Only one female scientist named in GCSEs - here are five you need to know

A study has found only one female scientist was named in GCSE and National 5 science exam guidance in the UK.

A Cambridge study found out of 86 scientists named by the exam boards, which are the organisations which set and mark exams, Rosalind Franklin was the only woman.

University of Cambridge experts looked at how many women were mentioned in the specifications, which is the skills and knowledge students are expected to have by the end of their course, of six exam boards.

The study authors had some suggestions on who should be mentioned including scientists Marie Curie and Lise Meitner.

Read on to learn more about these amazing female scientists.

Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and scientist whose work using X-rays produced a famous DNA image known as Photograph 51.

Cambridge scientists Francis Crick and James Watson used this image to show that DNA has a double-helix structure.

Watson, Crick and Franklin's colleague Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize for the discovery.

Dr Rosalind Franklin published over 40 papers including on carbon, DNA and viruses.

Marie Tharp was an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer.

A cartographer is someone who gathers data to produce maps.

Marie Tharp created an important map of the ocean floor in the 1950s.

She worked with another geologist called Bruce Heezan.

Heezan had to gather the data with sonar, where sound waves are used to detect, locate, and measure objects underwater; because women at that time weren't allowed on research boats.

Tharp then took the information and worked out what was on the ocean floor

Their first map of the North Atlantic Ocean was completed in 1957 and it surprised people who thought, it would be flat.

Instead it was made up of ridges and mountains.

Inge Lehmann was a Danish seismologist and geophysicist.

Seismologists are scientists who study the shock waves created by earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions.

She published an important paper in 1936, following a large earthquake near New Zealand which suggested for the first time that the Earth had a solid inner core, surrounded by a liquid outer core.

This was confirmed in 1970 when more advanced seismographs were used.

This was huge, because before this, scientists thought Earth's core was a single, massive, molten (liquid) sphere surrounded by solid mantle and crust

Marie Curie discovered radioactivity.

She worked with her husband, another scientist, Pierre Curie

In 1895, Marie and Pierre discovered that a metal called radium could kill cancer cells.

They also discovered another chemical element which she called Polonium after her home country, Poland.

Their research also led in part to the use of X-rays in surgery

She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. She won two in her lifetime, the Nobel prize for physics (alongside Pierre and French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel) and the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Austrian and Swedish nuclear physicist Lise Meitner is known for her part in discovering nuclear fission, when atoms split releasing a huge amount of energy.

Lise Meitner came up with the name, nuclear fission.

Her discovery was key breakthrough which led to nuclear energy and eventually the atomic bomb.

Interestingly it was work by Marie Curie's daughter, Irène, which led to her nuclear fission discovery.

She also co-discovered the radioactive element, protactinium.

She was nominated for a Nobel Prize 49 times during her life. but never received one.

Long after her death, she was honoured by having a radioactive chemical element named after her - Meitnerium - in 1997.

A spokeswoman for the Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents AQA, Cambridge OCR, CCEA, WJEC and Pearson, said: "Exam boards recognise that there is a clear need for greater representation in science qualifications, and this is an area they will be focusing on as these qualifications are reformed."

Qualifications Scotland said the Curriculum Improvement Cycle offered "an opportunity to consider gender representation within our future qualifications and assessments".

The Department for Education in England said "girls should see the contribution women have made in STEM", adding it was "committed to improving the school curriculum over the coming years, and as part of that will make sure every girl can see where their learning can take them".

The Scottish Government said it was "committed to closing the gender gap in STEM and will carefully consider the findings of this research".