Google Doodle celebrates the birth anniversaries of greenhouse effect discoverer Eunice Newton Foote and Sudanese music trendsetter Asma Hamza

Google Doodle paid tribute to American scientist Eunice Newton Foote and Sudanese and iconic Sudanese music composer Asma Hamza on Monday, July 17, on their birth anniversary. Commemorating the 204th birth anniversary of Eunice Newton Foote, who first discovered the greenhouse effect, Google shared a special Doodle on Foote's ground-breaking discovery on the adverse effects of carbon dioxide and its role in global warming.

The search engine giant through its animated cartoons is also celebrating the life of Sudanese musician and oud player Asma Hamza, who was one of the winners of the prestigious Laylat AlQadar AlKubra song competition in 1997.

Let us take a look at the work and lives of the two great women who, with their talent and hard work, contributed to making this world a better place.

Who was Eunice Newton Foote?

Born on July 17, 1819, in Connecticut, United States, Foote studied at Troy Female Seminary, which was an educational institution that encouraged students to take part in science lectures and attend chemistry sessions. She developed a liking for science during her time at the Seminary, where she worked in scientific research and also devoted her efforts to women's rights.

Foote was the first to find out the adverse effects of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 1856, which is today known as the "greenhouse effect". She observed the temperature of outdoor air compared to various gases when heated and then matched the outdoor air to CO2 and water vapour, which heated up more and took much longer to cool down. She found that when radiation from the sun is absorbed by the Earth, some gets re-emitted as infrared radiation, and gases like CO2 absorb and reflect heat back to Earth, creating the "greenhouse effect."

After years of research, she found that the higher levels of these greenhouse gases in our atmosphere raise the Earth's temperature. However, Foote's research was largely ignored for almost 100 years, but the fact can't be denied that she was the first to raise the impact of climate change.

Who was Asma Hamza?

Born in Sudan on July 17, 1932, Asma Hamza was a musician and oud player. She won many accolades and achievements during her life, but her key achievement remains the winning of the prestigious Laylat AlQadr Al Kubra song competition in Sudan in 1997. This victory was a turning point for Hamza, as it shaped her remaining life and helped her stand out in a male-dominated society.

Although she loved singing and dreamed of becoming a singer, she moved from singing to whistling tunes. During her youth, her father borrowed an oud for her to practice. She learned the skill of playing the oud by remembering songs she had heard and by listening to music. Despite the fact that Sudanese culture did not allow women to indulge in dance and music, her father supported her passion for music from the beginning. Later, she went on to write more melodies for many skilled Arab musicians.