[MUSIC]
Hi everybody, and welcome to another Storytime, 
here at The Lawrence at Home!
My name is teacher Bia, and I'm 
going to be your storyteller for today.
And today, we are continuing 
our series called "Stories in STEAM,"
where we tell the stories of different scientists.
But before we get started with our story for the day,
make sure to subscribe 
to our channel and like this video,
so you never miss another science video from us.
So today, we're going to be telling the story 
of an Egyptian scientist called Sameera Moussa
that I'm very excited to share with you.
So, let's get started, shall we?
All right! So, here is our scientist for today.
Her name is Sameera Moussa, and she was a nuclear 
scientist who wanted to use atomic energy for good.
And we're about to learn a little 
more about what that means.
So Sameera Moussa was born in 1917 
in Senbo Village in the Gharbia Governorate in Egypt.
So, here is part of the map  of the world.
You can see the African continent, and Egypt 
is right here on the northeast part of the continent.
And she was born in the Gharbia Governorate 
that is shown right here on this picture in red,
so it's a small governorate in the north part of Egypt.
When she was still young, her mother 
unfortunately lost her life to cancer.
Later, this would inspire Sameera
to contribute to the development of new, innovative, 
and accessible treatments to this disease.
So now, you can imagine what it must have felt like
for Sameera to have lost her mom 
when she was still young.
It was probably something very hard 
for her to live through.
But she still had her dad, so Moussa and her 
father moved to Cairo, the capital of Egypt,
and he supported her in continuing her education.
She got very good grades and was especially
talented and interested in science subjects.
So, she decided to join the sciences department
at Cairo University studying radiology.
Later, Sameera would become the first woman
to ever teach at Cairo University.
After her studies in radiology, 
she continued her education,
entering a PhD program focused on nuclear science.
So, a PhD program is something people can pursue 
after getting a bachelor's degree in college,
and she decided to pursue a program
focused on nuclear science.
She was very passionate about using nuclear
science for peaceful means
and participating in ground-breaking research on 
how radiation can be used to identify cancer cells.
You might remember in the beginning of our story,
we talked about how Sameera's mom 
lost her life to cancer,
so Sameera dedicated herself to 
studying more about this disease,
specifically how we can use radiation 
to treat and identify cancer cells.
Now, you might be thinking, "What is nuclear science?"
Well, let's talk about that for a moment.
Do you recognize this image that is 
shown on this picture over here?
Have you ever seen this image before? 
Does it remind you of something?
Think about it for a moment,
and if you're watching this video with someone, 
maybe share your ideas with them.
If you need some more time to think, 
pause the video now.
But I'm going to tell you that this picture shows an atom,
and atoms are what make up matter,
and matter is anything that 
has weight and occupies space.
For example, my shirt, this door, 
or even the air are made of matter,
and matter is made up of atoms,
and atoms have two different
regions.
On the center, in red, is the nucleus of the atom,
and around the nucleus, there's an orbit of electrons 
that are moving around the nucleus.
So, nuclear science deals with 
changes that happen in the nucleus,
and those reactions are much more energetic
than the reactions that deal with changes 
on the outside part, on the electron part.
Now that we know what nuclear science is,
let's get back to Sameera's story.
She finished her PhD in England, and then she became 
the first woman to receive a PhD in atomic radiation,
so she was a pioneer for women in her field.
She contributed to advancing X-ray 
technology, making it cheaper and safer.
So, maybe you know somebody or maybe 
you yourself has had an X-ray before.
An X-ray is sort of like a picture that doctors can take 
to see what's happening on the inside of our bodies.
Over here, I have a few pictures of X-rays,
and maybe you can guess: What parts of the body 
do you think are shown in these pictures?
Well, up here, I see five digits,
and this is an X-ray picture of a hand!
On this picture over here, we can see two sides 
that are pretty similar and some ridges along them.
Do you have any idea what part of the body that is?
Well, that picture is showing the thorax, so the 
chest area of somebody, with their lungs and heart.
And lastly, over here, I can see a round shape 
and, over here, some things sticking out.
Well, these over here are actually teeth.
And this picture over here is an X-ray picture of a head.
Sameera really contributed to X-ray technology 
when X-ray was still very new.
She really contributed to making this kind 
of technology more accessible and cheaper
for those that needed to use it.
She even has a very famous quote that says,
"I'll make nuclear treatment 
as available and as cheap as Aspirin."
She knew that nuclear energy and nuclear science
had a huge potential of helping people 
that were sick like her mother,
and she wanted to make these kinds of treatment 
effective and available for all, and that was her dream.
And looking toward that goal, 
she developed an equation
that allowed scientists to split atoms of cheap 
metals like copper to access their nuclear energy.
So, she worked toward making nuclear energy
more accessible and less expensive.
However, sadly, some of her discoveries 
were used in nuclear warfare.
Well, you may have heard of 
nuclear energy in this way before,
because nuclear power is also used by some countries
to make weapons and atomic bombs 
that are very destructive.
However, Sameera was committed to using 
atomic energy only for peaceful purposes,
and this prompted her to set up the first 
Atomic Energy for Peace Conference,
where scientists from all over the world
gathered to make recommendations 
for protection against nuclear hazards.
So when her findings that she was studying 
in order to advance treatments in medicine
were being used for war purposes,
she took action and she put together a conference 
where scientists could get together
and discuss the risks and establish some guidelines 
about the use of nuclear energy.
Because of her outstanding work on this field,
she received a scholarship and was invited to visit 
nuclear research facilities in the United States.
She was offered American citizenship to remain 
in the country and continue her work in the U.S.,
which she refused, saying that her country 
— that's Egypt — awaited her return.
So, she refused to stay in the United States,
and she wanted to return to her home 
and continue her work in Egypt.
So, not long after she refused 
to stay in the United States,
while she was still on that same trip, 
on August 5th of 1952,
on her way to a dinner invitation, the car 
Sameera was in swerved and plummeted off a cliff,
and she died at the age of 35. 
She was still very young.
The driver of that car was able to jump 
out of the vehicle and was never found,
and although it has never been proven, it is 
suspected that her death was not an accident.
There's actually suspicion that someone is 
responsible for the death of this brilliant scientist.
Since she was working on a very new field 
that had so many connections to warfare,
it's possible that someone 
did not want her to keep working
on the technology she was working 
for her country of origin.
Throughout her life, Sameera 
had to overcome a lot of adversity.
She'd lost her mom at a young age, and she was 
one of the first women to enter a very new field.
She was able to overcome some of those obstacles
and contribute greatly to science.
Thanks to Sameera's work, 
medicine was able to advance,
and cancer treatments and X-rays 
became more available to others.
Now, it is our responsibility to remember
her, tell her story, and continue her work.
So, today, we got to meet a new scientist 
called Sameera Moussa
that really did a lot of work in order to ensure 
that nuclear energy was used for good.
She was motivated to make radiation 
treatments accessible and cheap for all.
Unfortunately, she died at the age of 35 
before she could accomplish this goal,
but many scientists after her have continued 
to improve this field and continue to fight
for nuclear energy to be used 
solely for good and not for war.
Well, my friends, thank you so much 
for joining me for today's story.
Once again, I want to remind you to subscribe 
to our channel and like this video
if you want to see more science videos from us.
We'll be back here this Friday with another 
Story in STEAM and learn about another scientist.
Thank you so much for joining me! 
Once again, my name is teacher Bia,
and I hope to see you next time 
here at The Lawrence at Home.
Bye bye!
