Patricia Fara

Why, when girls outstrip boys in exams, are there still so few women in the top levels of science? Why have women been excluded - and is there still discrimination? Acclaimed science writer and children's author Patricia Farainvesti gates science past and present to find answers. She examines how women have struggled against unequal opportunities, and shows how they succeeded despite the obstacles stacked against them. All the renowned names are here - Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Rosalind Franklin - but Scientists Anonymous also reveals the stories of many dedicated, brilliant women who have been forgotten. Combining history, science and biography, Fara presents female explorers, mathematicians, astronomers and chemists from all over the world - including some who disguised themselves as men. And what about the future? Fara suggests that understanding women's achievements in the past will help today's schoolgirls to become tomorrow's celebrated scientists.

Pandora's Breeches explores how women of the 17th and 18th centuries engaged in scientific activity and contributed to its rapid growth. It sets out a new and compelling version of science's past. --Publisher.

"Enlightenment botany was replete with sexual symbolism - to the extent that many botanical textbooks were widely considered pornographic. Carl Linnaeus's controversial new system for classifying plants based on their sexual characteristics, as well as his use of language resonating with erotic allusions, provoked intense public debate over the morality of botanical study. And the renowned Tahitian exploits of Joseph Banks - whose trousers were reportedly stolen while he was inside the tent of Queen Oberea of Tahiti - reinforced scandalous associations with the field. Yet Linnaeus and Banks became powerful political and scientific figures who were able to promote botanical exploration alongside the exploitation of territories, peoples, and natural resources. Sex, Botany, and Empire explores the entwined destinies of these two men and how their influence served both science and imperialism."--BOOK JACKET.

In this interdisciplinary study of eighteenth-century England, Patricia Fara explores how natural philosophers constructed magnetism as a science, appropriating the skills and knowledge of experienced navigators. For people of this period, magnetic phenomena reverberated with the symbolism of occult mystery, sexual attraction, and universal sympathies; in this maritime nation, magnetic instruments such as navigational compasses heralded imperial expansion, commercial gain, and scientific progress. By analyzing such multiple associations, Fara reconstructs cultural interactions in the days just prior to the creation of disciplinary science. Not only does this illustrated book provide a kaleidoscopic view of a changing society, but it also portrays the emergence of public science.

"Newton: The Making of Genius is not a conventional biography of the man but a cultural history of the interrelated origins of modern science, the concept of genius, and the phenomenon of fame. Beginning with the eighteenth century, when the word "scientist" had not even been coined, Fara reveals how the rise of Isaac Newton's status was inextricably linked to the development of science. His very surname has acquired brand-name-like associations with science, genius, and Britishness - Apple Computers used it for an ill-fated companion to the Mac, and Margaret Thatcher has his image in her coat of arms.". "Newton's apotheosis was made possible by the consumer revolution that swept through the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century. His image adorned the walls, china, and ornamental coinage of socially aspiring British consumers seeking to identify themselves with this very smart man. Traditional impulses to saint worship were transformed into altogether new phenomena: commercialized fame and scientific genius, a secularized version of sanctity."--BOOK JACKET.

"This compact and concise book brings science to your fingertips. More than 2000 bulleted facts are accompanied by hundreds of illustrations, diagrams and photographs. An extensive index allows for easy navigation of facts"--Back cover.