Super Women in Science

March 1, 2003
Gr. 6-8. From the Women's Hall of Fame series, this collective biography spotlights 10 women in the sciences. Though the discussion begins with Hypatia, who taught mathematics and astronomy in fifth-century Alexandria, most of the women worked during the twentieth century. These include biologist Rachel Carson, atomic physicists Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Chien-Shiung Wu, orangutan field observer Birute Galdikas, DNA researcher Rosalind Franklin, and astronaut Mae Jemison. Each chapter in this sturdy paperback provides a clear, accessible introduction to one woman's life and work, along with several black-and-white illustrations (usually photographs) and sidebars carrying interesting facts related to the subject. The book ends with an extensive glossary and a chapter-by-chapter source bibliography of books, articles, and Web sites. Many of the women overcame considerable obstacles to work in the sciences, but the main emphasis here is on the solid contributions they made, and rightly so.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)