Women in Science

Very inspiring! is one way to describe “Women in Science,” an awesome new book by Rachel Ignotofsky. Reading this reminded me why I wanted to be a scientist in the first place. The excitement of discovery, defying the status quo, and the positive impact of applying scientific findings to benefit communities. Not only were these women brilliant scientists, they worked just as hard to advance social causes, and to apply their findings to the betterment of humanity.

I can’t review this book without comparing it with “Headstrong” by Rachel Swaby, whose blurb is featured on the back cover. I even thought of a use of the Venn diagram, to show the overlap in number of women chronicled in the two books. Three (Maria Mitchell, Irène Juliot-Curie, and Sally Ride) also appear in the back, among “more women in science.” A notable inclusion here is Marie Curie, a direct influence for some of the other scientists here. Another significant inclusion is some pioneers who are still living. Fortunately, there are so many more women in science now, and I hope their numbers continue to grow. Ignotofsky’s featured women helped make this possible.

I only have a few minor critiques, mostly just personal preferences on style. The pages are glossy, for fear of getting fingerprints on them, and a few sections seem almost a little cluttered, but there are lots of little related elements that make for an attentive image. The consistent format has the highlighted life story of each of these 50 women on two facing pages, several paragraphs on the right, with three-to-four factoids on either side. The left page has a central drawing of the subject, and with additional writing looping around, and pictures of the things they studied, all in a single color theme. The names in the header on the right are a little hard to read sometimes, due to multiple parallel lines, but what counts is that Ignotofsky has her own style. She is an effective communicator of science and an original artist, and I look forward to seeing more of her work.

Note: I received a free copy of this title through BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review.