Jane Goodall on how her looks helped her career: ‘It didn’t harm either that I wasn’t born ugly’

 Jane Goodall wasn’t your typical scientist when she first started out in her career — and not just because she was one of the few women in her field.

Back in 1960, when she was 26 years old, Goodall traveled from England to Gombe in Tanzania to learn about wild chimpanzees, human’s closest living relatives. Rather than observing the animals from afar, Goodall immersed herself in their world. This led her to making several groundbreaking discoveries including the fact that, like humans, chimpanzees make and use tools, fashioning and using sticks to “fish” for termites. Until then, it was assumed that tool use was what separated humans from every other animal.