WOMEN IN THEIR ELEMENT: SELECTED WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PERIODIC SYSTEM

This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mendeleev's first publication of the Periodic Table of Elements. This book offers an original viewpoint on the history of the Periodic Table: a collective volume with short illustrated papers on women and their contribution to the building and the understanding of the Periodic Table and of the elements themselves.

Few existing texts deal with women's contributions to the Periodic Table. A book on women's work will help make historical women chemists more visible, as well as shed light on the multifaceted character of the work on the chemical elements and their periodic relationships. Stories of female input, the editors believe, will contribute to the understanding of the nature of science, of collaboration as opposed to the traditional depiction of the lone genius.

While the discovery of elements will be a natural part of this collective work, the editors aim to go beyond discovery histories. Stories of women contributors to the chemistry of the elements will also include understanding the concept of element, identifying properties, developing analytical methods, mapping the radioactive series, finding applications of elements, and the participation of women as audiences when new elements were presented at lectures.

As for the selection of women, the chapters include pre-periodic table contributions as well as recent discoveries, unknown stories as well as more famous ones. The main emphasis will be on work conducted in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Furthermore, the book includes elements from different groups in the periodic table, so as to represent a variety of chemical contexts.

As with the discoveries themselves, bringing these tales of female scientists to light has taken much teamwork, including by contributors Gisela Boeck, John Hudson, Claire Murray, Jessica Wade, Mary Mark Ockerbloom, Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey Rayner-Canham, Xavier Roqué, Matt Shindell and Ignacio Suay-Matallana.

Tracing women in the history of chemistry unveils a fuller picture of all the people working on scientific discoveries, from unpaid assistants and technicians to leaders of great labs. In this celebratory year of the periodic table, it is crucial to recognize how it has been built and continues to be shaped by these individual efforts and broad collaborations.

Nature 565, 559 561 (2019)

Annette Lykknes holds a PhD in history of chemistry and is associate professor of chemistry education at NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She has been vice-chair of the EuCheMS' Working Party on History of Chemistry since 2009. Her research interests include 20th century history of chemistry and of radioactivity and nuclear science, the history of women and couples in the natural sciences, the history of chemistry teaching practices, history of chemistry in Norway. Lykknes is co-editor (with Donald L Opitz and Brigitte Van Tiggelen) of For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences(Birkhäuser, 2012) and co-author (with Joakim Ziegler Gusland) of Akademi og industri (Fagbokforlaget, 2015) on 100 years of research and teaching in chemistry at NTNU in Trondheim. In 2015, she published on the introduction of the Periodic System in Norwegian textbooks and periodicals, c. 1870-1930s.

Brigitte Van Tiggelen is Director for European Operations at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, and affiliated with the Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Since her doctoral thesis devoted to an 18th century chemist, she has published on 19th and 20th century topics. Her research interests include domesticity, women and couples in science, materials and philosophy of chemistry, and history of chemistry in Belgium. She recently co-edited (with Pierre Teissier and Cyrus Mody), From Bench to Brand and Back: The Co-Shaping of Materials and Chemists in the Twentieth Century (Cahiers François Viète, 2017) and (with Donald L Opitz and Staffan Bergwik) Domesticity in the Making of Modern Science (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016). To promote history of science among the general public and especially among secondary school teachers, she founded Mémosciences, a Belgian non-profit organization that organizes an annual conference cycle on the history of chemistry, scientific conferences, and teacher workshops.