Day 14 - Dr. Betty Wright Harris - Environmentalist, Explosives Expert, Girl Scout, and All Around Bad Ass Chemist

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You are watching an intense movie in the theatre. There is a bomb somewhere in the city, and nobody knows who planted it or where it is.

Some gorgeous actress who is the child/spouse/sister/lover or whatever of some actor that radiates mature father figure, public servant out of every pore is demanding that the police/government agency/rogue agent "I can find you" character locate the actress and the bomb in time.

You Know, Like Liam Neeson

The handsome, incredibly cut, neatly coiffed government agent or possibly the handsomely disheveled, sarcastic detective happens to pick up someone who looks suspicious.

His instincts are telling him something is wrong with this odd suspect. THEN...

Well, that is where Dr. Betty Wright Harris enters the scene.

Not literally, but she is there. Let me explain.

Betty Wright was born in 1940 in Louisiana by the Ouachita River. She was the seventh child out of a family of eleven kids. Her father was a tenant farmer who eventually earned enough to buy his own land. Her mother was an educator.

Betty was raised with a very strong work ethic and a firm belief that education is one of the most important things in the world.

She graduated from high school at sixteen and achieved her first degree at nineteen. She got her BS in Chemistry with a Minor in Mathematics from Southern University.

Then, because this life long learner needed more learning, she got a Master's degree in Chemistry from Atlanta University in Georgia. 

Giving back to the community was equally important in her life. Betty Wright Harris spent a decade teaching Chemistry at the college level.

Eventually, she needed to spend more time learning. She went to work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Her interest was caught by using chemistry to clean up industrial sites, nuclear disasters, and trying to figure out how to restore the environment.

Well, if you are going to go into a field where more research is needed, there is only one reasonable path. Learn some more so you can come at it with more knowledge. Time for a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of New Mexico.

When she'd learned all they could teach her, Dr. Harris started pioneering some science.

She is a badass chemist who has spent her life working to clean up the planet, recruit more women and minorities into the world of science, and has generally made the world a safer, cleaner place.

She designed the Girl Scout Badge in Chemistry. Of course she did.






Wait, I've forgotten something. Oh yes, back to the opening. What does Dr. Betty Wright Harris have to do with our culprit who has been collared, but has a deeper secret that he has not divulged?

Well, in the early 1980s, while becoming an internationally recognized expert in chemical explosives, Dr. Harris discovered that there was a way to detect the merest traces of a certain type of compound used in explosives on the ground, people, and clothing. It is called the TATB Spot Test. She patented it in 1984.

Dr. Wright's test can check for the presence of chemicals used in making nitroaromatic explosives.

Nitroaromatic explosives - like TNT - are extremely bad for the body. They are incredibly stable, need an igniter, and once they've exploded, they can be absorbed into your skin. They cause all sorts of health problems.

"Nitroaromatic compounds are hazardous to human health and are registered on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of priority pollutants for environmental remediation. Although the majority of these compounds are synthetic in nature, microorganisms in contaminated environments have rapidly adapted to their presence by evolving new biodegradation pathways that take advantage of them as sources of carbon, nitrogen, and energy." 

The TATB test can be used when the military or a commercial enterprise is called in to clean up a contaminated site. This test will let the organization know if there is a nitroaromatic compound present. This knowledge has saved many lives.

It can also detect nitroaromatics on someone if they have been handling them.

Back to our movie!

Our hunky police officer tests the culprit with a simple test that is done by running a piece of reactive paper over the suspect's hands discovers that he has been handling explosives and the movie builds to a climax as various characters are enjoined to find the bomb and the beautiful actress before everything goes up in smoke!

Dr. Betty Wright Harris

The movie? Far fetched.


The reality? Cleaning up contaminated sites, spot checks at airports or any other place there is a need to make sure someone hasn't been in contact with specific, dangerous explosives is a real application of this technology.

Thank you, Dr. Harris, for helping us clean up our messes, giving the Girl Soucts a cool badge, inspiring a generation of women and minorities to go into the sciences, and keeping those who have to go after the worst contamination on the planet as safe as they can possibly be!

Celebrate Black History!