Goat Guru's Women of Science: Roger Arliner Young Mystery Cache
Goat Guru's Women of Science: Roger Arliner Young
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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A series of small size (pill bottle to Tupperware) puzzle caches just off of Old Archer Road. Some stealth may be required and some bush-beating may be required depending on the cache. There will eventually be 8 caches in this series. Note: None of these caches can be accessed directly from Hwy 24 (Archer Road). Use Old Archer Road or the powerline access road.
The “Hard Sciences” (such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, etc.) were for many years male-dominated fields of study. Yet there were dedicated women who also loved the sciences and made many discoveries and advances that are often overlooked in the history books. This series of caches is dedicated to those women in recognition of all they accomplished.
A comprehensive encyclopedia or a bit of searching on Wikipedia (visit link) or Answers (visit link) will yield any answers to the puzzle questions that are not found in the body of the text below.
Born in Virginia in 1899, Roger Arliner Young soon moved with her family to Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. The family was poor and much time and resources were expended in the care of her disabled mother.
Roger Arliner Young overcame tremendous obstacles to become the first black woman to receive a doctoral degree in zoology. Though she wanted a career in music, she was persuaded to take up her true calling--zoology. In spite of gender, race, and educational barriers firmly in place at the time, Young's dedicated commitment to science was unfailing.
While studying for her master's degree on a part-time basis at the University of Chicago, Young worked as a research assistant, studying the internal structures of the paramecium that allow the creature to regulate salt concentrations. As a result of this significant research, Young published her first scientific paper, "On the Excretory Apparatus in the Paramecium", in the September 12, 1924 issue of Science. She was just 25 years old. The paper's appearance made her the first black woman to research and publish professionally in her field. 1926, Young was elected to Sigma Xi, the national honor society for the biological sciences, a distinction that is usually awarded to doctoral candidates. She earned her master's degree that same year.
Young’s first attempt at passing her qualifying exams for her doctoral work was a dismal failure due primarily it is thought to a failed relationship with her professor and the pressures she had been under due to the administrative responsibilities she had been assigned in addition to her normal workload and coursework. She eventually left the University of Chicago after being fired from her research position supposedly for misusing laboratory equipment.
Eventually Young did recover from the problems she had encountered at Chicago and re-entered a doctoral program in 1937 at the University of Pennsylvania. There she received a two-year grant from the General Education Board and borrowed money to pay for the third and final year. She completed her dissertation on "The Indirect Effects of Roentgen Rays on Certain Marine Eggs", which built upon research she had published in the Biological Bulletin in 1935. After earning her doctorate, Young took a post at the North Carolina College for Negroes (NCCN) in Raleigh as assistant professor. She soon became head of the biology department at Shaw University, which was also in Raleigh, N.C.
Throughout her ups and downs, Young struggled to make ends meet financially and to support her ailing mother. She had no other relatives to turn to for support. Despite her happiness with Shaw's atmosphere, Young remained under tremendous stress due to her financial troubles. Then in 1953, Young's mother died and mental problems, which had been developing over the years, began to plague her. She eventually entered the Mississippi State Mental Asylum for treatment and died on November 9, 1964.
To find the correct coordinates for this cache, answer the following questions and then follow the instructions using your answers.
A. In what year did Young finally earn her Ph.D.?__________
Add the last three digits of the answer to the minutes of the North coordinate.
B. How old was Young when she earned her Ph.D.? ________
Subtract the answer from the minutes of the West coordinate.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)