Every year since 1987, March has been considered Women’s History Month. What started as International Women’s Day in 1911 became National Women’s History Week in 1980 and then a month designated to learning about and celebrating what women have contributed to history. Since we are approaching the end of Women’s History Month, I thought was appropriate to write a few women in science who were, or are, Christians. Officially they are a small group — according to an article published in Christianity Today, only ~7% of biologists and physicists in the US identify as Christian women. Nevertheless, there are a many remarkable women who belong to this group.
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mary anning
Science Corner: What Remains of a Life?
This post discusses plot details of Ammonite which is based on the life of Mary Anning while admittedly also employing significant creative license. To the extent such a film can be spoiled, this post contains spoilers.
We haven’t talked about a movie in a while, and since I’ve written before about Mary Anning, it seemed appropriate to discuss the recent film Ammonite based on her life. I knew very little about the film beyond the fact that Anning was its subject, but I was expecting something akin to The Dig, a drama centered around an unlikely archaeological find. And indeed both films feature plenty of English mud. But where The Dig, well, delved into the politics of the early 20th century British archaeology world and the broader significance of the titular excavation, Ammonite is much more interested in the personal life of Anning (including several explicit sex scenes that may be disqualifying for prospective viewers).
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Science Corner: Digging into Natural History
This week’s exploration of Christians’ history in the sciences brings us to Mary Anning. Anning was a 19th century fossil collector whose work would form the foundation of paleontology. She found some of the first ichthyosaur, plesiosaur and pterosaur skeletons.
Most striking to me is that she did so largely as an outsider. She had a passion for science and pursued her investigations without the kind of institutional support we associate with modern science. We may need more Mary Annings going forward as that kind of support is available to a smaller proportion of qualified scientists than in recent years.
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