When COVID-19 began to spread globally and stay-at-home orders were issued broadly, many were quick to point out that Sir Isaac Newton was his most productive when forced to stay home during London's Great Plague of 1665. This commentary was almost immediately followed by the observation obvious to any scientist mother: Isaac Newton didn't have caregiving responsibilities. The pandemic is bringing to light many challenges that people have long worked to address. We are members of 500 Women Scientists, working to build a more inclusive scientific community and highlighting the unique challenges faced by women in scientific disciplines. It is clear to us that workplace policies and culture can undermine women's success in STEM fields. The ''mom penalty,'' for example, is all too familiar to many of us. Now, the global COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing necessary to address it have compounded our concerns about women’s success in scientific disciplines, worsening nearly every disadvantage that women already face.

Sunday, 11 February, was the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To mark the day, the female scientists from around the world have been asked to reflect on their experiences and offer their advice. The responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Necessity isn't the only mother of invention. Though it wasn't always easy to get patents or the credit they deserved, women are responsible for many items we use today. America got a brand new paper bag when cotton mill worker Margaret Knight invented a machine to make them with a flat square bottom in 1868. (Paper bags originally looked more like envelopes.) A man named Charles Annan saw her design and tried to patent the idea first. Knight filed a lawsuit and won the patent fair and square in 1871.

Science is often considered a male-dominated field. In fact, according to United Nations data, less than 30% of scientific researchers worldwide are women. Studies have shown that women are discouraged from, or become less interested in, entering the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) beginning at a young age. And according to the Pew Research Center, women remain underrepresented in engineering, computer science and physical science. But despite challenges of gender discrimination and lack of recognition in the scientific community, countless inspiring women in these fields have made historic contributions to science and helped advance understanding of the world around us. Many were not recognized in their own lifetimes, but their achievements have helped generations of female scientists to come. We all learned about Marie Curie and Jane Goodall, but here are 10 more women in science you should know.

Read the collection of interviews, profiles, and career snapshots of women in the molecular sciences C&EN has compiled.

Meet the women working relentlessly to save humanity from the dark side of AI. We live in very challenging times. The pervasiveness of bias in AI algorithms and autonomous ''killer'' robots looming on the horizon, all of which necessitate an open discussion and immediate action to address the perils of unchecked AI. The decisions we make today will determine the fate of future generations.

When NASA announced its newest class of astronaut candidates, it included five inspiring women! NASA received a record-breaking number of applicants for this astronaut class - over 18,000 in all - and the class itself has twelve members, their largest since the year 2000. ''These women and men deserve our enthusiastic congratulations,'' said retired astronaut and Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa. ''Children all across the United States right now dream of being in their shoes someday. We here at NASA are excited to welcome them to the team and look forward to working with them to inspire the next generation of explorers.'' The astronaut candidates have two years of training in front of them before they're ready to break Eart's atmosphere, but in the meantime, space-loving Mighty Girls have five new role models to look up to! In this blog post, we introduce you to these five remarkably talented women. And, to inspire children who dream of their own careers in space, at the end of the post, we've showcased a variety of girl-empowering books and toys about shooting for the stars!

Inspired by the re-telling of her sorority sister's engineering success in the now classic film ''Hidden Figures'', a Virginia woman named Gladys West is coming forward with her hidden history and involvement in created a technology most of us use everyday - GPS. As it turns out, like her sorority sister, West is also an important forgotten figure of technological advancement in the U.S. before and during the Civil Rights movement. This time, its West's work on the modern day GPS system during her 42-year career at the Navy base in Dahlgren where her work was essential to her team which developed the Global Positioning System in the 1950s and 1960s.

After a fulfilling career as a college biology professor, Sally G. Hiskins was retiring. ''What will you miss most?'' a colleague asked. Her answer was something that, 30 years ago, she would never have expected herself to say: ''I will miss the creativity of teaching.'' When she was a new faculty member, she considered teaching a necessary evil that took me away from the lab bench. She wanted to focus on research, guiding graduate students in what she hoped would be groundbreaking studies on nerve growth. She believed imagination lived not in the classroom, but in the laboratory - to be used for inventing techniques, designing experiments, and interpreting data. But when her life took an unexpected turn, she realized how wrong she has been.

From Mexican immigrant to MIT, from Girl Power in Latin America to robotics entrepreneurs in Africa and India, the 2019 annual ''women in robotics you need to know about'' list is here! Robohub has featured 150 women so far, from 2013 to 2018, and this time they are not stopping at 25. They are featuring 30 inspiring #womeninrobotics because robotics is growing and there are many new stories to be told.