How Clarice Phelps became the first Black woman to help discover a new element
At an age when most kids watched cartoons, young Clarice Phelps preferred “Beakman’s World”—a children’s series starring a zany scientist who answers viewers’ STEM-related questions. The show inspired her life ambitions and maybe some dubious home experiments.
“I loved trying to tinker with the VCR and mixing up random liquids in the kitchen. Dangerous, I know—it was a different time,” adds Phelps.