Scottish geologist, paleobotanist, and social reformer

Although best known for her later work on birth control issues, Marie Stopes began her career as a geologist and pale-obotantist. Stopes advanced the classification of coal-associated macerals (microscopic organic portions of coal) through an identification system. Stopes' work on petrography (the classification of coal and other petroleum related deposits) contributed to the modern system of identification based upon color, reflecting ability, and general morphology. Stopes' was an accomplished expert on the subject of coal balls (roundish nodules composed of mineral and plant deposits).

Stopes was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to the English architect, archeologist, and geologist Henry Stopes (1852–1902) and his feminist wife, Charlotte Carmichael (1841–1929), one of the first women to attend a Scottish university. Stopes and her younger sister, Winnie, were raised in London in a curious mixture of socially progressive scientific thought...