Dame Anne McLaren was an innovative scientist and why is Google celebrating her with a doodle?
Google is celebrating the renowned scientist today to mark her 94th birthday. She’s most notably known for her work that helped established (IVF) – an accomplishment that has allowed thousands of people to become parents.
Google is celebrating the life and work of Anne McLaren with a doodle on the date of her 94th birthday.
Google said: “Today’s Doodle celebrates the 94th birthday of British scientist and author Anne McLaren, who is widely considered one of the most significant reproductive biologists of the 20th century.
“Her fundamental research on embryology has helped countless people realize their dreams of parenthood.”
“Happy birthday, Anne McLaren. Thank you for all your incredible work and for inspiring many new generations to come because of it,” Google added.
Who is Dame Anne McLaren?
Born in London on April 26, 1927, McLaren played a role in the 1936 H.G. Wells’ sci-fi film The Shape of Things to Come when she was a young child, something which the scientist credited as one of the early inspirations for her love of science.
She went on to further study zoology at the University of Oxford, where her passion for science grew more intense. In the 1950s, she began to work with mice in order to further understand the biology of mammalian development.
She proved in vitro fertilisation (IVF) possible with groundbreaking work in 1950s. But these findings were published in 1958 and carved the way for the development of in vitro fertilization (IVF) technology that scientists used successfully with humans 20 years later.
Image: PA
McLaren was appointed on the Warnock Committee, which was a governmental body dedicated to the development of policies related to the advances in IVF technology and embryology.
In 1991, McLaren was appointed Foreign Secretary of The Royal Society, making her the first woman to ever hold office within the institution’s 330-year-old history.
Again in 1994, the British Science Association then British Association for the Advancement of Science elected McLaren as president. And she aimed to make the topics of science, engineering and technology accessible to everyone across the UK.
In 2007, She died at the age of 80 through a road accident she and her ex-husband Donald Michie were involved in.
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