Ten Women Who Changed Science and the World: Marie Curie, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Chien-Shiung Wu, Virginia Apgar, and More

by Catherine Whitlock, Rhodri Evans

With a foreword by Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics, University of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College.

Ten Women Who Changed Science tells the moving stories of the physicists, biologists, chemists, astronomers and doctors who helped to shape our world with their extraordinary breakthroughs and inventions, and outlines their remarkable achievements.

These scientists overcame significant obstacles, often simply because they were women their science and their lives were driven by personal tragedies and shaped by seismic world events. What drove these remarkable women to cure previously incurable diseases, disprove existing theories or discover new sources of energy? Some were rewarded with the Nobel Prize for their pioneering achievements - Madame Curie, twice - others were not and, even if they had, many are not household names.

Despite living during periods when the contribution of women was disregarded, if not ignored, these resilient women persevered with their research, whether creating life-saving drugs or expanding our knowledge of the cosmos. By daring to ask 'How?' and 'Why?' and persevering against the odds, each of these women, in a variety of ways, has made the world a better place.

Astronomy

Henrietta Leavitt (United States of America) (1868-1921) - discovered the period-luminosity relation(ship) for Cepheid variable stars, which enabled us to measure the size of our Galaxy and the Universe.

Physics

Lise Meitner (Austria) (1878-1968) - fled Nazi Germany in 1938, taking with her the experimental results which showed that she and Otto Hahn had split the nucleus and discovered nuclear fission.

Chien-Shiung Wu (United States of America) (1912-1997) - Chinese-American who disproved one of the most accepted 'laws of nature', that not all processes can be mirrored. She showed that the 'law of parity', the idea that a left-spinning and right-spinning sub-atomic particle would behave identically, was wrong.

Chemistry

Marie Curie (France) (1867-1934) - the only person in history to have won Nobel prizes in two different fields of science.

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (United Kingdom) (1910-1994) - British chemist who won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1964. Among the most prominent of a generation of great protein crystallographers. The field was revolutionized under her. She pioneered the X-ray study of large molecules of biochemical importance: the structures of cholesterol, penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin, leading to DNA structure analysis by Franklin etc.

Medicine

Virginia Apgar (United States of America) (1909-1974) - of Apgar Score fame.

Gertrude Elion (United States of America) (1918-1999) - won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1988 for developing some important principles for drug development.

Biology

Rita Levi-Montalicini (Italy) (1909-2012) - the so-called 'Lady of the Cells'. She won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1986 for her co-discovery in 1954 of NGF (nerve growth factor).

Elsie Widdowson (United Kingdom) (1906-2000) - a pioneer of the science of nutrition who was instrumental in devising the WW2 diet, in part through self-experimentation.

Rachel Carson (United States of America) (1907-1964) - marine biologist and author of Silent Spring who is credited with having advanced the environmental movement

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Biography, Feminism, Womens, Audiobook

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2019

Reviews

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book that looked at ten women of science. The authors primarily chose women who won the Nobel Prize, in one of the fields of science. There were a few selected that had not won the Prize but the authors felt they should have won. The authors concentrated on women of the 19th and 20th Century. Women who advanced in the 19th century were exceptional as in most countries women were not allowed to have a university education or hold jobs in the fields of science; this began to change in the 20th century.

The book was well written and researched. Some of the women they chose were obvious such as Marie Currie; but they did present some of my favorite scientists such as environmentalist, Rachael Carson, who did not win the Nobel Prize. Others of my favorites that were presented that won the Nobel Prize were Virginia Apgar, Chien-Shiung Wu and Rita Levi-Montalcini. When I was in school, these women inspired me to continue in the field of science. All these women were fascinating, brilliant women. This is primarily a collection of mini-biographies and helps reveal just how far women have advanced in education and the work-place since those days.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is ten hours and twenty-five minutes. Lisa Coleman does a good job narrating the book. Coleman is an English actress and audiobook narrator. This book was published by Hachette Publishers.

[Kiki Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book feels moderately unedited and nothing proves that more than the back cover. It has a list of the women the book covers, the country where they did their most significant work, their years of birth and death, and a few lines about their work, each under a header of their specialty. And under Astronomy, we have, and I quote, 'Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (UK/USA, 1900-1979): showed that the Sun, and hence the Universe, is comprised mainly of hydrogen.' And on the list of chapters, each named after the women--there's no Cecilia. There's Rachel Carson, an environmentalist and marine biologist. Not even the same discipline, people.

This unfortunately continues throughout the book. The paragraphs often are disjointed, skipping forwards or backwards in time, changing subjects, adding interjections that are often unnecessary or better put somewhere else. There's no breaks in the chapters either; instead of separate passages, it reads as one long essay, making the disjointed paragraphs more noticeable. Both authors are regular contributors to media, so I presume they have experience, but the way this book is formatted is messy. If you talk about someone's death and then go back to when they were alive in the next paragraph, then maybe you didn't write it correctly. Maybe I'm just being picky, but it doesn't flow.

