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"Teachers might not like it, but many of us, students and non-students alike, get at least some of our information from Wikipedia. So what happens when a historical figure doesn't have a Wikipedia page?\nOne group often neglected in the World of Wiki are female scientists. But the Royal Society is trying to change that with a Wikipedia edit-a-thon devoted to historical female scientists and engineers. On Oct. 19, the Royal Society will gather in London \u2014 those out of the city at the time are welcome to participate remotely \u2014 to give female scientists whose contributions to their fields have so far been neglected on Wikipedia their fair due. \nAmong the scientists whose profiles will be seriously edit-heavy come that Friday are crystallographer Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, who discovered the chemical structure of benzene; Dr. Elsie Widdowson, who played an integral role in making vitamin supplements a standard part of World War II food rations; and paleontologist Mary Buckland, who until recently existed on Wikipedia only as part of her husband's entry.\nThe event is affiliated with Ada Lovelace Day, named after the 19th mathematician commonly known as the \"Mother of Computer Programming.\" The event will also feature a panel discussion led by Uta Frith, professor of cognitive development and a fellow of the Royal Society.\n\"I read about a year ago that the typical person who writes entries for Wikipedia is a man,\" Frith told BBC. \"That really started alarm bells ringing because we don't think about it \u2014 who is doing all this work?\nWikipedia's gender bias is particularly relevant when it comes to studying history. It can be easy for female scientists, many of whom were overshadowed by their male counterparts during their lifetimes, to be overlooked. \n\"Can you immediately come up with a handful of names of female staff in technology?,\" asks Frith. \"Is that because there aren't any or because they're sort of invisible? [...] It's a catch-22 \u2014 if you can\u2019t find them easily in a place like Wikipedia, you won\u2019t know anything about them. You\u2019ll think they are not important.\"\nImage of Ada Lovelace Day courtesy of Wikimedia Commons"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/09/24/wikipedia-female-scientists/>