Today on Google.com is a special Google logo, Doodle, for Hertha Marks Ayrton's 162nd birthday. Hertha Marks Ayrton was most well known for her work in science on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water. The Google Doodle shows the ripples in the artwork.
She was born on April 28, 1854 in Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK and died at the age of 69 on August 23, 1923. She was a British Jew who received the Hughes Medal in 1906. You can learn more about her life on Wikipedia.
The artist wrote:
When a wave washes over sand, ripples will appear.This simple observation was a scientific mystery until Hertha Marks Ayrton read "The Origin and Growth of Ripple Marks" to the Royal Society in 1904. She was first woman to do so. Her words were then published, marking a permanent contribution to the canon of physical science and a victory over discrimination and exclusion.
Lydia Nichols’ doodle shows Ayrton framed by her breakthrough findings. Today, 162 years after her birth, we celebrate her legacy as engineer, mathematician, physicist, and inventor, her impact still rippling through the scientific community.
Forum discussion at Google+.
