I am a Materials Girl

Category: History

Part of my goal for Materials Girls was to act as the mentor for these young girls that I have found in other women before me. Women have continuously been influential forces in science and discovery. Today, I wanted to highlight some of the most impressive scientists who have led us to what we know about the world today and our rights in the world of innovation.

Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, making history aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1983. A physicist as well as an astronaut, she flew on two missions and became a powerful role model for women in science. After her NASA career, she founded Sally Ride Science to inspire young students, especially girls, to pursue STEM fields.

Mae Jemison became the first African American woman in space when she flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992. Trained as both a physician and an engineer, she combined her expertise in medicine and technology during her career. Since then, she has worked to promote STEM education, sustainable development, and innovation in science.

Katherine Johnson was a groundbreaking NASA mathematician whose calculations were essential to the success of many early U.S. spaceflights, including John Glenn’s orbital mission in 1962. She broke through racial and gender barriers, becoming one of the key figures behind America’s space program. Her story was later highlighted in the book and film Hidden Figures.

Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose precise diffraction images revealed critical details of DNA’s structure, helping to uncover the double helix. Though her contributions were not fully recognized during her lifetime (and credit was given fully to Watson and Crick, at the time), her work remains fundamental to genetics. She also made significant advances in understanding viruses and coal.

Marie Curie was a pioneering physicist and chemist who discovered the elements polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person ever to win in two scientific fields, Physics and Chemistry. Her research on radioactivity transformed science and laid the groundwork for medical and nuclear applications

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree, graduating in 1849. She went on to advocate for women in medicine and co-founded a medical college for women, expanding opportunities in the field. She also promoted public health, hygiene, and preventive medicine throughout her career.

These women remind us that breaking barriers in science is about discovery and paving the way for others to follow. Their stories show the power of persistence, passion, and courage in shaping both knowledge and opportunity. Through Materials Girls, I hope to continue this legacy, encouraging young girls to see themselves in these role models, and hopefully in me.

References

Britannica. “Marie Curie | Biography & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Curie.

Conlon, Anne Marie. “Mae Jemison.” New Scientist, 17 Oct. 1956, www.newscientist.com/people/mae-jemison/.

“Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell Biography | Hobart and William Smith Colleges.” Hws.edu, 17 Jan. 2024, www.hws.edu/about/history/elizabeth-blackwell/biography.aspx. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.

“New Evidence Supports the Rosalind Franklin Phenomenon – AWIS.” AWIS, 23 May 2024, awis.org/resource/new-evidence-supports-rosalind-franklin-phenomenon/.

“Sally Ride, PhD.” AWIS, 31 May 2024, awis.org/historical-women/sally-ride-phd/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2025.Shetterly, Margot Lee. “Katherine Johnson Biography.” NASA, 22 Nov. 2016, www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/katherine-johnson-biography/.

This year I am a senior in high school and am deep into the college admission process. All of these universities have unique traditions, and one I find very interesting is painting! At Duke, every first-year student leaves their mark by painting the East Campus Bridge during orientation, while at Northwestern, student groups “guard” The Rock for 24 hours before layering on their message. UVA’s Beta Bridge is one of the most visible forums on campus, where paint layers pile up daily with everything from sports cheers to memorials. At Michigan, the Ann Arbor Rock has been repainted so many times since the 1950s that it’s practically a geological formation in its own right.

The bridge painting for Duke is a kick-off activity of Orientation Week for incoming-first year students. (Picture Source: https://today.duke.edu/2012/08/ecampusbridge)
Northwestern undergrads often “guard” the rock for 24 hours to claim the right to paint it next. Picture Source: (https://www.northwestern.edu/about/history/the-rock.html)
UVA’s Beta Bridge often has announcements for campus events, current affairs bulletins, club member recruitments, commemorations of horrific world events, cheers for UVA athletic teams, and so on. (Picture Source: https://discovercharlottesville.com/listings/beta-bridge/)
Michigan’s Rock was originally painted gray, but has since been continuously painted over by students and other members of the community looking to make their (temporary) mark. (Picture Source: https://www.michigandaily.com/news/campus-life/a-campus-tradition-painting-the-rock/)

From a materials science perspective, these traditions are more than just campus fun. Each new coat of paint adds a polymer-based layer, creating a stratified record of pigments, binders, and fillers that interact over time through adhesion, diffusion, and weathering. Environmental exposure (UV radiation, humidity, freeze–thaw cycles) induces degradation, causing chalking, flaking, or microcracking that can expose older layers beneath. The constant repainting also creates a multilayer composite structure, sometimes several inches thick, with mechanical properties similar to laminates: stiff yet brittle, prone to delamination under stress. These campus traditions thus accidently generate living laboratories of applied materials science, where students walking past a rock or bridge are witnessing the durability, failure, and layered complexity of everyday polymers in action.

