Mary Fairfax Sommerville was a world-renowned mathematician

 Mary Fairfax Sommerville was a world-renowned mathematician, geographer, science writer and theoretical astronomer. The inventor/astronomer/mathematician Sir David Brewster called her “certainly the most extraordinary woman in Europe.” She is also responsible for the coining of a word.



In 1834 the British intellectual William Whewell ran into a problem when writing a review of one of Sommerville’s books. At that time practitioners of science were called “men of science.” Because he couldn’t very well refer to Mary Sommerville as a “man of science” he needed another term. So, he invented one: “scientist.”


In one sense, therefore, we might say that Mary Sommerville was the world’s first scientist.


Mary Fairfax Sommerville died on November 29, 1872, one hundred fifty-one years ago today.

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