Monday, December 21, 2009

Fictional Female Scientists

Well, it took less than 24 hours to identify all twelve photos of notable women scientists and naturalists.  I was sure at least a couple of them would stump you a bit longer.  I'm guessing Google helped with those harder ones.  Although I was impressed with how many were quickly identified, I don't think that anyone recognized all twelve photos (I've moved the list identifying the photos to the very bottom of the page).

My selection was somewhat arbitrary, although I tried to have representatives from different countries and different scientific fields and types of accomplishments.  There are certainly many more notable women who could have been highlighted, as some of you noted.  However, the twelve I selected served to illustrate my point, which is that even those of use who are scientists and female don't know many of these women who have made substantial contributions.

The thought occurred to me, however, that perhaps female scientists in popular film were more identifiable than real scientists.  Just for fun, here are twelve more photos--this time of fictional female scientists.  Can you identify them?  What I'm looking for is the name of the character, their scientific specialty, and the movie in which they appeared. 

Answers can be found at the very bottom of the main page.

5 comments:

Comrade PhysioProf said...

#2 is the Andromeda Strain. They're all conventionally "hot", they're all white, and they're all skinny.

Anonymous said...

1. Ellie Arroway, SETI researcher, Contact
2. Ellie sattler, paleobotanist, Jurassic Park

Isabella said...

I didn't recognize any, but my girlfriend thinks:

#5 Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) from X-files
#12 Warrant Officer Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from Alien

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

3. Dr Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), Jurassic Park Lost World
7. Poison Ivy/Dr Pamela Isley (Uma Thurman), Batman and Robin
9. Dr Jo Harding (Helen Hunt), Twister
10. Dr Emma Russell (Elizabeth Shue), The Saint
jc