Inequality
How an American Psychiatrist Inspired a Street Name in Germany--and Why That's So Unusual
Nyswanderweg, a pinky-sized residential street in Hamburg, Germany, is easy to miss. Yet it’s a rare and significant monument to Marie Nyswander.
Stories by The Lost Women of Science Initiative
Drug Use
A New Era in Addiction Medicine: A Trailblazing Doctor’s Legacy and the Ongoing Search for a Cure
Medication treatment for heroin addiction has come a long way since its pioneer died. But what would she think of the field today?
Drug Use
Methadone Maintenance versus Synthetic Heaven: Inside the Historic Fight over Heroin Treatment
In the 1970s Marie Nyswander thought that she had finally found a long-term treatment for heroin addiction, but not everyone agreed—including some of the people she was trying to help...
Drug Use
These Doctors Fought the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to Treat Addiction—With Drugs
In the early 1960s a trio at the Rockefeller Institute started a bold experiment to change the way heroin addiction was treated, and they did so using a drug originally created by “the devil’s chemist”...
Drug Use
From Orgasms to Overdoses: How Marie Nyswander Went from Treating ‘Sexual Frigidity’ to Heroin Addiction
A young psychoanalyst specializing in sexual issues starts getting calls for help—about something else entirely
Drug Use
Marie Nyswander Changed the Landscape of Addiction. Here’s How Her Story Begins
In the first episode of Season Five of the Lost Women of Science podcast, we meet a young doctor who, in 1946, was posted to Kentucky’s Narcotic Farm
Microbiology
This Overlooked Scientist Helped Save Washington, D.C.’s Cherry Trees
Mycologist Flora Patterson helped make the USDA fungus collection into the world’s largest. She also made a mean mushroom “catsup”
Medicine
Leona Zacharias Helped Solve a Blindness Epidemic among Premature Babies. She Received Little Credit
In the first Lost Women of Science Shorts podcast, host Katie Hafner dives into the life and work of Leona Zacharias—a brilliant researcher who, before reporting this story, Hafner only knew as her grandmother...
Diversity
The Feminist Test We Keep Failing: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 3 Bonus Episode
There's a test that we at Lost Women of Science seem to fail again and again: the Finkbeiner test
Engineering
This Black Female Engineer Broke through the Double Bind of Racism and Sexism and Directly Nurtured a Legion of STEM Leaders
Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y., had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements. In the final episode of this season’s Lost Women of Science podcast, we see how Y.Y.’s more than five decades of teaching educated a new generation of mechanical engineers, who credit her with helping to change the industry...
Engineering
NASA’s Saturn V Rocket, the Moon Rock Box and the Woman Who Made Them Work Properly
Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y. throughout her career, had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements as a Black female mechanical engineer. In the third episode of the third season of the Lost Women of Science podcast, we see how Y.Y.’s brilliance helped make Project Apollo a success...
Engineering
For the ‘First Lady of Engineering,’ Freedom Meant Facing Down Racism and Sexism—And Breaking Her Own Rules
Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y. throughout her career, had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements as a Black female mechanical engineer. In the second episode of the newest season of the Lost Women of Science podcast, we see Y.Y.’s true grit as she fights for recognition and a place at the science table...
Engineering
The First Lady of Engineering: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1
Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y. throughout her career, had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements as a Black female mechanical engineer. The third season of the Lost Women of Science podcast begins at the start of her story, during her unconventional childhood in the segregated South...
Computing
The Weather Myth: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Bonus Episode
When we first started researching Klára Dán von Neumann, we thought she was “the computer scientist you should thank for your smartphone’s weather app.” It turns out that’s not true...
Computing
Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 5: La Jolla
Klára Dán von Neumann encounters a new home, a new husband and a new project
Computing
Love Computers? Love History? Listen to This Podcast
In the newest season of Lost Women of Science, we enter a world of secrecy, computers and nuclear weapons—and see how Klára Dán von Neumann was a part of all of it...
Computing
Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 4: Netherworld
Klára Dán von Neumann enters the netherworld of computer simulations and the postwar Los Alamos National Laboratory
Computing
Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 3: The Experimental Rabbit
ENIAC, an early electronic computer, gets a makeover
Computing
Love Computers? Love History? Listen to This Podcast
In the newest season of Lost Women of Science, we enter a world of secrecy, computers and nuclear weapons—and see how Klára Dán von Neumann was a part of all of it...
Computing
Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 2, Episode 2: Women Needed
Klára Dán von Neumann arrives in Princeton, N.J., just as war breaks out in Europe
