The work rescues Dorotea Barnés, “the primary Spanish girl with a world publication within the area of biochemistry”: she was disqualified by Francoism “and by her husband” It additionally recovers the figures of Josefa Molera and Sagrario Martínez Carrera: “Here has There have been essential girls, however no person ever talks about them”María José Sánchez Barrena, scientist and producer of the work: “I’ve by no means felt that I play in a special league from males, till I turned a mom”
Dorotea Barnes. Josefa Molera. Tabernacle Martinez Carrera. Do these names ring a bell? Do you understand who these girls had been? Probably not. And that’s exactly what this text is about: nice girls scientists, who proceed to be largely forgotten.
“There have been essential girls right here, however no person ever talks about them. They speak about our founders (Blas Cabrera, Julio Palacios…), all males. But not from them, who did simply as nicely and had all the pieces towards them. That’s why we wish to rescue them. They are three very related pre-war and post-war figures, who contributed quite a bit to science”.
“If you do not know find out how to say names of scientists… of scientists, let’s not say anymore,” laments Sánchez Barrena, who’s a health care provider in biochemistry and molecular biology. “Marie Curie, for instance, was stratospheric!” And she additionally went via that heart, keep in mind.
Reference girls in a reference heart
The work is a scientific efficiency wherein we are going to meet these three pioneering girls in science, whereas we tour the middle within the firm of a number of scientists who at the moment work there, and who can even inform us about their work.
“It is sort of a journey via the middle, from one room to a different, and in it, you take heed to the story of those three girls and the discourse of present feminine scientists: why we do science, after we determined to do it, the difficulties we encountered and what They are our needs”. A visible and sound montage (with many individuals from the theater behind it, not simply scientists), which brings us nearer to the lives of Barnés, Molera and Martínez Carrera. A play that they current as “experimental and immersive”: the concept is “for the general public to expertise and get to know”.
The Rockefeller constructing, wherein the Rocasolano Physical Chemistry Institute is situated, “was the primary heart constructed expressly to do science, to analyze,” remembers Sánchez Barrena. Built in 1932, it was named that approach as a result of it was financed by that American basis. And in its 90-year historical past, “it has been the reference heart in physics and chemistry.” So had been these three girls, of whom the work speaks.
Dorotea Barnés, the battle and the youngsters
Dorotea Barnés labored there within the Nineteen Thirties. She was one of many 4 Barnés sisters, well-known on the time as a result of their father was Minister of Education within the Azaña authorities. Educated in a liberal and egalitarian household, she Dorotea had to enter exile when the battle got here. She first fled to France, and from there to Mexico.
But earlier than the battle, I had already been at Yale, within the US, learning Spectroscopy methods. “She was the primary Spanish girl with a world publication within the area of biochemistry”, emphasizes Sánchez Barrena. She refers to this text, revealed in 1930. “But her profession was minimize quick, as a result of after the battle, she was disqualified from working in Spain.” Being already a health care provider, she couldn’t follow, being the daughter of who she was. And not solely that.
“According to what she herself recounted in an interview they did to her, when she was already very outdated, the one who withdrew her from science was her husband. She devoted herself to having kids and it was over ”. Dorotea herself died in 2003. Her grandchildren will probably be within the viewers on the performances this weekend in Madrid.
Tabernacle Martinez Carrera
Sagrario Martínez Carrera was a crystallographer. “Like me,” says Sánchez Barrena. And what do crystallographers do? “We research the three-dimensional construction of molecules so as to perceive their operate.” To do that, they work with a fancy and delicate method that permits them to “get hold of X-ray diffraction knowledge at low temperature.” This method was carried out in Spain by this girl.
“It was she, furthermore, who launched computational calculation in crystallography.” We are speaking concerning the Nineteen Sixties. The scientist traveled to the Netherlands and the US and “because of her encouragement, the primary computer systems had been purchased right here.” Sánchez Barrena explains that she “was a lady with large drive, however she was at all times within the shadow of males.” She supervised a number of theses, however she was by no means capable of signal them.
