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Lise Meitner: nuclear fission -

Lise Meitner discovered the true power of uranium, that atomic nuclei split during some reactions. Sadly, the discovery was credited to her lab partner Otto Hahn, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944.

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Margaret Knight: square-bottomed paper bag -

In 1868, Margaret Knight invented a machine that folded and formed flat, square-bottomed brown paper bags. While the model was being developed in the shop, a man named Charles Annan stole the idea and patented it. Though he received credit for it, Knight filed a lawsuit and won the rights to it in 1871.

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Ada Lovelace: computer algorithm -

In the mid-1800s, Ada Lovelace wrote the instructions for the first computer program. But mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage is the one often credited with the work because he invented the actual engine.

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Katherine Johnson: Moon landing path -

Thanks to the 2017 film 'Hidden Figures,' you might be familiar with Katherine Johnson, who was nicknamed "Computer" for her intelligence.

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Katherine Johnson: Moon landing path -

Johnson discovered the path for the Freedom 7 spacecraft to successfully enter space in 1961, and later for the Apollo 11 mission to land on the Moon in 1969. She often went unrecognized by her male colleagues and faced racial discrimination.

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Caresse Crosby: the modern bra -

Caresse Crosby was tired of wearing corsets, and so she developed the modern bra, known as the "backless brassiere." She later sold her patent to the Warner Brothers Corset Company, which left her in the shadows.

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Elizabeth Magie Phillips: Monopoly -

Elizabeth Magie Phillips came up with the original inspiration for the board game The Landlord's Game in 1903. She actually designed the game to protest against monopolists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

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Elizabeth Magie Phillips: Monopoly -

However, the invention of the famous board game has been credited to Charles Darrow, who sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935. When Phillips patented her invention, she received only US$500. The Parker Brothers falsely credited Darrow as the original inventor.

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Nettie Stevens: s** chromosomes -

Nettie Stevens discovered the connection between chromosomes and s** determination. Unfortunately, her colleague and mentor E.B. Wilson published his papers before her and is often credited with the discovery.

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Hedy Lamarr: wireless communication -

We should thank Hollywood star Hedy Lamarr for wireless communication. During World War II, she worked closely with George Antheil to develop the idea of "frequency hopping," which would have prevented the bugging of military radios.

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Hedy Lamarr: wireless communication -

Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy ignored her patent. Years later, it was rediscovered by a researcher, which led her to receive the Electronic Frontier Foundation Award shortly before her death in 2000.

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Marion Donovan: disposable diapers -

Marion Donovan's first patent was a diaper cover. She later added buttons, which eliminated safety pins. Her original disposable diaper was made with shower curtains, with her final one made from nylon parachute cloth. This method helped keep children and clothes cleaner and dryer, and helped diminish rashes. Of course, her patent was ignored by diaper companies.

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Chien-Shiung Wu: nuclear physics -

Chien-Shiung Wu developed the process for separating uranium metal. And in 1956, she conducted the Wu experiment that focused on electromagnetic interactions, which yielded surprising results.

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Chien-Shiung Wu: nuclear physics -

However, the physicists who originated a similar theory in the field, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, received credit for her work. Pictured with their wives, they ended up winning the Nobel Prize for the experiment in 1957.

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Alice Ball: cure for leprosy -

Alice Ball was a young chemist at Kalihi Hospital in Hawaii who focused on leprosy. She researched how to cure it by injecting chaulmoogra oil directly into the bloodstream. Sadly, Ball became sick and died in 1916. Arthur Dean took over her study, and she became forgotten until a medical journal referred to the 'Ball Method' and gave her credit.

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The ENIAC programmers: first electronic computer -

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first computer ever built. In 1946, six women programmed it as part of a secret World War II project.

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The ENIAC programmers: first electronic computer -

Sadly, inventor John Mauchly is often the only one who gets credit for its creation. But the programmers are the ones who fully developed the machine.

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Vera Rubin: dark matter -

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Rosalind Franklin: DNA double helix -

Rosalind Franklin's X-ray photographs of DNA revealed the molecule's true structure as a double helix. At the time, her theory was denounced by scientists James Watson and Francis Crick.

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Rosalind Franklin: DNA double helix -

However, since Watson and Crick originally discovered the single helix, they ended up receiving a Nobel Prize for their research.

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Jocelyn Bell Burnell: pulsars -

Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered irregular radio pulses while working as a research assistant at Cambridge. After showing the discovery to her advisor, the team worked together to uncover what they truly were: pulsars. 

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Jocelyn Bell Burnell: pulsars -

However, Burnell received zero credit for her discovery. Instead, her advisor Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974.

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Mary Anderson: windshield wipers -

Mary Anderson first came up with the idea of windshield wipers while riding in a streetcar in the snow. She received a patent for it in 1903 and tried to sell it to companies, who rejected her invention. By the '50s and '60s, businesses took to the idea, but her patent had expired by then. Inventor Robert Kearns was instead credited.

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Ada Harris: hair straightener -

Ada Harris was the first to invent the hair straightener, which has unfortunately been credited to Marcel Grateau, who made his claim to fame with the curling iron around 1852.

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Ada Harris: hair straightener -

Ada Harris only claimed the patent for the hair straightener in 1893, but there is a clear difference between it and a curling iron.

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Esther Lederberg: microbial genetics -

Esther Lederberg had an important role in determining how genes are regulated, along with the process of making RNA from DNA. She often collaborated with her husband Joshua Lederberg on their work on microbial genetics.

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Esther Lederberg: microbial genetics -

Even though she was the one to discover lambda phage, a virus that infects E. coli bacteria, her husband claimed the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for its discoveries.

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Grace Murray Hopper: computer programming language -

Hopper created the first computer language compiler tools to program the Harvard Mark I computer, a computer that was often used for World War II efforts.

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Grace Murray Hopper: computer programming language -

Even if it's noted that John von Neumann initiated the computer's first program, Hopper is the one who invented the codes to program it.

Sources: (Marie Claire) (National Geographic)

See also: Inspirational women who changed history

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