A century ago, professional scientists were mostly men. Women were working hard just to gain equal access to education. A famous photograph taken in 1927 shows a meeting of the world's top scientists of that era. The picture shows scientific super-stars like Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrodinger, whose research shaped the world we live in. Of the 29 attendees, 28 were men of European origin. Marie Curie, a pioneering scientist who worked in physics and chemistry and won two Nobel prizes, was the only woman in attendance. Although these scientists compiled an incredible list of scientific achievements, one can only imagine how much more would have been accomplished had women and ethnic minorities been allowed greater access to their ranks. As the historian of science Steven Jay Gould said, "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."

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MPAA: PG
Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00037