Even More on St Ketevan

Following on from my post "More on St Ketevan" in 2013, come this articles from the The Hindu:

The first ancient DNA study in South Asia has revealed that a 400-year-old bone relic kept in St. Augustinian Church in Goa is likely to be a remnant of Queen Ketevan of Georgia (eastern Europe), who was born in a royal family in 1565 in the medieval period.

A team of investigators from the CSIR, the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), the Archaeological Survey of India and the Estonian BioCentre led by K. Thangaraj, CCMB, traced that the relic excavated from St. Augustinian Church complex in Goa, might belong to Georgian Queen Ketevan. The study has been published online recently in Mitochondrion journal.

For about a decade (1614 to 1624), the Queen remained in Shiraz as the prisoner of Shah Abbasi I. In 1624, the Persian emperor attempted to convert the Queen to Islamic faith. For resisting his wishes, she was tortured and strangled to death on September, 22, 1624.

From the Times of India (2017)

People in Georgia are greatly anticipating the arrival of the sacred relics, more than four centuries after these were brought to Old Goa by Augustinian Friars.

From The Quint:

Twenty-six years ago, the Government of India and Georgia, along with a posse of historians, archaeologists and priests, came together to recover a fragment of history lost in time – the mortal remains of a Georgian queen, believed to be in an old church in Goa.

The Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) Hyderabad Circle, after two decades of research and tests, has now concluded that the remains of Georgian Queen Ketevan were indeed at the St Augustine Church in Goa, bringing to light the 17th century connection between Georgia and the coastal state.

read more here 

@ The Hindu

@ Women of History - Mystery of Saint Ketevan

@ Women of History - Saint Ketevan

@ Live Science

Maria Cunitz - 17th-Century Astronomer

Urania Propitia is a remarkable volume for many reasons. Published in 1650, this work of astronomy demonstrates a command of high-level mathematics and astronomical calculation. It also reveals a deep understanding of Keplerian astronomy; its author both simplified and corrected Kepler's math for locating planetary positions. Finally, the book was written in German as well as Latin, which helped to both establish German as a language of science and make the tables accessible outside of the university. But Urania Propitia lays claim to yet another impressive quality: It was written by a woman .......an astronomer named Maria Cunitz.


Publication (paid for by Maria c.1650) of this work — the earliest high-level printed scientific book written by a woman — caused Cunitz (1610 - 1664) to be aclaimed as the most learned woman in astronomy since the Neoplatonist philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria.

Read More @ The Smithsonian and @ History of Information

The Radium Girls

The Radium Girls documents the war women factory workers health battle | Life | Life

It was the miracle of the age, the secret of vibrant health, the magic formula for a brighter life. It turned darkness into light. It was liquid sunshine. Radium, discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in December, 1898. It seemed the most exciting element imaginable. It was also one of the most dangerous. It didn’t take long to become a widely available sensation.

Who would not want a watch you could see in the dark? And what young woman doing low-paid clerical work in a boring office would not want to enhance her pay packet and status with a skilled job in a company riding the crest of the luminous wave.

To work at the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation in Newark, New Jersey, was to be part of something special.

While the company’s scientist owner laboured away in his laboratory exploring new ways of exploiting radium, the women were working with maximum speed applying precious radium to the hands and faces of watches, helping feed a demand that was nighon insatiable.

Continue Reading <<< HERE >>>

Obit: First IVF Mum Passes Away

From the Mail Online:

The mother of the world’s first test-tube baby has died at the age of 64.

Lesley Brown made medical history nearly 34 years ago  when she gave birth to Louise.

Mrs Brown and her husband John had been trying for a baby for nine years when they signed up to what was then an experimental procedure, in vitro fertilisation.

She became pregnant at the first attempt, and 5lb 12oz Louise Joy Brown was born by caesarean section at Oldham General Hospital at 11.47pm on July 25, 1978.

The event, which gave hope to countless infertile couples, captured the imagination of the world after it was reported exclusively by the Daily Mail under the headline The Lovely Louise.

Four years later Mrs Brown, who couldn’t become pregnant naturally because her fallopian tubes were blocked, conceived a second daughter, Natalie, by IVF.

Proof: Women Are Tougher Than Men

From The Star:

Researchers have pieced together strong evidence as to why women are born tougher than men.

