Massive Originals
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Meet the astronomer who changed how we see the stars
Williamina Fleming pioneered a system for classifying stars and discovered the Horsehead Nebula
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Maryam Mirzakhani died Friday. Her legacy lives on
The first woman to win a Fields Medal was only 40, but she revolutionized mathematics
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Meet the "First Lady of Physics," "Queen of Nuclear Research," and destroyer of natural laws
Chien-Shiung Wu conducted some of the most elegant particle physics experiments of her time
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Meet the chemist who engineered the first effective treatment of leprosy
Alice Augusta Ball’s died at the age of 24. Ninety years later, we finally started recognizing her contributions.
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4 incredible fossils found by paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey
Meet the British anthropologist who completely changed our understanding of the hominid ancestral tree
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Meet the woman who changed how we treat cancer
Jane Cooke Wright saved millions by making chemotherapy more effective
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Meet the physicist who helped discover three fundamental particles
Most scientists spend their careers hoping for a single big discovery. Sau Lan Wu has had three and is still searching for more.
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Meet the first black woman to earn a PhD in chemistry
Marie Maynard Daly worked at a time when our understanding of DNA was changing in big ways
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Meet the botanist who made sugarcane sweeter and snuck a squirrel into England
Janaki Ammal lived simply. Her life was anything but.
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3 incredible stories from the life of nanoscience pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus
The “Queen of Carbon” didn’t earn her title by playing by the rules
Stories We Love
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People With Leprosy Were Exiled There—Should It Be a Tourist Destination?
Kalaupapa, Hawaii, is a former leprosy colony that’s still home to several of the people who were exiled there through the 1960s. Once they all pass away, the federal government wants to open up the isolated peninsula to tourism. But at what cost?
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The Scandalous Life of Nurse and Adventurer Kate Marsden
She spent 11 months trekking to Siberia to find a cure for leprosy, but her love life overshadowed everything.