Girls with Numbers. Stories, passions and dreams of five female ...

The woman in the book include: Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in the world to go into space; Jane Goodall, ethologist, considered the only human being ever accepted by a community of wild chimpanzees; Rita Levi Montalcini, who was able to continue her work despite being a victim of racial persecution, paving the way for new treatments for many diseases; Maryam Mirzakhani, the first (and only female) Iranian mathematician to win the Field Medal; the scandalous Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr, the 'most beautiful woman in the world', who developed the technology behind modern wireless networks; British chemist Rosalind Franklin, who was the first person to photograph the DNA molecule. And then, anthropologist Margaret Mead, who demonstrated how environment and culture influence our lives; Tu Youyou from China, who won the battle against malaria (and a Nobel Prize) with her medicinal herbs; Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who made key contributions to US space research and the fight for equality by demonstrating through her own work and skills how skin colour has nothing to do with scientific background. There are fifteen biographies in Ragazze con i numeri, collected with care, precision, clarity of content and narrative expression. Fifteen stories of courage, determination, victories over prejudices and struggles to make their way in a world dominated by men with tenacity, intelligence, perseverance and competence. A chapter is dedicated to each of them, introduced by a monochrome portrait sketched by Giulia Sagramola, which plays on the expedient of dialogue and thoughts imagined by the harmonious writing of Vichi De Marchi (in red) and Roberta Fulci (in blue). A timeline accompanies the text, giving the reader an overview of the historical period in which the women scientists lived: from the 17th centuryof German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian to the present time of Maryam Mirzakhani, the Iranian mathematician who passed away recently. A read suitable for both girls and boys, and for readers of all age groups. Because change and battles for gender equality have no age or gender.  

Ragazze con i numeri. Storie, passioni e sogni di cinque scienziate
By Vichi De Marchi and Roberta Fulci with illustrations by Giulia Sagramola
Editoriale Scienza, 2018