Ida Henrietta Hyde facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ida Henrietta Hyde
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| Born | September 8, 1857 |
| Died | August 22, 1945 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Cornell University University of Heidelberg |
| Known for | Micro-electrode |
Ida Henrietta Hyde (September 8, 1857 – August 22, 1945) was an American physiologist. She is famous for inventing a special tool called a micro-electrode. This tool was strong enough to affect tiny parts of cells with chemicals or electricity. It was also small enough to put things into a cell or take things out.
Ida Hyde never married. She retired in 1920 when she was 63 years old. After retiring, she traveled to many countries. Ida Hyde passed away on August 22, 1945. She was the great-aunt of a well-known biochemist named Arthur Pardee.
Contents
Early Life and Challenges
Ida was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1857. She was one of four children. Her parents, Meyer and Babette Heidenheimer, were German immigrants from a place called Württemberg. When they came to the United States, they changed their last name to Hyde.
Ida's father was a merchant. He left the family during one of his trips. This meant Ida's mother, Babette, had to take care of the children alone. To make money, they moved to Chicago. Babette worked hard cleaning and mending clothes. Eventually, she started a successful business. All the children went to public school and got a good education.
In 1871, the family's home and business were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. With no income, 14-year-old Ida, as the oldest daughter, started working. She became an apprentice for a milliner (someone who makes hats). Because she was the oldest, much of the family's support fell on her. She earned a lot of the family's money. She even paid for her only brother's education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Over time, she became a saleslady. Her experience in the clothing store helped her later in life. She learned to make her own clothes with very few supplies.
Her Path to Education
While working at the store, Ida found an English book called Ansichten der Natur (View of Nature) by Alexander von Humboldt. This book sparked her love for biology. It also made her want to continue her education. She took night classes at the Chicago Athenaeum in 1875–76, even though her parents didn't want her to.
Her chance for more education came when she visited her brother at his university. There, she met several women who worked in academia (university teaching and research). She passed the entrance exams for the College Preparatory School. Later, she entered the same university as her brother.
Ida started studying at the University of Illinois when she was 24. But her studies were cut short in 1882 when her brother got sick. She had to take care of him. She also used all her savings for just one year of school. However, she passed the county teacher's exam. Three years later, she passed the Chicago teacher's exams. For the next seven years, she taught second and third graders in the Chicago Public Schools. She still loved biology. She tried to include nature studies in the public school system. She saved money for her tuition, always focused on getting her college degree.
In 1888, at age 31, she finally returned to college. She enrolled at Cornell University and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in just three years. After that, she received a biology scholarship at Bryn Mawr College. There, she studied with famous scientists like Jacques Loeb and Thomas Hunt Morgan. As an assistant at Woods Hole Biological Laboratory, she researched the nervous system of jellyfish. She made many detailed drawings and descriptions of their nerve cells. In 1893, Hyde received a special fellowship from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. This group later became the American Association of University Women.
Ida's research at Woods Hole led Dr. Goette to invite her to the University of Strasbourg in 1893. No woman had ever worked there before. Ida was the first woman in Germany to ask to enroll for an advanced degree in natural science or math. At that time, she needed permission from the government and the university staff. But before the process was complete, Ida changed her mind. Many people spoke out against her trying to get the degree there. She decided that Heidelberg University would be a better place.
Ida earned her Ph.D. at Heidelberg University in Germany. She was 39 years old. It was very difficult because of her gender. She was not allowed to attend some lectures. She had to read notes from male students. She also had to do more work than an average student to get her degree. She became the third woman to graduate with a doctorate there. Her main problem was that her professor, Wilhelm Kühne, did not want a woman working under him. But her hard work eventually overcame his opposition. She passed her doctoral exams with honors in February 1896. She became the first woman to receive a doctorate from that university. Her main project was studying how jellyfish (Hydromedusa) develop.
Before joining the University of Kansas (KU), Ida researched at other places. These included the University of Berne in 1896 and Radcliffe College in 1897. After starting at KU, Hyde also studied at Rush Medical College during several summers. She earned her M.D. (medical degree) in 1911.
