The Birthday of Mary Somerville (1780)

Mary Somerville was a Scottish mathematician and science writer. She translated Laplace’s ‘Mécanique Céleste’ into English, making advanced mathematics accessible. The term ‘scientist’ was coined for her in 1834. She was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Astronomical Society. Her book ‘On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences’ (1834) included a speculation about a planet affecting Uranus’s orbit – leading to the discovery of Neptune. A college at Oxford was named after her (Somerville College). She overcame immense social barriers to become one of the leading scientific minds of her time.