Science has long believed the “male flu,” or men’s higher susceptibility to infections, colds and disease, is real. The reasons pointed to the basic genetic difference: two X chromosomes in women and one X and one Y in men.

Now molecular biologists at the University of Ghent in Belgium have looked inside those genes and found the microRNA molecules, one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in human cells, could very well explain the difference.

“The microRNA field is quite a new field,” Dr. Iris Pinheiro told the Toronto Star on Thursday. “What is remarkable about the X chromosome is that it has so many microRNAs.”

And what is so remarkable about the Y chromosome is that it has none.

“That is striking to me,” said Pinheiro. The Y chromosome has evolved through history to shed almost all of its important genes and now has only one biological function: to make men male and to produce sperm.

Scientifically, she said, “it’s just a piece of junk DNA.”

Voyage to the Moon - 17th Century Style

An old article from Skymania which is intriguing to say the least:

Incredible as it may seem, one of the greatest scientific minds of the time, Dr John Wilkins, a founder of the Royal Society, was planning his own lunar mission four centuries ago around the time of the English Civil War.

It wasn’t hot air either. Inspired by the great voyages of discovery around the globe by Columbus, Drake and Magellan, Dr Wilkins imagined that it would just be another small step to reach the Moon.

Wilkins, who was a brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell, explored the possibilities in two books. Records show he began exploring prototypes for spaceships, or flying chariots as he called them, to carry the astronauts.

The Jacobean space programme, as Oxford science historian Dr Allan Chapman calls it, flourished because this was a golden period for science. Huge discoveries had been made in geography, astronomy and anatomy. Seventeenth century scientists were riding a wave.

The above also conincides with this one from the Telegraph: maps of the moon by Thomas Harriot pre-date Galilleo, and will be on display at the West Sussex Record Office in July (2009).

"The 17th century "moon maps" by Harriot appear to reveal that the Englishman preceded the famous Italian scientist in viewing the moon through a telescope. One of Harriot's drawings is dated July 26 1609, six months prior to Galileo's well documented achievement in December 1609. "

Vikings: Alive & Well in NW England

From 24dash.com:

The Vikings are alive and well and living in the North West of England! That’s the revelation in a new book on an epic research project into the genetic footprint of the Scandinavian invaders.

‘Viking DNA: The Wirral and West Lancashire Project’ is the culmination of several years of research by biochemists and geneticists, by Wirral-raised Professor Steve Harding from The University of Nottingham and Professor Mark Jobling and Dr Turi King from the University of Leicester. It shows the power of modern DNA methods to probe ancestry using the North West of England as an example.

The North West has long been known to have special links with the Vikings going back over a thousand years, through archaeological evidence, ancient manuscripts, local surnames and placenames such as ‘Thingwall’ from the Old Norse ‘ping-vollr’ meaning ‘meeting place’. It’s believed many of the Vikings, of mainly Norwegian origin, ended up in the region after being expelled from Ireland in AD902.

The new book tells the story of how 21st century genetic methods have been used in conjunction with historical and linguistic evidence to investigate the Viking ancestry of Wirral and neighbouring West Lancashire. Rigorous DNA analysis of samples of the local population, focusing on people who had surnames present in the regions prior to 1600, has scientifically proved that the Vikings settled heavily in the area and left a huge genetic legacy which survives and continues today.

Test: Menopause Age

From IBT Health:

A soon-to-be-unveiled blood test can inform young women the exact age when menopause will turn in, thereby giving them ample time to prepare their pregnancy plans and prepare for the phase of life when they cease to be fertile.

The test works on the concept that it measures the levels of hormones produced by the ovaries. The new blood test will be unveiled at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Rome.

It would let women who are as young as 20 to know within few months when they would hit menopause and hence cease to be fertile. This test could be vital and valuable for women who are working and are trying to maintain a balance between their careers and their family life with having kids.

Women in STEM

From AOL News:

It's been five years since Lawrence Summers, then the president of Harvard, infamously suggested that "innate" differences were to blame for the lack of women in top science positions at universities. But a new report suggests that social factors play a significant role in holding women back in science, technology, engineering and math -- the so-called STEM fields.