Career and Discoveries
During her seven years of teaching, Ida helped start the "Science in the Schools" program in Chicago. This program brought nature studies into public schools. Ida even shared her teaching methods with other teachers.
After getting her doctorate, she was invited to Naples, Italy. She became an Investigator of Residence at the Naples Zoological Station, which was a very important position. She continued her work on how marine invertebrates (animals without backbones that live in the sea) function. Later, she moved to the University of Bern, Switzerland. There, she worked with Dr. Kronecker on how muscles work. She became the first woman allowed to do research at Harvard Medical School. While researching, she also continued her education and medical training at Harvard. Hyde also kept teaching classes at preparatory schools and at Woods Hole during the summer.
In 1899, the University of Kansas hired her as an Associate Professor. She started the Department of Physiology and was its first chairman. She worked there for 22 years.
Throughout her career, Hyde studied the nervous, circulatory, and respiratory systems of both vertebrates (animals with backbones) and invertebrates. She also looked at how caffeine and alcohol affect the body. She noticed that music affected the cardiovascular system differently in athletes, musicians, and farmers. She also found that caffeine made physical work less efficient. In 1902, she was the first woman elected into the American Society of Physiologists. She was the only female member until 1913.
The Microelectrode Invention
Ida Hyde was not only a researcher and professor but also an inventor. She created tools to measure how marine animals' bodies worked in seawater. Her most famous invention was a tiny tool called an intracellular micropipette electrode.
Dr. Hyde noticed that certain chemicals in high amounts affected how cells divide. This led her to see tiny differences in electrical power inside cells. To understand how nerve and muscle cells work, she needed a way to stimulate them precisely. She also needed to record the electrical changes happening inside individual cells. Ida's microelectrode could stimulate cells at a very small level. It could also record electrical activity inside the cell without damaging the cell wall. This device was a huge breakthrough in studying nerves and muscles. However, Ida was never officially given credit as the first inventor of the microelectrode.
Ida's microelectrode invention was reported in 1921. Other scientists also created similar electrodes. But many historians, like G. Kass-Simon, believe Hyde's invention was the original and truly new one. Another microelectrode was supposedly invented about twenty years after Ida's. This was by Judith Graham and Ralph W. Gerard from the University of Chicago. Later, in the 1950s, Gerard was even nominated for a Nobel Prize for his version of the microelectrode.
Helping Human Health
Ida Hyde gave many lectures at the University of Kansas and elsewhere. With the help of local doctors, she started a program to medically check school children. This program looked for diseases like tuberculosis and spinal meningitis. Even though she wasn't a doctor, she was made a member of the Kansas Medical Society. This was because of her great knowledge of infectious diseases. In 1918, she was chosen as the State Chairman of the Kansas Women's Committee on Health, Sanitation, and National Defense. Many of Ida's lectures were about hygiene and how to prevent diseases from spreading.
Fighting for Equal Rights
Ida Hyde often faced problems in her education and career because she was a woman. She worked hard her whole life to get more equal opportunities and treatment for women in universities. When she was not allowed to enroll at Strassburg University because of her gender, she went to Heidelberg University. Even though she could enroll there, the university's medical school did not allow women. The professors would not let her into physiology lectures or labs. Luckily, her male classmates shared their lecture notes with her. After studying very hard, she passed her doctoral exams with honors. She wrote about her difficulties in an article called "Before Women Were Human Beings" for the AAUW Journal.
After returning to America, Hyde got help from many other women academics and wealthy women. Together, they created a fund to support women in science. The Naples Table Association gave financial help and professional support to women doing scientific research. Thirty-six women benefited from this program. In 1927, she started a scholarship at the University of Kansas for women studying science. She also created the Ida H. Hyde International Fellowship with the Association of American University Women (AAUW).
At the University of Kansas, she pushed for restrooms for women in the science buildings. These buildings were built only with men's restrooms, assuming no women would need them. She also repeatedly asked the university for equal pay. In the community, she worked to increase opportunities for women in many different jobs.
See also
In Spanish: Ida Henrietta Hyde para niños
