人者缓解情势的事物】 led to her very existence being denied. Known cases of the effect from the 20th century include among others Rosalind Franklin, Lise Meitner, Marietta Blau and Jocelyn Bell Burnell.

In sociology【社会学/ˌsoʊsiˈɑːl‑/】, the Matthew effect (or accumulated advantage) is the phenomenon where "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer". In both its original and typical usage it is meant metaphorically [隐喻地；用比喻] to refer to issues of fame or status but it may also be used literally to refer to cumulative advantage of economic capital. The term was first coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton in 1968 and takes its name from a verse in the biblical Gospel【福音（《圣经》中关于耶稣生平和教诲的四福音书之一）】 of Matthew, pertaining【存在；适用】 to Jesus' parable【（尤指《圣经》中的）寓言故事】 of the talents【有才能的人；人才；天才】: For unto【prep 朝；向；到；对直到；到…为止】 every one that hath【has】 shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.