Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze - Wonderful Woman No. 141

Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze - 1758–1836
French Chemist

Added to the album by Kieran, A Wonderful Man

If it wasn't for her, we probably wouldn't be where we are today as soon as we were.
Kieran

Researching and writing about the women of science who are added to the Wonderful Women album is always a particular joy. Firstly, it is a subject I am fascinated by, but also, so often it is astounding how much these women have endured, overcome and achieved. Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze is another fine example of this.

Married at thirteen years old, Marie-Anne became the laboratory assistant of her husband, celebrated French nobleman and scientist Antoine Lavoisier - "The Father of Modern Science", who named both oxygen (1778) and hydrogen(1783) and predicted silicon, as well as creating the first extensive periodic table of elements. During her time working in her husband's laboratory, her passion for chemistry evolved, she received formal training and, over time, came to work side-by-side on research in the laboratory rather than simply assisting. She was trained also by an artist in order for her to create detailed illustrations of experiments and apparatus, her sketches are said to be some of the greatest in existence and are helpful in dating scientific equipment and techniques. Furthermore, she translated scientific reports from English to French (she was fluent in English and Latin, as well as her native French), a task which proved pivitol for the couple's discoveries and allowed them to disprove many of the theories in print and ultimately to discover oxygen gas.

In 1794, Antoine Lavoisier was beheaded by French revolutionaries. Following his death, Marie-Anne retrieved their laboratory notes (which has been seized during his arrest) and published the final documentation of his work Mémoires de Chimi, a memoir which demonstrated new principles in chemistry. Without her husband, Marie-Anne ran her own scientific laboratory and continued to dedicate her life to science.

All those years ago, Marie-Anne's contribution was little acknowledged, she was known only as the wife of the great scientist. Now though, it is clear that she was an equal in contributing to some of chemistry's most important discoveries, it doesn't get more wonderful than that.

Minds have no sex and that if the minds of women were cultivated like those of men, and that if as much time and energy were used to instruct the minds of the former, they would equal those of the latter. The life of Marie-Anne Lavoisier proves this statement to be true.
Marie Meurdrac, Chemist