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Book Reviews on...

The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike
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The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science

by Kate Zernike

Recommendations from our site

“This book is about the life and work of Nancy Hopkins, who is a molecular biology professor in the United States. It focuses on the discrimination that she went through as a young woman scientist in the 1960s and 70s in the United States. It’s specifically focused on MIT/Harvard, because that’s where she did most of her work. This book really struck me on a personal level, reading it and learning about the struggles of women in science…It was really a book that I didn’t want to put down. It’s a very exciting, easy read. It’s written in a very elegant way. There are personal accounts, there are historical aspects and also different scientific aspects all interwoven throughout the chapters…The end is quite topical. The last chapter mentions Katalin Karikó, who is the Hungarian-American scientist whose work on messenger RNA helped pave the way for the COVID-19 vaccine. She worked for years in research institutes in America. She didn’t get tenure, she got fired, she didn’t get equal treatment with men, but she continued to preserve. She now is a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.” Read more...

The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize

Rebecca Henry, Scientist

Our most recommended books

  • On Liberty
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    War and Peace
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    by George Orwell

  • Frankenstein (Book)
    by Mary Shelley

  • The Confessions
    by Augustine (translated by Maria Boulding)

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