“There are nonetheless many lively disciples of his, to whom he directed the thesis, who’ve helped us to rebuild the character.” One of them, Martín Martínez-Ripoll, wrote about her when he died.
Sagrario Martínez Carrera had no kids. And he “devoted his life totally to work.” Contrary to Dorotea Barnés, who needed to go away him to care for them. Or Josefa Molera, the opposite honored scientist.
Josefa Molera, with a Nobel Prize in Oxford
Josefa Molera labored on the IQFR-CSIC within the Nineteen Fifties. Although she unnoticed within the post-doctorate, and labored with the very best in her area. She “was at Oxford, working with a Nobel laureate in chemistry, Cyril Norman Hinshelwood.”
An professional in chemical kinetics, she was “the primary researcher to arrange a gasoline chromatograph on this nation.” Something that serves, for instance, to “examine that are the molecules that give aroma to the wine”. It is a strategy that’s used to separate gaseous elements, and he or she was “a pioneer in that method.”
Molera was extra acknowledged on the time. She was founding president of the Spanish Society of Chromatography, she acquired an award from the CSIC and has been a Gold Medalist from the Spanish Society of Chemistry. “She was acknowledged extra, sure, however when one thinks or talks about this heart, they nonetheless do not speak about her,” laments Sánchez Barrena.
motherhood and science
Molera “would go residence at 5 within the afternoon as a result of he had kids,” remembers Sánchez Barrena. It was the 50s and 60s of the final century. The state of affairs has modified, however not as a lot because it ought to. And within the analysis profession it’s particularly palpable. “I’ve by no means felt that I play in a special league than males, till I turned a mom,” says Sánchez Barrena.
And that she was fortunate. “I had them once I had not but consolidated my job, and I used to be fortunate that the months that I took maternity go away, I used to be capable of get well.” But that, she assures her, shouldn’t be regular. In basic, they’re misplaced. “That time is misplaced by you and the staff wherein you’re employed.”
Sánchez Barrena asks “that it not penalize you a lot to have kids.” Because, with so many bumps within the highway, girls scientists “haven’t but reached the highest, we have to arrive and be those who make the choices.” Qualities and deserves usually are not missing, fairly the opposite.
“The qualities to be a very good researcher have historically been linked to the masculine: courageous, decided… Perhaps girls doubt extra, however as a result of we’re extra reflective, and that isn’t valued as a lot.” Doubt, he says, is primary in science “We girls query issues extra, and that’s good in science, however it isn’t valued.” The work that they current now tries to vindicate their position.
Science and artwork, two worlds in a single
But the target shouldn’t be solely to rescue the reminiscence of girls scientists, but additionally “to unite science and artwork: disciplines which have historically gone hand in hand, however later separated”. The work tries to get well that hyperlink, as a result of “creativity is on the base of each”, explains Sánchez Barrena. “Many scientists have been artists and lots of artists have been scientists, experimenters. One of the issues they’ve in widespread is being artistic.”
“A scientist must be artistic sufficient to think about issues, in any other case he cannot give you a speculation after which attempt to show it.” And the middle the place the play is carried out was a very good instance of this. “It was a spot the place science and the humanities coexisted, within the Nineteen Thirties. Nearby was the Student Residence,” he remembers.
Almost 100 years have handed since then. Last 12 months, on the event of its ninetieth anniversary, they offered a venture to FECYT-MICIN to hold out this theatrical manufacturing. They financed it, and the work turned a actuality. This weekend you possibly can take pleasure in, without cost, the afternoons of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It lasts one hour and is aimed toward a household viewers. “You can go along with kids, even my daughters are a part of the work.” And the message is evident: “We wish to inspire, to convey a optimistic message. That, if there are kids, they arrive out saying: mother, I wish to be a scientist”.