Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists

Written by Jim Ottaviani
Illustrated by Donna Barr, Stephanie Gladden, Roberta Gregory, Mary Fleener, Ramona Fradon, Lea Hernandez, Carla Speed McNeil, Linda Medley, Marie Severin, Jen Sorensen and Anne Timmons
Published by GT Labs

Been a while since I’ve written one of these NYPL reviews. I guess it’s a semantical difference to compare an NYPL review to any other review I write for the Blog@Newsarama here, but I’m hoping that the recent slowdown of books I’ve placed on hold at the library is clearing up and I’ll have more library discoveries to share with you all.

On some level, I can’t help but feel that Ottaviani’s goal for Dignifying Science still manages to support the unfortunate ghettoization of women in science – the ladies are all lumped into the “women in science” book here. Of course, that’s merely nit-picking. The difficulty women faced being recognized for … well, everything throughout history means that men were often in the right place at the right time, with all the converging lines of scientific thought putting them in position to make many major discoveries. Fortunately, many women had the means for education and the perseverance required to positively impact our lives and world; Ottaviani’s book looks at some of the many women who thus contributed to development of scientific fields.

Figuring that if you know anything about any female scientists, Ottaviani uses the life of Marie Curie as a framing device, providing a two-page prologue and epilogue that frames the struggle for respect and recognition Curie and her peers faced. Short stories providing overviews of the contributions of Hedy Lamarr (the foundations of cell phone technology), Lise Meitner (physics and atom bomb technology), Rosalind Franklin (DNA), Barbara McClintock (gene research) and Biruté Galdikas (orangutan study). Ottaviani wisely keeps each story focused on the intelligence of the woman in spotlight, while alluding to the difficulties that each faced due to a quirk of birth. Only Hedy Lamarr, whose public life as an actress and sex symbol severely undermined her scientific curiosity, has a story that deals extensively with forces outside her realm of study.

Illustrated by some of the best female cartoonists working today, Dignifying Science is a very good looking book. Carla Speed McNeil brings her eye for detail and ability to draw drop-dead gorgeous people to Hedy Lamarr’s life. Perhaps it’s due to the quality of McNeil’s illustrations, or something in Ottaviani’s script, but probably because I’m a layperson of limited technical scientific knowledge and the story is the least scientifically detailed – regardless, I found the Lamarr chapter the most engrossing with its war backdrop and Hollywood studio pressures.

Lise Meitner’s conversations with Niels Bohr, the least focused of the installments, benefited from Jen Sorensen’s open, warm cartooning. Four cartoonists provide insight into Rosalind Franklin’s research, offering perspectives on Franklin’s research from colleagues and rivals M.F. Wilkins, Jim Watson, and Francis Crick. The diverse perspectives and Franklin’s contentious attitude made this short tale a recommended read.

The final two stories both span several decades, spotlight Barbara McClintock’s research into heredity through the study of corn and Biruté Galdikas’ long-standing field work in Africa among the orangutans. Lea Hernandez handles the former with a manga-esque charm (even if her drawings of athleticism don’t quite work!) and a strong eye to natural detail; Go Girl’s Anne Timmons provides a strong, clean line to both Galdikas and her simian subjects. Each story skims the years, providing a brief, but effective and concise, synopsis of the general work.

Destruction of (or at least ignorance of) scientific principles remains a long-standing hallmark of comics work, so it’s great to see Jim Ottaviani balancing the scales with books that examine scientific fact and give important credit to the researchers and scientists who have shaped our modern world.  Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists is just another in a long line of quality science-based comics that are valuable as resources for schools and interested readers.  Ottaviani’s books are available through GT Labs and hopefully through your local library.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Mike's Musings, News & Views, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.