Lost Women of Science

For decades, Ruth Itzhaki has pursued an idea that many in the Alzheimer’s research community were reluctant to take seriously: that herpes simplex virus type 1, the virus best known for causing cold sores, is also a major cause of Alzheimer’s disease in genetically vulnerable people. But as a different hypothesis became dominant in her field, Itzhaki found herself struggling to secure funding and recognition for her work.In this episode: What happens when a scientist spends a lifetime pursuing an idea that most of her field doesn’t find convincing? And where does Ruth Itzhaki’s idea stand today?  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In 1983, working with pencil and paper at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, Svetlana Mojsov spotted what everyone else had missed: the active form of a newly discovered hormone called GLP-1. After three years of testing, she proved she was right. That molecule is the basis of blockbuster drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Despite her valuable contributions to endocrinology and peptide research, Dr. Mojsov’s name was reduced to a footnote in most of the stories about GLP-1’s discovery. Instead, the credit was given to the men around her. In this episode, we’ll explore how she fought back.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In high school, Isabella Karle had to take a science class to fulfill a prerequisite. She chose chemistry at random. Karle would go on to become one of the most important chemists of her time, doing groundbreaking research in the field of X-ray crystallography. Her discoveries in the mid 1950s are a key reason many modern-day pharmaceuticals are available on pharmacy shelves. But Karle’s collaborator–her husband, Jerome–would eventually receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work Isabella also achieved.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In this episode of Lost Women of Science Conversations, host Elah Feder explores the remarkable resurgence of I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman’s 1995 novel that went largely unnoticed for decades before becoming an international sensation. Harpman was a psychoanalyst and her training informed the book’s speculative fiction, dystopian, and science fiction genres.Elah first speaks with award-winning translator Ros Schwartz, who translated the novel into English twice –once in 1997 and again in 2022, when a new edition helped introduce Harpman’s work to a new generation of readers.Later, Elah is joined by Susan Watkins, Professor of Women’s Writing at Leeds Beckett University, to discuss the novel’s themes of resilience, isolation, and survival, and why this once-overlooked book is resonating so strongly with readers today.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In 1856, decades before the term “greenhouse gas” was coined, Eunice Newton Foote demonstrated the greenhouse effect in her home laboratory. She placed a glass cylinder full of carbon dioxide in the sun, and found that it heated up much faster than a cylinder of ordinary air. Her conclusion: more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere results in a warmer planet. Several years later, a British scientist named John Tyndall conducted a far more complicated experiment that demonstrated the same effect and revealed how it worked. Today, he’s widely known as the man who discovered the greenhouse gas effect. There’s even a crater on the moon named for him! Eunice Newton Foote, meanwhile, was lost to history—until an amateur historian stumbled on her story. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices