Science and Me

February 1, 2021
The creators of Peace and Me (2018) follow up with profiles of more Nobel Prize winners...these in physics, chemistry, and medicine. In the spirit of its predecessor, this gallery of 14 scientific greats mentions each one's major discoveries but really focuses on obstacles they faced and their altruistic or socially responsible achievements. Marie Curie and her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie lead off, for instance, with commendations not only for their total of three Nobels, but for their work in World War I as mobile X-ray "battlefield nurses." Similarly, instead of agreeing to help Germany make poison gas during that war, organic chemist Richard Willst�tter designed protective masks and gear. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's mathematical insight into the formation of black holes went unrecognized for decades; headlines greeting Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin's award for groundbreaking studies of molecular structures ("Housewife wins Nobel Prize") show that she had more than severe arthritis to deal with. No fewer than six of the selected winners are women; all but three are or were White. In subheads to each entry and then a final summation, Winter also invites readers to think about the value of science to them as a means of making the world a better place. A fussy design and often poor contrast between text and background can make reading some profiles a challenge. Rich material for readers seeking scientific role models who made differences both in and beyond the lab. (map) (Collective biography. 8-10)

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May 1, 2021
Grades 1-4 This eclectic collective biography of Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, and medicine is an excellent example of how a little creativity can turn a science lesson into something more memorable. It opens with a portrait of Alfred Nobel writing at his desk--an image of a feather collaged in for his quill and many other patterns for his hair, clothing, chair, and lamp, beneath which a tiny astronaut reclines. The opposing page briefly describes Nobel's life, accomplishments, and motivation for creating his five annual prizes. Thirteen profiles of winners in the sciences follow, arranged in loose chronological order, and it's an admirable mix of the usual suspects--Einstein, Fleming, the Curies--and the lesser discussed--Mario J. Molina, Tu Youyou, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Fran�oise Barr�-Sinoussi. In addition to the biographies themselves, each double-page spread features a "Science Is . . ." heading that poetically sums up the scientist's motivation before giving way to an imaginative collage illustration of its subject somehow engaged with their prize-winning work, the child astronaut at their side who is, perhaps, a future winner.

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