Another issue: you do have to have some knowledge of science. My parents are both biologists, and my mother taught at the local university for a decade, and I often attended her lectures on sick days and summers. My understanding of biology is fairly low since I've never much cared about science but I remember enough to help me out, but if you didn't, some sections might be harder to understand. They do try to define terms (there's even a glossary in the back) and they clearly aren't trying to make it too difficult to follow, but some preexisting knowledge would be helpful.

Onto my much more personal pet peeves: Marie Curie and Henrietta Leavitt. The authors do talk about their choices briefly in an introduction, but I personally felt like Marie Curie was unnecessary given her fame. She's usually the first person people bring up when we talk women in science. Biographies of her are relatively easy for me to find. (My library has a few, including several aimed at children). So, for me, I would have rather had someone else (Cecilia, perhaps). As for Henrietta, it felt like much of her chapter was about other people. The implication is very little is known about her personal life, and she died relatively young (in her fifties; I think everyone else in the book lived longer). Her contributions were also obscured by the misogyny of the men she worked with/for. She deserves to be recognized, but it almost didn't feel like it was about her.

[Janice Dimock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the stories of these trailblazing women, many who I hadn’t heard of before. Science is still not a level playing field for women, so imagine what it must have been like for these 10 women. Their careers took place in the late 1880s through the 1950s (although many of them lived very long lives- continuing to contribute well into their eighties). Definitely worth a read- you will learn A LOT!!!

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a theory postulating that the world would be considerably more advanced than it is currently, had the library of Alexandria never burned and all the knowledge ensconced within its walls remained with us. Possibly so. Now imagine how far we would have come as a civilization had we not systematically oppressed 50some percent of the population based on gender biases. If women were permitted to study and work alongside men throughout times and not just as maids and babymachines. The thing is, though, that despite the oppression and double standards and myriads of obstacles, some women nevertheless persevered and thrived in their chosen fields of study, improving the world immeasurably. This book is about them. Nobel Prize winners, recognized and otherwise, there are the stories of spectacular achievements and devastating disappointments, but generally these are success stories. Because the scientific contributions made were so monumental and significant, they eclipse most all other factors. It is, essentially, immortality by any other name. You’ll notice the recurring themes in this book, the difficulties in securing proper education, the difficulties in securing proper jobs, financial support, recognition. The frequent lack of personal life (marriage/kids/etc.), although frankly that just might be a byproduct of a more evolved mind. The lack of credit given, especially in the case of Lise Meitner. To this day, women constitute a fairly small percentage of Nobel Prize winners, back in the day it was nothing short of revolutionary. So these were really interesting, poignant stories that should be told and should be known. I’m not sure I loved the manner in which they were told, which was for one thing very, very science heavy and not very personable, but nevertheless it was a very educational read. I enjoyed the historical biographies much more than all of the chemistry and physics. But all the science was well explained and reasonably assessible. The book seemed to focus more of the achievements than the achievers in a way, but not overwhelmingly so. Or I don’t know, I don’t read a lot of biographies. It’s just an overall observation. It still made for very interesting, occasionally genuinely fascinating reading. And it’s guaranteed to make you think of yourself as an underachiever, no matter how driven you are. Unless, of course, you’re a genius also. But yeah, reading about genius is very humbling indeed. Informative as it may be. Thanks Netgalley.

[Deepika Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. Anyone who is even remotely interested in the history of scientific research should read it. I learned so much from this book.

[Leah K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is pretty self-explanatory - "10 Women Who Changed Science and the World" focuses on...women who changed science and the world. Now that we have that synopsis out of the way, my opinion is that this book was a fascinating look into the discoveries and contributions of 10 brilliant women in recent history (the last 150 years). Some are well known (such as Marie Curie) while most are less known, often shadowed by the men in the field (shocker, right?). I wish the book had been longer, with more women mentioned, but I get it, it's gotta stop somewhere and then is a nice even number.

If you enjoy the world of science, history, or just reading about some kick-ass women, this is a book worth checking out.

[Rachel Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Book received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


This book is an engaging collection of mini-biographies of 10 women who made significant contributions to science. Not only does it talk about them, it also gives a lot of context for their work and situations. This means we also get a lot of information about the world at the time as well as the science they were doing and how it fits into our understanding of science today. I genuinely appreciate how deeply these mini-biographies went into the science. Most of the stories are pretty well balanced between the history, biography and scientific information. Henrietta Leavitt's section focused mainly on the works of others but a lot of that could be because there was so little information about her available. It's a good collection overall, definitely of interest to those who are interested in the actual science that these women did. 4 hoots!

