Ada Lovelace

I posted what my musical obsession has been this week now it's time for the rest of it.

During Thanksgiving I went down to Barnes and Noble and spent a lovely day sipping on an eggnog latte, reading a book called "The Age of Wonder" by Richard Holmes, a non-fiction about the romantic era of science and its importance in the world we live in today. A great read, it's focusing largely on the post-rennaisance time period - think of "Darwin" or "Hershel" .... anyways, that's got me started on another historical science kick. This isn't the first book I've read on the historical account of science. I've read books on Marie Curie, diseases, cholera, plague, epidemiology and then the comprehensive "The Scientists"  - oh, and a few books about medicine and blood. The history of blood was an interesting read.

When I was christmas shopping online I stumbled across these three shirts on thinkgeek.com. They are so awesome that I saved the images and printed them out and now have them hanging on my wall.

The first one is Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Although more of a writer than a legitimate scientist, she is credited with creating the genre of science fiction. Also, although she didn't perform experiments, she is considered to be a philosophical scientist and did correspond with some of the greatest minds of the time.

 This is probably my favorite of the series. This is Ada Lovelace, and to be honest I had never heard of her. She was the daughter of Lord Byron and is considered by many to be the first computer programmer in history. Apparently, some Italian guy back in the day had hypothesized a machine similar that was similar to a computer. She (being obsessed with mathematics) decided to translate his book into English. Her notes on the translation were twice as long as the book and ultimately she added to his work and developed numerous algorithms for his brain child. I decided to rename my guinea pig in her honor.

Can you guess this one? She's a scientist and a chemist......eh? EH!? It's the one, the only....Marie Curie! Easily one of the most awesome women to have ever lived - I totally admire her dedication and skill to chemistry. In fact there have been many a long night when I have had to sit through tired and boring lectures in chemistry and the only reason I manage is by thinking of her and how this was her work, and it makes the monotonous tone of my professor easier to bear.

So these women have been my other obsession this week. I wish I could find more prints like this, but this is it :(