Here is a close-up of the layers of paint from the Northwestern Rock. (Picture Source: https://evanstonroundtable.com/2021/05/28/northwestern-rock-chipped-and-damaged-for-unconfirmed-reasons/)
These are the layers of paint from the UVA Beta Bridge. (Picture Source: https://news.virginia.edu/content/painting-beta-bridge-tradition-expression)

A New England Summer

This past summer we went all over New England making stops in Nantucket, Boston, Newport, and Upstate New York. We spent the Fourth of July in Boston, Massachusetts, and learned a lot about the history of the city through various tours and other activities. We went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park and also had the privilege of watching the Boston Pops perform live. There are various college campuses in Boston as well, so we visited Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). One sightseeing tour we went on was the duck tour that lets you see the city on both land and water. Our tour guide did a phenomenal job and pointed out many interesting facts about Boston. When we were in Beacon Hill, one of Boston’s oldest neighborhoods, he mentioned the glass in this neighborhood. Some buildings still had original glass from the early 1800s, and he knew this because of its purple color.

Purple Glass

Between 1818 and 1824, England sent glass to Beacon Hill that had too much manganese oxide. It looked normal when first installed, but after it was exposed to sunlight, it turned purple and all of these buildings had purple glass (“The Story”). This is because the ultraviolet light from the sun initiates an electron exchange which turns the colorless glass purple. This entire batch of glass turned purple, so it is easy to identify its date of origin. All of the original glass in Beacon Hill is purple, and all of the updated glass is colorless. Boston is such a unique city with history everywhere you look. Even its glass is filled with so much history.

Here is a purple windowpane I took a picture of when we were walking through Beacon Hill (July 2023).

Works Cited

“The Story Behind Beacon Hill’s Purple Windows.” New England Living, 11 Apr. 2023, newenglandliving.tv/the-story-behind-beacon-hills-purple-windows/.

The Ancient City: Edinburgh, Scotland

This question has countless answers depending on where these buildings are today. Stones used in European cities are fascinating in particular. Some cities have been around for thousands of years, and it is remarkable how there are still structures around today. A very important factor of this is the stones being used to build these specific buildings. I recently went to Edinburgh, Scotland, which has records dating back to 8500 BC, and was able to witness such old landmarks firsthand. When I visited Paris, the buildings were rarely discolored and something I did not pay much attention to. When I was in Edinburgh, though, the discoloration in the stone was fascinating to me. I was not sure if this was because of the city’s age or some other factor that affected the stone.

This is a picture I took while we were in Edinburgh, Scotland of noticeably darker stones. – March 2023

The Stones

Edinburgh is made of something called craigleith sandstone which is sturdy and already fairly different in color. These stones are typically grey or brown and desirable for building structures because it is easy to work with but also reluctant to weathering (“Interesting Facts”). This allows for such ancient cities to still be around today. As for the color of the stones in Edinburgh, knowing some were already grey to begin with made sense, but still did not explain why some looked black. According to Katie Welsh, it is actually just pollution. Up until the 20th century, coal was burned in house fires and railways and thus covered buildings in soot (Welsh). This grime and soot still covers the sandstone today, which helps protect it from corrosion. I find it fascinating how all cities have different stories to share, even within the architecture. I assumed this Scottish city looked old thanks to only its age, but there are so many more factors. It is important to remember to leave no stone unturned, literally.

Source

“Interesting Facts – Sandstone.” Banas Stone. Banas Stone, 2023, www.banasstones.com/interesting-facts/309-interesting-facts-sandstone/. 
Welsh, Katie. “Edinburgh’s Iconic Scott Monument and the Reason it Can Never Get Cleaned.” edinburghlive. MGN Limited, 29 June 2021, www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburghs-iconic-scott-monument-reason-20931701.

This is an image of the Challenger explosion in 1986. Source: https://i.natgeofe.com/n/20a3d8bf-9cca-49af-9f13-05e9c537a5aa/31734_3x2.jpg

The Shuttle

I know I have mentioned him before, but I have a younger brother who is now 10 years old. I feel like all boys of his age have similar interests of dinosaurs, cars, space, and pretty much all sorts of vehicles. Since it is just him and me, he knows a lot about what I am interested in and I know a lot about what he is interested in. He knows a lot about space and rockets of all sorts, but it also helps that we live near the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I have gone there countless times as they have many sites to explore. One main attraction of theirs is the Atlantis Space Shuttle, one of only four left in the world. The Discovery Shuttle is at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, which is another shuttle I have had the privilege of seeing. The other two, the Endeavour and the Enterprise, are in other museums in California and New York. With that being said, there were actually six shuttles built by NASA. The Challenger exploded during launch on January 28, 1986 and the Columbia exploded during re-enter on February 1, 2003.

The Cause

It is known by all that the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded resulting in the deaths of seven passengers, but not everyone knows the real cause of this casualty. A tiny rubber part of the shuttle called the O-ring was the source of the problem. It served as a seal between parts of the solid rocket boosters, but lost its elasticity when exposed to cold temperature (Teitel). The O-ring only works properly above 54 degrees and on January 28, 1986, it was 36 degrees (Teitel). The temperature was so cold, the O-ring did not expand properly and could not prevent the leak (Teitel). The liquid-hydrogen leaking from the booster mixed with the liquid-oxygen tank and the shuttle exploded (Teitel). The Challenger explosion was an unforgettable incident and has taught NASA a lot so that history will not repeat itself.

The Source

Teitel, Amy Shira. “What Caused the Challenger Disaster?” History. A&E Television Networks, LLC., January 28, 2022, www.history.com/news/how-the-challenger-disaster-changed-nasa. Accessed 2 January 2023.