Ada Lovelace Day 2012

Last night, I attended Ada Lovelave Day Live. An inspirational and entertaining evening celebrating women in technology.

One of the ways that people can get involved in Ada Lovelace day is be blogging about women in tech - I blogged in 2009 and 2010 but - to my shame - I didn't in 2011.

So, here is a double post in penance :-)

Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847)

First up, Mary Anning. I was in the British Museum yeasterday, they have a wonderful collection of fossils. The most impressive of which were discovered and reconstructed by Marry Anning in the early 19th century.

In a sense, she was the driving force behind fossil hunting. She helped change the way we think about history, evolution, extinction, dinosaurs, and life.

She is celebrated in museums, and in Tracey Chevalier's marvellous fictionalised account of her life Remarkable Creatures.

Mary risked her life hunting fossils - for her it was as much about business as it was science - but her hard work and dedication paid off and she is rightly credited as having discovered several new species of dinosaur, including the plesiosaurs.

Despite her tremendous discoveries and contributions to the science, she was barred from many prestigious scientific societies - although they were happy to use her work.

Vi Hart

I only discovered the works of Vi Hart last week. She self describes as a "Mathemusician". She has an amazingly friendly and accessible way of describing maths - as this video shows

Even though I'm unlikely to have to take my GCSE in maths again any time soon - watching her videos has really helped me understand some of the everyday maths that I use.

Check out Vi's website, Twitter Feed, and her YouTube channel

Finally, watching these videos on hexaflexagons. They will BLOW YOUR MIND!