Harriet brooks family biography service
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Scientist of the Day - Harriet Brooks
Harriet Brooks, born July 2, 1876 in Exeter, Ontario, enjoyed the distinction of being the first graduate student to work with Ernest Rutherford, a giant (both physically and intellectually) of early atomic physics. They enjoyed a happy, productive period of collaboration until their lives diverged in dramatically different directions.
Harriet Brooks was the third of nine children born to Elizabeth Worden and George Brooks, a commercial traveler for a flour company. The family’s move to Montreal in 1894 proved fortunate for Harriet, who attended McGill University on scholarships and graduated with honors in mathematics and natural philosophy in 1898. That same summer, Rutherford arrived at McGill as a 28-year-old physics professor fired up about radioactivity.
Together, Brooks and Rutherford studied what he called “radium emanation.” Their joint paper, published in 1901 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, identified this mys
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Chapter 2 The Brooks Family
Rayner-Canham, Marelene F. and Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey W.. "Chapter 2 The Brooks Family". Harriet Brooks, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992, pp. 10-14. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773563186-003
Rayner-Canham, M. & Rayner-Canham, G. (1992). Chapter 2 The Brooks Family. In Harriet Brooks (pp. 10-14). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773563186-003
Rayner-Canham, M. and Rayner-Canham, G. 1992. Chapter 2 The Brooks Family. Harriet Brooks. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, pp. 10-14. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773563186-003
Rayner-Canham, Marelene F. and Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey W.. "Chapter 2 The Brooks Family" In Harriet Brooks, 10-14. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773563186-003
Rayner-Canham M, Rayner-Canham G. Chapter 2 The Brooks Family. In: Harriet Brooks. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press; 1992. p.10-14. https://doi.org/10.15
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Women Have Been Disappearing From Science for As Long As They’ve Been Allowed to Study Science
Scientists knew by the early 1900s that radioactive substances emit some sort of particles. But it was unclear exactly what kind—does uranium produce a vapor of uranium or a totally different gas?
The dilemma was solved bygd Harriet Brooks, a talented physicist in her mid-20s. In 1901, in a set of experiments in McGill University’s newly established physics laboratory, Brooks showed that radioactivity actually involves the creation of entirely new atomic elements, a kind of alchemy that previously eluded physicists. Along with her mentor, Ernest Rutherford, she identified the element that was later called radon.
Today, for this contribution and others, Rutherford is rightly considered the “father of nuclear physics.” Brooks’ career in physics was, however, cut short, and her contributions to science were mostly forgotten.
Many modern women have similarly been put in fara of disappearing