Mary Somerville
Mary Somerville (née Fairfax, formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872), was a Scottish science writer and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy and was nominated to be jointly the first female member of the Royal Astronomical
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Mary Somerville (née Fairfax, formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872), was a Scottish science writer and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy and was nominated to be jointly the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same time as Caroline Herschel.
When John Stuart Mill, the philosopher, and economist, organized a massive petition to Parliament to give women the right to vote, he had Somerville put her signature first on the petition.
When she died in 1872, The Morning Post declared in her obituary that “Whatever difficulty we might experience in the middle of the nineteenth century in choosing a king of science, there could be no question whatever as to the queen of science.”[1][2]
She is featured on the obverse of the Royal Bank of Scotland polymer £10 note launched in 2017, alongside a quote from her work 'The Connection of the Physical Sciences'.
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