The report, which looked at recent research on the topic, found that entrenched stereotypes and biases affect performance in both genders. The authors highlight two main stereotypes: that girls are not as good as boys at math, and that scientific careers are "masculine" in nature. Researchers found that the stereotypes can lower girls' performance in these subjects and also reduce their interest in pursuing science or engineering jobs.

India: Women in Science

From the Times of India:

How many of us know that many Indian women had wonderful scientific achievements during the time of Marie Curie? Noted scientists Rohini Godbole and Ramakrishna Ramaswamy from IISc and JNU have put together a book on the work of many women scientists who were brilliant thinkers in their own right, but went unrecognized.

Speaking at the National Institute of Advanced Studies on Wednesday, Ramaswamy, who spoke on the book `Lilavati's Daughters: The Women Scientists of India,' published recently, said they had worked towards retrieving Indian women's contributions to science in the book. The book is a unique collection of biographical and autobiographical sketches and is part of an initiative of the Women in Science panel of the Indian Academy of Sciences.

"Covering a range of disciplines, almost 100 women scientists talk of what brought them to science, what kept their interest alive and what has helped them achieve some measure of distinction in their careers," Ramaswamy observed.

Lilavati is actually a 12th-century treatise in which the mathematician Bhaskaracharya addresses a number of math problems to his daughter, Lilavati. Although legend has it that Lilavati never got married, her intellectual legacy lives on in the form of her daughters -- the women scientists of India, the writers point out in the book.

The under-representation of women in science is seen with great concern the world over. Several programmes and initiatives are being undertaken to tackle this, and, in 2005, the Indian Academy of Sciences set up the Women in Science panel to address women's concerns in science. It is this panel that has published a one-of-its kind biographical and autobiographical account of women scientists from India.

A Nobel Year For Women

From Associated Press:

A record five women were among the 13 people awarded Nobel Prizes on Thursday, including a writer who depicted life behind the Iron Curtain and two American researchers who showed how chromosomes protect themselves from degrading.

The prizes were created in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will, which stipulated that they be granted to those who "have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." They were first awarded in 1901.

Only 40 women have won the prestigious awards, including Marie Curie who was given the 1903 physics prize and the chemistry prize eight years later. In all, 802 individuals and 20 organizations have received Nobel Prizes over the years.

* Romanian-born author Herta Mueller accepted the Nobel literature award for her critical depiction of life behind the Iron Curtain — work drawn largely from her personal experiences.

* Elinor Ostrom, 76, made history by being the first woman to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, sharing it with fellow American Oliver Williamson for their work in economic governance.

* Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 61, and Carol W. Greider, 48, shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with countryman Jack W. Szostak for their work in solving the mystery of how chromosomes protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.

* The chemistry award was shared by 70-year-old Ada Yonath of Israel and Americans Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz for their atom-by-atom description of ribosomes, the protein-making machinery within cells. Their research is being used to develop new antibiotics.

Antarctica & Women

From USA News:

Colin Bull began fighting in 1959 to get the U.S. Navy to allow women scientists to go to Antarctica, and kept it up until he won, a decade later. He couldn't understand the Navy's reluctance.

Eventually the Navy relented, and allowed women scientists onto the continent in 1969. Bull, then director of Ohio State University's Institute of Polar Studies, assembled an all-women scientific research team that arrived in Antarctica in October 1969, for a four-month research expedition. The following month, they also became the first women to step onto the South Pole.

Today about a third of the Antarctic scientists are women. Hundreds of women have worked in the program, some of them leading research stations and heading major expeditions. More than 50 are working at the South Pole during the 2009-2010 summer season.

The Navy, which had established McMurdo Station, the main American base in Antarctica, as a military outpost in 1956, had been adamant at the time. They would not transport women onto the continent. The National Science Foundation, which funded the program, did not challenge Navy policy.

UNESCO: Women Researchers Still A Minority

From the Gov Monitor:

The number of researchers, on the rise world-wide, jumped by 56% in developing countries between 2002 and 2007.

According to a new study published by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS).

In comparison, their number increased by only 8.6% in developed countries during the same period*.

In five years, the number of researchers in the world rose significantly, from 5.8 to 7.1 million.

The greatest gain was made in developing countries: 2.7 million researchers were counted in 2007, versus 1.8 million five years earlier.

