Nettie Stevens gave a “Y” to life – The Point

In life, everything begins and ends with a “Y”. And “Y” was discovered by the American geneticist Nettie Stevens. Brilliant student, from a family of four, it ends in two years, four years of study at Westfield Normal School (now Westfield State University) in Massachusetts and there received his teaching diploma in 1880: it is valedictorian. With the money she earns and saves, she decides to 35 years to carry out studies in biology at Stanford University, California. She specializes in cytology, the study of cells. It is at Bryn Mawr College that conducts research, which end in 1905 with the discovery of the role played by the chromosome “Y” in sex determination.

Very misogynist, the scientific community of the time reluctant to grant Nettie Stevens paternity (or rather motherhood!) of this critical scientific and medical discovery. Especially as other laboratories and therefore other biologists working on the same subject. Excluded from any recognition at a time when women were still excluded from scientific knowledge, she remained in the shadow of her male colleagues. At his death from breast cancer May 4, 1912, it is not yet fully rehabilitated in his honor.

Now included on National Women’s Hall of Fame

Today ay, Nettie Stevens is registered in the National women’s Hall of Fame that honors the US women who have influenced their time and have distinguished themselves. To permanently give him the tribute it deserves, the search engine Google devotes this July 7, 2016, 155 years to the day after his birth, a global doodle contributing to pull its relative anonymity but weighing.