Nobel Prize Women in Science Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries

Since 1901 there have been over three hundred recipients of the Nobel Prize in the sciences. Only ten of them?about 3 percent?have been women. Why? In this updated version of Nobel Prize Women in Science, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores the reasons for this astonishing disparity by examining the lives and achievements of fifteen women scientists who either won a Nobel Prize or played a crucial role in a Nobel Prize - winning project. The book reveals the relentless discrimination these women faced both as students and as researchers. Their success was due to the fact that they were passionately in love with science. The book begins with Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics. Readers are then introduced to Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, Emmy Noether, Lise Meitner, Barbara McClintock, Chien-Shiung Wu, and Rosalind Franklin. These and other remarkable women portrayed here struggled against gender discrimination, raised families, and became political and religious leaders. They were mountain climbers, musicians, seamstresses, and gourmet cooks. Above all, they were strong, joyful women in love with discovery. Nobel Prize Women in Science is a startling and revealing look into the history of science and the critical and inspiring role that women have played in the drama of scientific progress. Table of Contents Front Matter 1 A Passion for Discovery 2 Marie Sklodowska Curie 3 Lise Meitner 4 Emmy Noether 5 Gerty Radnitz Cori 6 Irene Joliot-Curie 7 Barbara McClintock 8 Maria Goeppert Mayer 9 Rita Levi-Montalcini 10 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin 11 Chien-Shiung Wu 12 Gertrude Belle Elion 13 Rosalind Elsie Franklin 14 Rosalyn Sussman Yalow 15 Jocelyn Bell Burnell 16 Christiane Nusslein-Volhard Afterword Notes Picture Acknowledgments Index About the Author