nPostednon January 28, 2016
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nDiamondsnare a dame’s best friends?
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DamenKathleen Lonsdale was an accomplished scientist, researcher,nprofessor. She accomplished a lot of “firsts” for women innscience. (“Dame” is an honorary title for women equivalent ton“Sir” for men. Lonsdale was given the title Dame Commander of thenOrder of the British Empire in 1956 for her scientific work.)
DamenKathleen Lonsdale was an accomplished scientist, researcher,nprofessor. She accomplished a lot of “firsts” for women innscience. (“Dame” is an honorary title for women equivalent ton“Sir” for men. Lonsdale was given the title Dame Commander of thenOrder of the British Empire in 1956 for her scientific work.)n
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nOnenof her Lonsdale’s students – a woman who went on to become anscience professor herself – acknowledged that she learned a lot ofnscience from Professor Lonsdale, but she ALSO said that she learned anlot about how to balance a career and a family from Lonsdale. Andnthat is a really important thing!
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nLonsdalenwas born on this date in 1903 in Ireland, but she moved to Englandnwhen she was just five years old. At the time that she was attendingnhigh school, mathematics and science were not offered in the HighnSchool for Girls, so she ended up transferring to a High School fornBoys for those subjects! She went on to earn Bachelor of Science andnMaster of Science degrees at university. Eventually she became thenfirst woman to be a tenured professor at the University CollegenLondon.
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I’mnsure you’re dying to know what that diamond crack at the top of thisnarticle was all about? Well, Lonsdale’s specialty wasncrystallography, the study of atomic and molecular structure. One ofnthe things she worked on was the synthesis of diamonds. (That is,nmaking diamonds, rather than digging up diamonds that were madennaturally.)
I’mnsure you’re dying to know what that diamond crack at the top of thisnarticle was all about? Well, Lonsdale’s specialty wasncrystallography, the study of atomic and molecular structure. One ofnthe things she worked on was the synthesis of diamonds. (That is,nmaking diamonds, rather than digging up diamonds that were madennaturally.)n
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nLonsdale also determined the structure of benzene rings, which are importantnorganic compounds, and of hexachlorobenzene. She was a pioneer in thenuse of X-rays to study crystals. Remember, crystals are foundneverywhere in nature, from snowflakes to gemstones, from salts tonorganic compounds to minerals. Here are some cool pictures fromnmodern crystallography:
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nAlsonon this date:
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nDemocracynDay in Rwanda
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nNationalnKazoo Day
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nAnniversarynof first ski tow in the U.S.
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nAnniversarynof the coining of the word serendipity
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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