Rachel Carson: the Mother of Ecotoxicology

Rachel Carson

The Mother of Ecotoxicology

In the world of science, and the world at large, the achievements of women have often gone overlooked. This becomes most apparent when one considers the amount of male scientists which exist as household names but the lack of a female presence. One such overlooked scientist is Rachel Carson- who is she?

Born near Springdale Pennsylvania May 1907, Rachel Carson spent her youth writing –(mostly about nature.)  This combination of literary prowess and a love for the natural world would define her education and career; beginning her studies in English, Carson would ultimately graduate with a bachelors in Marine Biology from Chatham College, and a Masters in Zoology and Genetics from John Hopkins. While she began working towards her PhD in marine biology at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, she would instead complete a second masters due to personal and financial circumstances.

In spite of her academic career being cut short, Carson went on to work for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries as a marine biologist. During this time, she would go on to publish a number of books, such as her 1951 bestseller The Sea Around Us which won the National Book Award. Her most enduring work, however, was her 1962 book Silent Spring which would go on to change not only the field of toxicology but environmental policy in the United States and the global community at large; the impact of Rachel Carson’s book is equivalent to that of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.

Now that it has been adequately talked up let me backup my claims. To start, Silent Spring is directly responsible for the banning of DDT, a dangerous pesticide. Prior to Rachel Carson’s publication, the toxicology (the study of the adverse effects of chemicals) of pesticides was a largely neglected field of study. Carson’s research found evidence that DDT was leading to the eggshell thinning of local bird populations (thinner eggshells causing more eggs to crack prematurely), as well as providing the first evidence of biomagnification, the increase in concentration of harmful chemicals as you move up the food chain, a theory fundamental to ecological studies. Through these findings Carson was able to prove that the products humans use are far less constrained than previously thought, the chemicals we put into our crops end up in our water and forests.

While all of these findings are impressive to say the least they may not seem “discovering evolution” big. However, these findings and the publication of Silent Spring gave birth to the field of ecotoxicology, the study of the effects of chemicals on biological organisms from the individual to the population level (which would later lead to environmental sciences), as well as the environmental movement of the 60’s-70’s.

The contributions made by Rachel Carson to not only the advancement of environmental science but to society at large are unprecedented; she re-contextualized humanity’s relationship to the natural world from separate to interdependent.  

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