July 25: In science and technology, spheres of society where women are woefully underrepresented, this day in history offers a bountiful exception. Here are the milestones:

In 1865, "James Barry," the first woman physician in modern times, compelled to disguise herself as a man in order to practice her profession, dies.

In 1920, Rosalind Franklin, the unheralded co-discoverer of DNA, is born.

In 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world's first test-tube baby, is born.

In 1984, cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space.

James Barry

Barry, whose actual identity remains unknown, was born somewhere around 1795. After finishing medical school (at the age of 13, and already in disguise), "James Barry" waited a few years before joining the British army in 1813, where "he" served with distinction in a number of colonial postings, including India, South Africa and Canada.

While in South Africa, Barry became the first doctor-surgeon in the British Empire to perform a Caesarean section in which both the mother and child survived. Prior to that, C-sections were generally performed only when the mother was dead or dying.

Barry rose to the rank of inspector general in the army, but also worked with the Royal Navy, while stationed in Malta and Corfu, to improve the harsh conditions for sailors at sea.

It wasn't until Barry died in 1865 that it was discovered at the autopsy that "he" was really a "she." Somehow, Barry had managed to conceal her actual sex (and to give birth to a child herself) for more than 40 years. She was also the first woman to receive a medical degree, although the dons had no idea they were handing their sheepskin to a woman.

The first woman to earn a medical degree when her sex was known was Elizabeth Blackwell, who received her diploma barely two months after Barry died.

Rosalind Franklin

In April 1962, three men -- James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins -- shared the Nobel Prize for their discovery a decade earlier of the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, a chemist whose X-ray diffusion photographs of DNA molecules showed their essential structure and paved the way for the trio's work, received nothing.

The extent to which Franklin was dismissed by her peers varies in the telling, although it was real enough: In his memoir, Watson wrote unflatteringly of her and downplayed her role in the discovery. Wilkins, a colleague of Franklin's who disliked her feminist attitudes, was equally critical. He'd also provided Watson, without Franklin's knowledge, with her key photograph, which showed -- for the first time -- the double-helix shape that underlies the structure of DNA. The photograph caused Watson to remark later: "The instant I saw the picture, my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race."

Crick was far more gracious, crediting Franklin with having done "the key experimental work." He also said that Franklin's early critique of their theoretical work caused them to rethink things, helping to set them on the right path.

The most recent scholarship, a 2002 biography (Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, by Brenda Maddox), paints Franklin neither as a feminist hero nor a spurned woman. Her role in helping to solve the mystery of DNA is unquestioned, and her place in science history is secure.

Unhappily, Franklin died of cancer in 1958, only 37 years old. This has been cited as the reason she was not included with the others: The Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

Louise Joy Brown

Today is Brown's 30th birthday. Brown, a British postal worker, is married and the mother of a 19-month-old boy. She is also the first person ever to be conceived by in vitro fertilization: the world's first test-tube baby.

Louise is the daughter of John and Lesley Brown, who had tried for nine years to conceive, before an infertility expert referred them to Patrick Steptoe, a gynecologist. Steptoe, working with physiologist Robert Edwards, had also been trying -- and failing -- to conceive a child since 1966. The difference, of course, is that Messrs. Steptoe and Edwards were hoping to conceive theirs in a laboratory petri dish. ("Test-tube baby" was a media invention, but as long as it's in glass, it's in vitro.)

They did succeed, however, in developing the method for fertilizing an egg outside a woman's body, which gave them hope.

Enter Lesley Brown, whose fallopian tubes were blocked, a condition that makes it impossible to become pregnant through sexual intercourse. Steptoe surgically removed an egg from one of her ovaries on Nov. 10, 1977, fertilized it in his laboratory and returned two nights later (after a dinner party for his wife's birthday) to find that the egg had evolved into an eight-cell embryo.

Steptoe implanted the embryo into Lesley Brown's uterus and hoped for the best. For nearly four years, every attempt at in vitro fertilization had failed, a fact the physicians didn't bother mentioning to the Browns during their interview. But in December, they were able to confirm that their patient was pregnant.

The most difficult part of Lesley Brown's pregnancy was dealing with the British tabloid press, which hounded the prospective mother and father unmercifully until the Browns wised up and sold the exclusive rights to their story to one of the jackals.

Louise Joy Brown was delivered by Caesarean section at 11:47 p.m. July 25. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces: small, but not exceptionally so. As Steptoe described it: "I laid her down, all pink and furious, and saw at once that she was externally perfect and beautiful."

