The Sounds of Progress, San Diego: Mary Hebraea
Speaker: Hey, do you know what hydrochloric acid is? No, why?
It's a question on my science homework.
Oh. Well, we could look it up on the Internet.
OK.
Well, it says here that hydrochloric acid is in your stomach.
Whoa, look. It was discovered in the first century by Mary He...
Oh, Mary Hebraea. We learned about her last year. She was a woman working when most women weren't.
Really? Why not?
Women stayed home and cared for the kids and the house while the men went to school and got jobs to support the family.
That's totally different than it is today.
Yeah, she was a salmon swimming upstream all right. I don't remember very much about her.
So we know that she discovered the formula for hydrochloric acid. Let's see what else she did.
It says here that she created many different tools for handling chemicals.
And that she invented the bain-marie which is a double boiler.
Wow, I never heard of that.
Wow, Marie Hebraea was really cool.
Hey, click on that link over there.
Which one?
The one that says why we search out these women.
There's a quote from Dr. Gerta Lerner, the president of the company that makes this website and researches the women in science.
She says, "If the bringing of women, half the human race, into the center of historical inquiry poses a formidable challenge to historical scholarship, it also offers sustaining energy and a source of strength".
That's pretty cool that they would search out all these women from history, huh?
Yeah, because she was right. Women are half the human race and make a big impact.
Yeah, but let's go finish our homework.
OK.