The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [59]
1975
Physicist Betsy Ancker-Johnson becomes the fourth woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors an engineer can receive.
1975
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu is elected the first woman president of the American Physical Society. The nuclear physicist studied betadecay, worked on the Manhattan Project, and helped develop more sensitive Geiger counters.
1983
Barbara McClintock, an American scientist and cytogeneticist, becomes the first woman to win, unshared, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for her discovery of a genetic mechanism called transposition.
1984
Frances Gabe invents the self-cleaning house. Each room of the house has a 10-inch square “Cleaning / Drying / Heating / Cooling” device on the ceiling. At the push of a button, the cleaning unit sends a powerful spray of soapy water around the room and then rinses and blow-dries everything. Each room has a sloped floor to aid the water drainage, and all valuable objects and other things that should not get wet are stored under glass. The house, in the woods of Oregon, also has self-cleaning sinks, bathtubs, and toilets; a cupboard that doubles as a dishwasher; and closets that can clean and dry the clothes hung inside them.
1988
Gertrude Belle Elion is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The biochemist invented many life-saving drugs, now commonly used to fight leukemia and other diseases.
1991
Chemist Edith Flanigen is awarded the Perkin Medal, the nation’s most distinguished honor in applied chemistry. She was the first woman ever to have received the award. She retired in 1994, having earned 108 U.S. patents in the fields of petroleum research and product development.
1993
Ellen Ochoa becomes the first Hispanic female astronaut in space. The veteran of three space flights, who has logged over 719 hours in space, is also an electrical engineer with patents on high-tech optical recognition systems and optical systems for spacecraft automation.
1993
Betty Rozier and Lisa Vallino, a mother and daughter team, invent the intravenous catheter shield, making the use of IVs in hospitals safer and easier.
1995
Physical chemist Isabella Helen Lugoski Karle receives the National Medal of Science for her work on the structure of molecules.
1997
Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow wins the Nobel Prize in Medicine for her 1959 invention of RIA, a revolutionary way to diagnose illness at the molecular level.
1999
Eye surgeon Dr. Patricia Bath becomes the first African American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention: a device that removes cataracts with a fiberoptic laser.
Sleep Outs
A QUICK BACKYARD TENT can be made with just a rope, some stakes, and two tarps—big plastic, waterproof sheets essential to camping. First, string a rope between two branches on two different trees. Then stretch one tarp out on the ground and hang the second over the rope. Lastly, stake the four corners of the hanging tarp to the ground, using a hammer or a rock.
Store-bought tents are much larger than ever before, and come with flexible poles that fold into foot-long lengths and stow away in a nylon sack, making tent-pitching relatively simple. They also better protect us from the number one evil scourge of camping: bugs. (The number two evil scourge, should you ask, is poison ivy.) This leads to the prime rule of tents: Keep the zipper shut, because it’s nearly impossible to shoo a mosquito out of your tent once it’s in.
Before you pitch your tent, you may want to lay down an extra tarp to keep things extra clean and dry. (If you do, tuck the edges under so the tarp is slightly smaller than your tent.) Then set out the tent, and follow directions for inserting the poles. The fly, which protects from rain and dew, goes over the top of the tent and usually clips on, is staked to the ground, or both. Finally, bang the