Steptoe died when Louise was 10, but Edwards attended her wedding. She told the Daily Mail earlier this month, "It's nice to have a close relationship. He's like a granddad to me."

Svetlana Savitskaya

Cosmonaut Savitskaya carried on the socialist egalitarian tradition by becoming the first woman to walk in space. She accomplished this while serving as flight engineer aboard the Soyuz T-12 mission to the Salyut 7 space station. Her EVA, or extravehicular activity, came 19 years after cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to leave an orbiting spacecraft, and she beat American astronaut Kathryn Sullivan out the door by three months.

Comrade Savitskaya was, simply, born to be a cosmonaut. Her father was a fighter pilot during World War II, later becoming deputy commander of the Soviet Air Defense, and was twice named a Hero of the Soviet Union. Without her father's knowledge, Savitskaya, who took an avid interest in flying from childhood, learned to parachute. She made 450 jumps by her 17th birthday.

She applied to pilot school at age 16, but was rejected because of her age. At 17, after jumping from 46,750 feet and free-falling more than eight miles before deploying her chute -- a record at the time -- Savitskaya began training as a pilot. By the time she was 24, Savitskaya was licensed to fly 20 different types of aircraft, including the MiG-21, which she piloted to a speed of 1,667 mph.

Savitskaya became a cosmonaut in 1980 and was the second woman to go into space, preceded only by fellow cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Savitskaya was accompanied in her 1984 EVA by cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov. The pair performed external experiments on the Salyut station and remained outside their Soyuz capsule for more than three-and-a-half hours.

Following her return, Savitskaya was selected to command an all-female Soyuz crew for a visit to Salyut 7, in observance of National Women's Day. The mission had to be scrubbed, however, because of problems aboard the space station.

Source: Various

Get ready for the wild incongruity of elaborate costumes and vacuous, sterile hallways that is Comic-Con. At this yearly sci-fi fanfest, convention-goers must use every ounce of their mental stamina as their imaginations are simultaneously piqued and suffocated by their surroundings. In addition to the mental trials, simply attending the convention is a geek triathlon of not sitting comfortably, Mountain Dew-chugging contests and enthusiastic reenactments of nerdy movie scenes. Luckily, Wired.com is bringing all the action to the safety of your computer screen

Click through the gallery for the first scenes from this barbaric event.

Left: Matthew Kuhlman waits for the elevator at the Los Angeles Convention Center with his parents, Tennille, left, and Thomas during the first day of Comic-Con. His parents are better known to the Comic-Con community as Xyon and Zarah Koreen.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, aka Mike Lewer, 20, of Encinitas, California, wheels through the hallways of the Los Angeles Convention Center on his way to the next panel.

Jacquelyn Crinnion, 19, of San Ramon, California, dressed as Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon and Samantha Scharlach, 19, also of San Ramon, dressed as Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, take a lunch break.

Taylor Long, 16, of San Diego, right, gets some help from his father/bodyguard Byron Long (not pictured) during a break in the action. "He's roasting," said Byron Long. Comic-Con volunteer Daniel Scott, left, 21, of Camp Pendleton in California checks out who is behind the mask.

RJ Moskop has devised a clever strategy for taking in all the Comic-Con sights as he attends the Stan Lee panel.

Jeri Ann Boyd, of Beverly Hills, California, leaps into action to capture the lazy loitering of a few Star Wars characters.

Cecelia Bryant, 19, of Chula Vista, California, dressed as Holly Quinn, rides the escalator with Tommy Metropoulos, of Jamul, California, who wonders whether everyone else can see her, too.

Jibran Iqbal, 9, of San Diego, and his brother Ameer, 6, attend their first Comic-Con and slowly realize that they are the coolest people there.

With Wookies in short supply at this year's convention, this stormtrooper apprehended the next best thing.

SAN DIEGO -- Maybe they should call it Comic-Con Intergalactic.

An astonishing number of people dress up like space aliens, superheroes and videogame characters when they attend Comic-Con International, the annual pop-culture convention that draws comics and sci-fi fans from around the globe.

The elaborate costumes, many of them handmade, transform the fanboys and fangirls into their favorite pop-culture icons, at least for the day. This year's Comic-Con sold out in advance, with organizers expecting 125,000 people to cram into the San Diego Convention Center through Sunday.

Here are some of the more eye-catching costumes spotted at Comic-Con on Thursday.

Name: Demir Oral

Age: 23

Hometown: San Diego

Times at Comic-Con: Nine

Geekiest hobby: Making costumes

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
Seeing all the imagination that goes into everything.