[Sayantani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read on monumental success of women in science. Loved the mini biographies of those scientists that overcame all obstacles . Got really energized and inspired.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 -- Really enjoyed this micro-history, but the writing was a bit dryer than I often enjoy.

[January Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It teaches us A LOT more about these women than what we learned in school. A very informative book that is easy to read.

[Patsye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent summaries about interesting, hard-working, and under-publicized women of science. Amazingly, I was familiar with only two, Rachel Carson and Marie Curie, even though I taught science for 25 years. That is a failure both of my own education and my mentoring of young women. I SHOULD have known about these women. Carson and Curie made huge contributions to the fields of ecology and chemistry, of course. Virginia Apgar was a pioneering doctor who invented a way of quickly assessing a newborn baby’s condition and allowing aid to be given when necessary. i was familiar with the Apgar scale, but not the author of it. Gertrude Elion is a Nobel Prize winning chemist who developed life saving medicines. Dorothy Hodgkin was the first and only British woman to receive a Nobel prize in science, in the field of x-ray crystallography. Henrietta Leavitt was an astronomer who developed a way to compare the magnitude of stars, as well as a method of determining extragalactic distances. Rita Levi-Montalcini received the Nobel for discovering nerve growth factor, the first HGF to be discovered. Lise Meitner was the first to discover that the nucleus of a uranium atom could be split in two, releasing enormous amounts of energy. This discovery led of course to the development of the atomic bomb. Elsie Widdowson was a pioneer in the science of nutrition. She helped develop the Second World War ration diet, keeping Britains healthy even with the dearth of food. She is probably the reason that we eat enriched bread today! Chien-Shiung Wu was a Chinese-American who should have won a Nobel for her work that disproved the law of parity in Physics. Each of these women achieved wonderful contributions to science despite many obstacles to their work. They were disparaged, discredited, discriminated against, and unrecognized in their time, but all persevered to accomplish amazing things. I am so very glad I read this book! It should be in every school library and every science teacher's personal library!

Thanks to Netgalley and Diversion Books for an ARC in exchange for a fair review.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sure, everybody knows about Marie Curie. But how about Rita Levi-Montalicini? Virginia Apgar? Chien-Shiung Wu?

This book showcases a number of remarkable women who changed science and the world, as the title says. Most of them were most productive in the first half of the 20th century. At that time, it took fortitude and resilience to achieve great things, and often not receiving the credit (hello, Henrietta Leavitt, who discovered how to measure distance to the stars). Some, like Lise Meitner, were victims of political disinformation.

These descriptions dwell on the technical aspects of their achievements, rather than their personal lives. What struck me was how many of these women never married, since that would have ended their careers that they loved so much. Any personal relationships they may have had seem to be beyond the scope of this book.

A few quibbles: Careful proofreading would have eliminated some goofs, such as referring to an image of the periodic table on page XX. Also, I would have liked to see Rosalind Franklin's role in the discovery of the nature of DNA highlighted, but I guess the authors had to make some tough choices of who to include or leave out.

[Mangelethe Sneha Menon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women are equal to Men in everything.
That's not a statement but a fact.

10 Women Who Changed Science and the World brings us the stories of 10 remarkable women who have bought changes to the world of science and in our lives. Be it Virginia Apgar whose Baby Survival Test reduced the mortality rate of infants or Rachel Carson as a biologist, conservationist and a writer raised awareness about the wildlife and harmful effects of DDT. Gertrude Elion's research into drug design paved the way for the future; Dorothy Hodgkin is a pioneer of X-ray Crystallography who revealed to the world the molecular structure of Penicillin, B12 Vitamins and Insulin which helped design therapeutic medicines. Henrietta Leavitt developed a method to measure extra-galactic distances crucial to the understanding that the universe was expanding.

The accounts of women in this book remind us of all obstacles women had to go through to put us where we are. If Marie Curie were a Man, would she had been treated the same way for a personal digression? Would the Nobel Committee treat Men the way they treated women? Would a leading newspaper quote a man as just a householder?
Our world is an unfair place and if you are a woman things get extra biased but that doesn't mean it has to be so, women have worked their way to equality, this book highlights how we are equal to any man.

[Lesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book highlighted the strength, ingenuity, perseverance and intelligence of ten phenomenal female scientists so I applaud the premise of the book. However, the technical descriptions of the scientific work of these women was much too detailed and protracted for my liking. I got lost in the descriptions and the occasional diagrams of the scientific work - lost meaning it was over my head and not enjoyable for me to read. I was not looking to learn about these scientific discoveries at the level presented in the book - like being back in high school or college chemistry class. Perhaps this book was meant for a different audience than for someone just looking to read an interesting book about women scientists. I'm guessing that others with more scientific knowledge would find this book more appealing than I did.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable audiobook, although the scientists profiled were all Western Europe or American, and all from fairly recent history.

