Katsuko Saruhashi turned radioactive fallout into a scientific legacy www.mirror.co.uk

posted by  banzaitokyo | 6 years, 8 months ago in Science & Technology

In 1957, Saruhashi became the first woman to receive a PhD in chemistry in Japan. Her work focused on measuring the molecules in seawater — like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and also radioactive molecules like cesium-137. Just twelve years before she received her PhD, the United States dropped atomic bombs that devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagaski, and the US continued to unleash a torrent of radioactive fallout in the Pacific as it tested bigger and bigger bombs. By 1958, the US had exploded 67 nuclear devices around the Marshall Islands — leaving a long legacy of contamination behind.