Day job: Web designer

Dream job: Inventor

Describe your costume and how you made it:
It's something that I just made up throwing various items together.

Name: Cathy Clark

Age: 28

Hometown: Anaheim, California

Times at Comic-Con: Seven

Geekiest hobby: Attending Comic-Con!

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
I just saw The Freakazoid panel, and I'm excited to see Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Day job: Designer

Dream job: Artist

Describe your costume and how you made it:
It's Steampunk, based on an illustration that I did. I had my friend sew it for me.

Name: Amanda Raymond

Age: 29

Hometown: Santa Clarita, California

Times at Comic-Con: Four

Geekiest hobby: Costuming and watching Darkwing Duck.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
The Disney panels.

Day job: Production secretary

Dream job: Producer

Describe your costume and how you made it:
I'm Mrs. Incredible, and she can stretch! I commissioned a seamstress to make it.

Name: Zachary Lytle

Age: 21

Hometown: Chico, California

Times at Comic-Con: One

Geekiest hobby: I build combat robots. I'm actually the three-time world champion of RoboGames.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
The Transformers display.

Day job: Machinist

Dream job: Robotics engineer

Describe your costume and how you made it:
I'm Link from Zelda. All my equipment is real metal -- 80 pounds of steel, bows, arrows and a 12-pound sword.

Name: Diana Tarlson

Age: 23

Hometown: Chico, California

Times at Comic-Con: One

Geekiest hobby: Collecting Disney movies. My favorite is Sleeping Beauty.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
Tiny Toon Adventures and Freakazoid -- it's the most-anticipated new cartoon.

Day job: I work at Jo-Ann Fabrics.

Dream job: To work in a machine shop.

Describe your costume and how you made it:
I'm Kid Icarus. The two daggers that click together are what he's most known for. I sowed feather boas, cut felt and pinned up the tunic myself. I crafted the entire thing by hand.

Names: Nick Evans, Jason Sunday and Kyle Sunday (clockwise from top left)

Ages: 20, 21 and 19, respectively.

Hometowns: Orange, California; Portland, Oregon; and Ashland, Oregon

Times at Comic-Con: One

Geekiest hobby: We love Star Wars. It's at the top, but nothing is off-limits -- Jason

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
The Watchmen movie, I'm a big fan of the book -- Nick

Day job: Students

Dream jobs: Lawyer (Nick), computer technology (Jason) and chef (Kyle)

Describe your costumes and how you made them:
Cyclops, Gambit and Professor X based on the '90s classic X-Men. We just bought different pieces and put them together. I had to get my glasses on the internet. -- Nick

Name: Tom Paige

Age: 38

Hometown: Los Angeles

Times at Comic-Con: Two

Geekiest hobby: Music, especially hard-core heavy-metal comedy.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
Seeing hot chicks in spandex.

Day job: I'm a facilities manager in the motion-picture industry.

Dream job: Musician

Describe your costume and how you made it:
I'm wearing a really gay, royal blue, spandex rocker costume that is a combo of wrestling and music. I pieced it together from dance clothing.

Name: Christian Benavides

Age: 14

Hometown: Houston

Times at Comic-Con: One

Geekiest hobby: Dressing up as the Joker and making costumes.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
I want to meet Stan Lee, maybe meet someone from the Watchmen and see the Punisher panel.

Day job: Student

Dream job: Movie director

Describe your costume and how you made it:
I'm Joker dressed as a nurse from the new Batman movie. I stitched it together myself.

Name: Raymundo Benavides

Age: 25

Hometown: Houston

Times at Comic-Con: One

Geekiest hobby: Watching movie trailers.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
I want to see Stan Lee and probably Kevin Smith. He's speaking at the Scream Like a Girl contest.

Day job: Cable guy

Dream job: Movie director

Describe your costume and how you made it: I'm Tommy, the Green Ranger from the original Power Rangers. I bought the majority of it, and my girlfriend made the rest.

Name: Jonathan Corpuz

Age: 26

Hometown: San Diego

Times at Comic-Con: 15

Geekiest hobby: I'm a videogame nut. Action, RPGs, everything. I was raised on videogames.

What are you most excited about seeing at Comic-Con?
I'm a big Lost fan. Basically I want to see the entire Saturday TV slate.

Day job: Photographer

Dream job: Videogame designer

Describe your costume and how you made it:
I'm the original 8-bit Super Mario. I'm even carrying around a plunger. This is a Halloween costume from last year, and I made the star myself.