Professor Dame Julia Slingo is not a shadowy figure. As chief scientist at the Met Office, she is an expert on a national obsession and has barely been out of the spotlight since Britain was taken by storm. But hunt for her on Wikipedia and just five short paragraphs pop up.

"Many female scientists are either not there at all on Wikipedia or just [have] stubs," said Dame Athene Donald, fellow of the Royal Society and professor of experimental physics at Cambridge University. "It's not just the historical characters, it's the current ones, and these very eminent women just somehow get overlooked."

Now the Royal Society, in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, is throwing open its doors and encouraging enthusiastic volunteers to go on to Wikipedia and blow the trumpet for unassuming women whose contributions to science and engineering are far from modest. Taking place on 4 March ahead of the celebrations surrounding International Women's Day, the edit-athon will include a crash course in creating new entries, while assistance will be on hand as participants write, tweak and refine....