These countries increased their global share of researchers from 30.3% in 2002 to 38.4%.

The biggest increase was seen in Asia, whose share went up from 35.7% in 2002 to 41.4%. China is mainly responsible for the gain, having gone from 14 to 20% in five years.

The increase in Asia occurred at the expense of Europe and the Americas, whose shares went down respectively from 31.9 to 28.4% and from 28.1 to 25.8%.

“The increase in the number of researchers, notably in developing countries, is good news. UNESCO welcomes this development, although the participation of women in science, which UNESCO promotes notably through the l’OREAL-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science, is still too limited,” said Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO.

Celebrating Women in Science

From Reuters:

The L'OREAL-UNESCO For Women in Science partnership today announced the five exceptional women scientists who will receive the 2010 L'OREAL-UNESCO Awards in the Life Sciences.

This year, the Laureate for North America is Professor Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University in New York. She is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Professor Fuchs was selected for her contributions to our knowledge of skin biology and skin stem cells. Her research focuses on how the skin and its hair follicles regenerate and maintain the balance of cell loss and cell replacement. Professor Fuchs was also recently awarded the National Medal of Science for her work.

Along with Professor Fuchs, the other 2010 For Women in Science Laureates recognized for their scientific contributions are:

• Rashika El Ridi (Africa & the Arab States): Professor at Cairo University in Egypt, for paving the way towards the development of a vaccine against the tropical disease Schistomiasis/Bilharzia.
• Lourdes J. Cruz (Asia-Pacific): Professor at the Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman in the Philippines, for the discovery of marine snail toxins that can serve as powerful tools to study brain function.
• Anne Dejean-Assemat (Europe): Professor at the Pasteur Institute in France, for her contributions to our understanding of leukemia and liver cancers.
• Alejandra Bravo (Latin America): Professor at the Institute of Molecular Microbiology of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma in Mexico, for her work on a bacterial toxin that acts as a powerful insecticide.

The 2010 Laureates join an esteemed group of women researchers, including two 2008 L'OREAL-UNESCO Award For Women in Science recipients, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and Dr. Ada Yonath, who were recently named to receive the Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Chemistry respectively.

A Pioneering Program: Twelve Years of Encouraging Passion and Promoting Excellence:
Since the launch of the partnership in 1998, L'Oreal and UNESCO have been actively supporting the cause of women in science. In the context of economic crisis and the changes within modern society, both partners believe that today, more than ever, the world needs science. At the heart of this commitment, L'Oreal and UNESCO are acting to promote women scientists who are devoting their lives, with courage and passion, to finding solutions to tomorrow's challenges.

In the past 12 years, 62 Laureates, 150 International Fellows, 700 National Fellows have been recognized through the For Women in Science program. The partnership of L'Oreal and UNESCO and the For Women in Science program serve as a benchmark for international scientific excellence, and an invaluable source of motivation, support, and inspiration for all women in the sciences.

About UNESCO:

Since its creation in 1945, UNESCO has pursued the mission of promoting science for peace. Today, UNESCO aims to reinforce international cooperation in the basic sciences among its 192 Member States and promotes ethical norms in science. The organization has also been dedicated to eliminating all forms of discrimination and promoting equality between men and women. As well as developing educational programs in science particularly designed for girls, UNESCO has established a network of academic chairs creating links between women in science around the world.

Fake: Shroud of Turin

From Yahoo News:

Scientists have reproduced the Shroud of Turin - revered as the cloth that covered Jesus in the tomb - and say the experiment proves the relic was man-made, a group of Italian debunkers claimed Monday.

The shroud bears the figure of a crucified man, complete with blood seeping out of nailed hands and feet, and believers say Christ's image was recorded on the linen fibres at the time of his resurrection.

Scientists have reproduced the shroud using materials and methods that were available in the 14th century, the Italian Committee for Checking Claims on the Paranormal said.

The group said in a statement this is further evidence the shroud is a medieval forgery. In 1988, scientists used radiocarbon dating to determine it was made in the 13th or 14th century.

Nobel Winning Women

From Yahoo News:

Elizabeth Blackburn has become Australia's first female Nobel Laureate, after winning the Nobel Medicine Prize, along with Americans Carol Greider and Jack Szosta, for identifying a key molecular switch in cellular ageing.

