San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Four scientists who are stars in Lauren Gunderson’s plays.
Nathan Wolfe is just one of the scientists who gets to step into the spotlight in the plays of Lauren Gunderson. Among that group, Wolfe is unique, both because he’s her husband and because Gunderson’s scientist subjects tend to be women, many of them the trailblazers few of us learned about in school.
Taken together, Gunderson’s plays correct the stereotypical image of a scientist as a bearded, bespectacled dude in a white lab coat. They say, “This is what a scientist looks like — and has looked like all along.”
Here are a select few of the innovators who’ve captured the dramatist’s imagination:
Ada Lovelace
Life span: 181552
Accomplishments: Publishing one of the first computer algorithms a century before a computer was ever built; perceiving that computers could do more than just arithmetic; contributing to the design of the first “Analytical Engine.”
Fun fact: Lovelace is the only child of Lord Byron and Lady Byron, herself such a math enthusiast she got a nickname: “the princess of parallelograms.” Gunderson play: “Ada and the
Engine” Notable local production: Central Works, 2016 (when the show was called “Ada and the Memory Engine”). Choice Gunderson excerpts: “I would better like to be dark and genius, than sunny and useless.” — Ada “For you, the difference between zero and one is your entire world.” — Annabella (Lady Byron) to Ada “I shall be a bride of science." — Ada “The Engine can hold the past, the present, and the future, all at once, all together in its beating metal heart.” — Ada
Marie Curie
Life span: 18671934 Accomplishments: Developing, with Henri Becquerel and husband Pierre, a theory of radioactivity; discovering that thorium is radioactive; discovering, with Pierre, the elements polonium and radium; treating injured World War I soldiers on the front lines with mobile radiology units she developed.
Fun fact: Curie is one of only two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in two different fields.
Gunderson play: “The HalfLife of
Marie Curie” Notable productions: The play was originally commissioned by Audible (listen now at www.audi ble.com). Choice Gunderson excerpts: “Radium is a cold heat, a dark light, a force of nature . ... Turn down the light and one sees a watery, green ... fire. No. It’s more constant than a flame. A gaze. Like it can’t take its eyes off you. Like the love of your life.” — Marie “Recognition is political. And proof can be yours alone, even for an hour knowing something that no one in the world knows but you.” — Marie
Emilie du Châtelet
Life span: 170649
Accomplishments: Translating Isaac Newton’s “Principia” into French (which is still the standard French translation) and adding to it;
helping to resolve debate about whether momentum or kinetic energy is behind an object in motion; predicting the phenomenon now known as infrared radiation.
Fun fact: For years, du Châtelet lived with Voltaire (also a Gunderson character).
Gunderson play: “Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight” Notable local productions: Symmetry Theatre (2012), Ross Valley Players (2016). Choice Gunderson excerpts:
“When you say ‘orbit,’ I can’t control myself.” — Voltaire to Emilie
“The laws of the heart are based in such violence. They are starved and overwhelmed and just destructive to good behavior. The laws of the universe are clean and predictable. To know the universe? Be diligent. To know the heart? Be brave.” —
Emilie
“You know Newton couldn’t write a sonnet worth a damn.” — Emilie
Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Life span: 18681921 Accomplishment: Discovering the relationship between stars’ luminosity and their pulsation period,
which allowed astronomers to measure the distance to farflung galaxies and later helped prove that the universe is expanding.
Fun fact: An asteroid and a crater on the moon are named after Leavitt. Gunderson play: “Silent Sky” Notable local productions: TheatreWorks (2014), City Lights Theater Company (2019) Choice Gunderson excerpts:
“I also graduated summa cum laude, from Radcliffe, which is basically Harvard in skirts and lucky for us the universe doesn’t much care what you wear.” — Henrietta
“As far as I can tell we do not appear to know where we are. Astronomically. Which is shocking. This is the modern age. We’ve been looking up for millennia and we don’t know how far away those stars are? We don’t know if the Milky Way is the universe?” — Henrietta
“It’s a good thing the universe doesn’t care what you think. Or me. Or Newton, or Kepler. It just marches on. And waits for the blind to catch up. That would be you.” —
Henrietta