Thread by @royalsociety

Today is #AdaLovelaceDay, which celebrates the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Follow our thread to uncover the stories of some of the most influential women in British science history...

Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) was the first woman to earn a living as an astronomer and the first to win a Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society. #AdaLovelaceDay

You can learn more about her in our film from #InternationalWomensDay:

Mary Somerville's (1780-1872) first scientific investigations began in the summer of 1825, when she carried out experiments on magnetism. Her 1826 paper was the first to be read by a woman to the Royal Society. #AdaLovelaceDay

Mary Anning (1799-1847) is often remembered as a fossil hunter and dealer, but this underestimates her. She was a pioneering palaeontologist who helped revolutionise our understanding of prehistoric life. #AdaLovelaceDay

Learn more about her in our #InternationalWomensDay film:

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) was a pioneering physician and political campaigner. The first Englishwoman to qualify as a doctor, her determination paved the way for other women. In 1876 an act was passed permitting women to enter the medical professions. #AdaLovelaceDay

Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923) was a pioneering British engineer, inventor & suffragette. She assisted her husband with his experiments in physics and electricity, becoming an expert on the subject of the electric ark and published several papers from her own research. #AdaLovelaceDay

Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971) was an early pioneer of X-ray crystallography, a field primarily concerned with studying the shapes of organic and inorganic molecules. She was the first woman, alongside Marjory Stephenson, admitted as a fellow to the Royal Society. #AdaLovelaceDay

Elsie Widdowson’s (1908-2000) research was crucial to the British WW2 effort and post-war recovery. She ensured British people thrived during rationing and malnourished German children survived & recovered swiftly. #AdaLovelaceDay

Learn more in our #InternationalWomensDay video:

Nominated more than once for the Nobel Prize, Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994) won in 1964 for her work on penicillin and vitamin B12. The English chemist and Nobel laureate also deciphered the structure of insulin in 1969 after 35 years of research. #AdaLovelaceDay

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data was a part of the data used to formulate Crick & Watson's hypothesis of DNA structure. Her research and insight contributed directly to two Nobel Prize awards #AdaLovelaceDay

Anne McLaren (1927-2007) made fundamental advances in genetics which paved the way for the development of in vitro fertilisation. #AdaLovelaceDay

In celebration of #AdaLovelaceDay, discover more about each of these influential women: bit.ly/2oVd9AL