The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.

The Nobel citation said the laureates found the solution in the ends of the chromosomes - structures called telomeres that are often compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoe laces that keep those laces from unravelling.

From About Women's History:

Herta Muller, a German-speaking Romanian novelist whose works are not well known outside Germany, was named the Nobel literature prize winner for 2009. Muller emigrated to West Germany in 1987 after being refused permission to leave in 1985. Her novels draw on her experience of the oppression and horrors of Ceausescu's Romania

From Xinhuanet:

Israeli scientist Ada E. Yonath, the fourth woman who won a Nobel Prize in chemistry, said on Wednesday that women can do as well as men in science.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Science said in a statement on Wednesday that Yonath, together with Thomas A. Steitz from America's Yale University and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain's Cambridge, won the prize for their respective achievements on "the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life."

Yonath said after the announcement that she was very surprised about her winning the prize.

Women in Maths & Science

From CBC News:

The National Research Council reported this spring that women who earn Ph.D.s in science (though there are still far fewer of them than men) are as likely to land teaching positions, promotions and tenure at major research universities as their male counterparts. During the same week the National Academy of Sciences reported that girls in the U.S. have now reached parity with boys in mathematical achievement.

Currently universities are reporting marked increases in female enrollment in science, engineering and math degree programs. Engineering is now one of the most popular majors at the all-female Smith College in Massachusetts. (The college graduated 20 students from its new engineering program in 2004; today it enrolls 135.) Half of all MIT undergraduates are now women. And last year at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh women made up 30 per cent of undergraduate students in mathematics and science, up from 17 per cent in 1986.

The Ivy League's Brown University, which has had a highly regarded mentoring program called WISE (women in science and engineering) for more than a decade, has noticed a striking increase in female applicants who are interested in pursuing science degrees. The number of women intending to enroll in physical sciences increased about 40 per cent from the class of 2010 to the class of 2013. Brown is also is making a concerted effort to hire more women for its science faculty, according to Katherine Bergeron, a dean of the college. Toward that end the university recently received a $3 million US grant from the National Science Foundation to support women in the sciences.

Arab Women - Science & Technology

From Zawya:

Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, Honorary President of Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC) and wife of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, the conference on "Arab Women in Science and Technology" starts today at the Raffles Hotel in Dubai. The conference, including the opening ceremony, will last for a total of three days, closing on the 30th September 2009.

The conference is organised by the Arab Science & Technology Foundation (ASTF)Arab Science & Technology Foundation (ASTF)Arab Science and Technology Foundation ASTF, in cooperation with the DBWC, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO) and Etisal Event Management company.

The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTFASTFArab Science and Technology Foundation is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit regional and international organization. ASTFASTFArab Science and Technology Foundation ASTF was formed out of a need expressed by Arab scientists to develop practical means to advance science and technology (S&T) in the Arab region. During the first international symposium on "Scientific Research Outlook in the Arab World and the New Millennium: Science and Technology," which was held at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates in April 2000, 400 Arab scientists from around the world decided to found ASTFASTFArab Science and Technology Foundation ASTF as a non-governmental, non-profit Pan-Arab organization. ASTFASTFArab Science and Technology Foundation ASTF plays the role of mediator between those who produce, develop and fund scientific research on the one hand and those who benefit from it on the other. In all its activities, ASTFASTFArab Science and Technology Foundation ASTF assumes the role of Catalyst, Mediator, and Supporter of innovation in Science and Technology in the Arab world.

Society Minus Men

Article from Michael Hanlon @ Mail Online:

Despite all the twists and turns taken in the new world of reproductive medicine, the news that a scientific team is trying to make the male human redundant is still profoundly shocking.

For the first time, the possibility of 'parthenogenesis' - or 'virgin reproduction' - has come within scientific reach.

Put at its crudest, we now face the possibility of a world where women do not need men to make babies - with all of the immense moral, ethical and philosophical questions that raises.

Rita Levi Montalcini

From Fox News:

Levi Montalcini, who also serves as a senator for life in Italy, celebrates her 100th birthday on Wednesday, and she spoke at a ceremony held in her honor by the European Brain Research Institute.

She shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine with American Stanley Cohen for discovering mechanisms that regulate the growth of cells and organs.