The family of French mathematician Sophie Germain -- inventor of "Germain primes," i.e., double a Germain prime and add 1 to get another prime number

Interesting. But hey! You can't invent primes! They're already there!

And, damn, she sounds pretty awesome for someone we've never heard of.

So who here has heard of Sonya Kovalevsky?

She's on pretty much every "Women in mathematics" poster you'll run into (something about which I have mixed feelings), but I hadn't heard of her before that.

French mathematician Sophie Germain

Ooh, hers are the primes at the center of the proof in Proof.

So who here has heard of Sonya Kovalevsky?

::Raises hand::

But it was in a class focusing on women in the history of math. I wish I still had all my notes from then, I don't remember much.

Why the mixed feelings, Emily?

You know, if women weren't held under the boot of the patriarchy, I'm certain our advances would have brought us to a place where I'd now be driving a hover craft. Friggin' patriarchy. I WANT MY HOVERCRAFT.

Here you go, Allyson: [link]

At least it was linked by chick.

Hi. I'm back.

I have no flying car.

I have no flying car.

Because of The Man, aurelia. Only because of The Man.

Sing it, sister.