Grave Deaths

OKAY. This is my poem about watermelon. 

It’s titled: 

“Nice Melons.”

You are so wet

So pink

I want to bury my face in you.

And swallow

Aries: Marie Curie- Physicist and chemist, well known for her discoveries  in radioactivity. She discovered two elements, polonium and radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry. She did the first research on the effects of radiation on tumors, and founded the Curie Institute. “Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.”

Taurus: Gertrude Elion- Pharmacologist and biochemist, known for her discovery of drugs to fight leukemia, herpes, AIDS, and to prevent the rejection of kidney transplants, which she won the Nobel Prize for. She holds 45 patents and 23 honorary degrees.  “Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. In my day I was told women didn’t go into chemistry. I saw no reason why we couldn’t.”

Gemini:  Maria Mayer- Physicist and mathematician, was the second woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for physics. Proposed the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. “Mathematics began to seem too much like puzzle solving. Physics is puzzle solving, too, but of puzzles created by nature, not by the mind of man.”

Cancer: Caroline Herschel- Worked alongside her brother William Herschel through his careers of singing and then astronomy. She became the first woman to discover a comet, eventually discovering eight in total. After the death of her brother, she continued her work in astronomy, compiling a catalog of known nebulae and star clusters. Herschel was also the first British woman to get paid for her scientific work.  ”Femininity appears to be one of those pivotal qualities that is so important no one can define it.”

Leo: Chien-Shiung Wu- Chinese-American physicist who worked with radioactivity and experimental physics. Known as “The First Lady of Physics”, she became the first female physics instructor at the University of California. She later joined the Manhattan project and helped develop the process of enriching uranium ore to fuel the atomic bomb. Her research furthered understanding of the behavior of atomic particles and nuclear fission. She won many awards for her work, and was the first woman to be elected president of the American Physical Society. “ … It is shameful that there are so few women in science… In China there are many, many women in physics. There is a misconception in America that women scientists are all dowdy spinsters. This is the fault of men. In Chinese society, a woman is valued for what she is, and men encourage her to accomplishments yet she remains eternally feminine.”

Virgo:  Rachel Carson- Marine biologist and conservationist, raised public concern about the harmful effects of pesticides in the environment, and wrote several books. “Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.”

Libra: Lise Meitner- Austrian physicist who conducted research on nuclear physics and radioactivity. She was one of the first to discover that the uranium atom would split when targeted with neutrons; in this way she indirectly contributed to the invention of the atomic bomb. Although her partner, Otto Hahn, won a Nobel Prize for the discover, Meitner got little credit for her contribution. (In response to an invitation to help create the atomic bomb with Otto Frisch in 1943) “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!”

Scorpio: Shirley Jackson- Was one of the first African-American physicists in America. Although accepted at Harvard, she chose to stay at MIT to encourage young people to attend the school. For her PhD, she worked on elemental particle physics. She has made immense bounds in our knowledge of particle physics, and contributed greatly to the amount of women and young people entering science fields. “I delight in what I fear.” 

Sagittarius: Mary Anning- informal archaeologist, paleontologist, and fossil hunter. Her first discovery was Ichthyosaurus, found near her home when she was 11 years old. She went on to find long-necked plesiosaurs, pterodactyls, and other fossils that improved knowledge of the ancient marine world.  “ Mary Anning [is] probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology.”- Stephen Jay Golding

Capricorn: Rosalind Franklin- Chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made extensive contributions to the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, graphite, and coal. Although generally considered the first to discover the double-helix structure of DNA, she was unable to interpret her own data and subsequently was not given any credit for the discovery. Because she died of ovarian cancer at age 37, she was never awarded the Nobel Prize, the award instead given to three male scientists she collaborated with. “Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment.”

Aquarius: Rita Levi-Montalcini- Italian neurologist, physiologist, and doctor. Due to anti-Semitic Mussolini laws that prevented non-Aryans from academic and professional careers, she created her own lab at home to study nerve development in chick embryos. In 1952, she analyzed the nerve growth factor, a very important chemical that regulates cell growth and cell communication, which greatly furthered the scientific community’s knowledge of diseases like dementia and tumors. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986 for this discovery. (When asked why she never got married) “I am married to science.”