Good morning team,

I present a treasure trove of articles about medical breakthroughs by women!

This was inspired by the below article, which contains many elements that I like; an enthusiastic autodidact, women helping one another, and several disasters averted at the eleventh hour. The persistence of this woman in exploring every possible avenue to explain her and her family’s condition, and in getting over some quite tricky systemic hurdles to do so, is truly inspiring. You might have seen this article around and not read it; if this is the case, I strongly encourage you to read it! It will tell you everything you need to know about how an Iowa writing instructor came set the research agenda of a molecular biology lab.

19-year-old Jill put on her most serious navy pantsuit, again gathered up her papers, and took them to a neurologist in Des Moines. She asked the neurologist to take a look, hoping that she would help her connect with the Italian team and get in the study. But the neurologist would have none of it. “No, you don’t have that,” Jill recalls the neurologist saying sternly. And then she refused even to look at the papers. It might seem rude that a doctor refused just to hear Jill out and glance at the papers, but, at the time, most doctors believed Emery-Dreifuss only occurred in men. Plus, this was a self-diagnosis of an obscure disease coming from a teenager.

https://www.propublica.org/article/muscular-dystrophy-patient-olympic-medalist-same-genetic-mutation

Elisabeth Bing pretty much invented modern childbirth, although I am not sure that her message about the importance of champagne has carried through to this bit of the modern age. From the extremely little that I know if childbirth, it sounds like the least one would deserve.

A young woman instructed by Mrs Bing would arrive at the labour ward perky, decisive, and carrying a bag equipped with [things that are less fun] and a bottle of champagne which, wrote Mrs Bing in “Six Practical Lessons for an Easier Childbirth”, the nurse should be asked to put on ice “when you arrive”.

http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21653591-elisabeth-bing-pioneer-prepared-childbirth-died-may-15th-aged-100-making-labour-joyful

I missed this when it happened, but if you come to Feminist Friday for breaking news, you will have been disappointed for approximately 71 consecutive weeks. Tu Youyou, woman and first Chinese citizen to win a science based Nobel prize, made a major contribution to antimalarials based on a medicine handbook from the 400s or thereabouts:

she reread a particular recipe, written more than 1,600 years ago in a text titled “Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One’s Sleeve.” The directions were to soak one bunch of wormwood in water and then drink the juice. […] But Dr. Tu said she realized that her method of preparation — boiling the wormwood — probably damaged the active ingredient. So she made another preparation using an ether-based solvent, which boils at 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. […]

“We had just cured drug-resistant malaria,” Dr. Tu told New Scientist. “We were very excited.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/world/asia/tu-youyou-chinese-scientist-nobel-prize.html?_r=0

Enjoy your day,

Alex.