February is Black History Month, and the Palm Valley Blog would like to highlight some of the most influential Black leaders of our time. We start with blogger Sara’s list of the most influential Black scientists in history.
We all know of Einstein, Newton, and Hawking. But, during this Black History Month, let’s take a moment to appreciate some Black scientists who also left their mark on history.
George Washington Carver
George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist who made his scientific breakthrough with peanuts. Yes. Peanuts.
Born a slave a year before slavery was outlawed, Carver left home young to pursue his education.
In 1894, Carver was the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. While studying at Iowa State University, he quickly impressed many of his professors with his research into fungi and soybeans. Eventually, they convinced him to stay for his masters studies.
It was then that his idea of crop rotation created a scientific breakthrough. He learned that years of growing cotton had depleted the nutrients from the soil, resulting in fewer crops. But, by growing nitrogen-fixing plants like peanuts and soybeans, the soil could be restored. This scientific discovery soon greatly benefited farmers and the economy.
Katherine Johnson
Not only was Katherine Johnson one of the first black students to integrate into West Virginia’s graduate schools, but she was a key player at NASA.
In 1962, Johnson was called upon to help secure the orbital mission of John Glenn. The complexity of the orbital flight had required the construction of a worldwide communications network; these computers were responsible for keeping Glenn’s mission safe and successful. As a part of the preflight checklist, Glenn asked for Johnson, known then as one of the most talented mathematicians at NASA, to run the same numbers through the same equations that had been programmed into the computer, but by hand on her desktop mechanical calculating machine. “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go,” he said (NASA).
Because of Johnson’s work, Glenn’s flight was a success. This moment was significant in changing the trajectory of the U.S. and Soviet Union’s efforts in space.
To learn more about her, watch the movie Hidden Figures featuring Taraji B. Henson, Janelle Monae, and Octavia Spencer.
Alice Ball
Alice Ball was an African-American chemist who developed the most effective treatment for leprosy in the 20th century. Chaulmoogra oil had been previously used for treating leprosy, but the treatment wasn’t widespread because it was too sticky and hard to manage in hospitals. Some hospitals used injections of the oil, but all it did was form bubbles under the patients’ skin, making their skin look and feel like bubble wrap with blisters. If the patients tried to swallow it, it tasted so bad that many threw up or choked while swallowing it.
At just the young age of 23, Ball developed a technique that would allow the chaulmoogra oil to become injectable and absorbable by the body. This technique, now known as the “Ball Method,” was the only treatment for leprosy that didn’t leave blisters on the skin or a bad taste in the mouth.
Unfortunately, due to her early death, Alice was unable to publish her revolutionary findings. Arthur L. Dean, a fellow chemist, continued her work, published the findings, and began producing large quantities of the injectable chaulmoogra extract.
Otis Boykin
Otis Boykin was a 20th-century African American inventor whose work improved electrical resistors, which made the development of electronic devices possible.
Boykin pursued graduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology from 1946 to 1947, but, unfortunately, he had to drop out when his family could no longer afford to pay tuition. Although unfortunate, this event led Boykin to begin working on electrical inventions.
Boykin earned his first patent in 1959 for a wire precision resistor and a patent for an electrical resistor in 1961 that was both inexpensive and easy to produce. This resistor had the ability to “withstand extreme accelerations and shocks and great temperature changes without danger of breakage of the fine resistance wire or other detrimental effects” (MIT).
Without Boykin, we wouldn’t have televisions, computers, radios, or pacemakers. We really owe him!
In fact, we owe all these scientists. They’ve changed and impacted our lives.
Sources:
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/george-washington-carver
https://scientificwomen.net/women/ball-alice-121
https://www.nasa.gov/content/katherine-johnson-biography/
https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/otis-boykin
Black History Month Editor: Evan Spry