Women Scientists... sort of

Francis Crick's wife, Odile, died on July 5th. According to the New York Times, Odile Crick actually drew the sketch of the double helix that appeared in the original publication of "A Structure for Deoxyribonucleic Acid" and circulated widely in textbooks and articles. Meanwhile, the original article was typed by James Watson's sister Betty.

The article doesn't say whether Betty or Odile were paid or otherwise acknowledged for this work, but I'm guessing no. Somehow I'm guessing that Rosalind Franklin and other women scientists in that time period didn't have wives to type things for them or draw their pictures. Although some of them, like Lydia J. Roberts, a nutritionist, lived with family members. (Roberts lived with her sister, who basically kept house for her while she pursued her research).
The Doomsday Clock, used by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to indicate "how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction" was designed by a woman as well: Martyl Langsdorf, the wife of Alexander Langsdorf, Jr. , a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. (Incidentally, according to the Bulletin, it is 5 minutes to midnight, or in other words, "We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age." Back in 1991 we were only 17 minutes to midnight. This could not be good.)

At any rate, this kind of supportive collaboration is interesting to me. Women have for many years, even centuries, worked as scientific illustrators, popularizers, and support workers. This continued well into the 20th century, and even today--the editor of the PBS science show Nova is a woman: Paula Aspell. Unfortunately, popularizers of science don't tend to get the same kind of credit as the interpid, adventurous researchers making the big discoveries--even if those discoveries wouldn't have occurred, or wouldn't have been known to others without them.