I hadn't heard of most of these women, so it was a good starter bio. I was pleased that Marie Curie's chapter had different information than in other things I've read (The Feminist Tour, Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout, etc.). Maybe more enjoyable for people who know more about chemistry than I do.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about these women yet I do wish there had been some more representation of the BIPOC women who also made an impact. I do not know enough about this world, hence my interest in this book, to understand why the focus appears to be on women from the US, UK, and western Europe.

I found myself skimming as these chapters seemed to speak for the feelings of these women but, what was the source material for that? I appreciated the direct quotes through interviews, letters, and writing but there still seems to be quite a bit much of it. Which felt fabricated in an attempt I suppose to create interest? That seemed unnecessary. It is worth knowing about their lives of course but attributing feeling words for someone else read a bit odd to me.

[Brian Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title of the book clearly self proclaims, this is a book that introduces the reader to ten women who have made significant contributions to science, often with little or no recognition in their lifetime.
It is well researched, with all the important and relevant backgrounds, together with the social expectations, obstacles and limitations that each of our women experienced.
It is a sobering reminder that equality of opportunity and advancement ( for women ) is a relatively recent event, yet, even today there are at times significant barriers in place to a greater or lesser degree.
A thoroughly good read, interesting and educational.

[Edward Silverman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. Even people I thought I knew a lot about, like Marie Curie, had things in this book that were new for me. I particularly enjoyed the story of Gertrude Elion and her huge impact on pharmaceutical development. I should have known more about her and I am glad her story was highlighted. Apgar as well, and so many women who had had recognition stolen or who had to avoid Nazis. Or both. The book doesn’t read as dry biography and the stories will suck you in. The individual chapters are perfect before bedtime reading.

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

As it says in this book we have a mini biography of 10 women that had changed science and in the majority of the cases they did not had the recognition that they deserve. I already listen about two of them and was very happy to learn about the others, I think that we should continue to explore more and more the biographies of these women, so when the new generations try to study science they will have persons to look forward and hopefully get the deserved recognition.

[Courtney Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it interesting that there are many contributions from women in science, but I had only heard of Marie Curie. I enjoyed reading about these 10 women, their lives and the impact their discoveries made on the world. I wonder how much further along humans would be (in many realms) if women had been allowed to work, discover and contribute to the world of science sooner than they were, just over a hundred years ago.

[Reix · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book. I don't know whom of them is my favourite one, but maybe I felt closer to Rachel Carson.
If the secret of longevity of Gertrude Elion were right, I could be immortal (sleeping is overrated in her opinion)🤣
I think the authors have made a good selection of women and, something that I consider very important, is that they have tried to dedicate a similar amount of pages to each of them.

[Nichola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some women I knew, some I knew a little, some I hadn't heard of. All were engaging stories about how they seemed to just keep going and make important and useful contributions to science and our world. There was a little bit about their youth and childhood, some about how they made family and career decisions, lots about the actual science and how it progressed and made a difference in the world, and some about their recognition and ongoing influence.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot about these 10 women that I certainly didn't know before: stories about their 10 lives no one understood before. I'm glad I decided to read it, but the science was often beyond my understanding. Courageous and fierce women of science who didn't always receive the recognition of their colleagues they deserved. That doesn't change the fact that we're all living better lives as a result of these women's contributions.

[Adam Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book. Learned a ton about women in science who have had major impact, only two of whom I knew anything about.

Strongly recommended reading for young adult women but any interested in science or discovery would enjoy.

The book breaks up into one chapter per woman so if one story doesn't click for you, it's easy to skip to another scientist.

[Autumn Kearney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a pretty good book. It lacks any in-indepth details of their scientific discoveries or daily grind at work. The author gives decent overviews of their lives. I like books that are more scholarly, especially when it comes to science. This book has been dumbed down for greater accessibility to the general public.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief overview of ten women in science. Interesting, but sometimes I wished less time would be spent trying to paraphrase complicated sciences and more time would be spent on the inner workings of the women themselves.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten quick bios of ten women of science.
I enjoyed this book but it's really a "Young Adult" book, wasn't really for me.
The story of Virginia Apgar, who did a lot more than develop the infant evaluation with her name, was particularly illuminating.

[Sharon Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found these amazing womens stories so interesting but, the subject matter is not a quick read. I think the writer tried very hard to explain things as simply as possible, but some of it was way over my head. I'm really glad I read it though.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed learning about these influential women, some I had never heard about. The book tells about the upbringing of each woman and the significant contributions they made. Discusses their family life, education and what they went through in their professional lives.

[Tiffany Johnstone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating read, It is so important to learn about women in the science field, Virginia Apgar is very very interesting. As well as of course Marie Curie. Often these women are compelled to change society when they feel there is an injustice. fabulous read.