New Scottish banknote features mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville

The Royal Bank of Scotland is to issue its first polymer £10 note to the public on 4 October this year. It is to feature images of Scottish mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville, her hometown of Burntisland in Fife, and two otters. Mary Fairfax Somerville (26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish mathematician, geographer and astronomer, who was born in 1780 in Jedburgh but her childhood home was at Burntisland in Fife. When she died in 1872, Mary Somerville was hailed by The Morning Post as "The Queen of Nineteenth-Century Science". She carried out detailed and highly-accurate studies of the solar system and jointly with Caroline Herschel, became the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society. Mary Somerville was also a major advocate of women's rights, votes for women and women in education.