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Day 3 of #artAdventCalendar: another new portrait - geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised the alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched peaceful uses of nuclear power. A supporter of women in science, she established the Society of Japanese Women Scientists & the Saruhashi Prize for 🧵
#printmaking #sciart #womenInSTEM #climateChange #oceanography #linocut #mastoArt
Japanese women researchers for excellence in science & mentoring women scientists.
The story goes that her interest was sparked in science watching raindrops in primary school, wondering about the source of rain. Her parents believed in education, but she had to make a case to leave a secure insurance job at 21 to study #chemistry. Her family witnessed how women struggled to support themselves without husbands or fathers in wartime. So her mother thought science might be a good way to ensure 🧵2
financial independence. After completing her undergrad degree at Women’s College of Science (now Toho U) in ‘43 she worked at the Geochemical Laboratory at the Meteorological Research Institute (now the Japan Meteorological Agency) with her mentor, marine chemist & lab director Miyake Yasuo, who had a strict policy against gender discrimination. She developed the first tool to measure CO2 in the oceans using pH & chlorinity, called Saruhashi’s Table. She enrolled in the PhD program 🧵3
at the renowned U of Tokyo in ‘57, where she was the 1st woman to earn a science doctorate. Her dissertation was on “The Behaviour of Carbonic Matter in Natural Water”. With Miyake, she showed that oxidation of organic material increased CO2 in the ocean; prior to this, oceanic CO2 levels were attributed to dissolved calcium carbonate & that global warming could be mitigated by seawater’s supposed ability to absorb CO2. 🧵4/5
She not only showed this was untenable, she found the Pacific Ocean emits more CO2 than it absorbs! This has dire consequences for climate change.
Her work also showed how radioactive contamination spread from US tests at Bikini Atoll & lead to the ban on above ground nuclear tests.
https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/1842093826
🧵5/5
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