Out of the shadows : contributions of twentieth-century women to physics /

This collection grew out of the Web site Contributions of 20th-Century Women to Physics , founded by Byers (UCLA) in 1995. Williams (UCLA) helped solicit 40 chapters on women physicists active between 1876 and 1976. Subjects are both familiar (Marie Curie, Lise Meitner, Emmy Noether) and less well known outside the field (Mary Lucy Cartwright, Helen Dick Megaw). Authors include scholars, colleagues, and family members of the physicists. Each chapter is divided into important contributions, biography, important publications, and further reading. The distinction between contributions and biography seems artificial, but the articles are otherwise clearly written and contain details known only to the authors--several of whom are no longer living. Numerous boxes explain technical scientific concepts, such as multi-electron wave functions, crystal symmetry, and optical spectroscopy. A valuable complement to recent work for students on women in the physical sciences, such as Complexities: Women in Mathematics, ed. by Bettye Anne Case and Anne M. Leggett (CH, Sep'05, 43-0364), and Suzanne Le-May Sheffield's Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction (CH, May'05, 42-5241), this prepares readers for additional research. Still, it will be nice when scientific practice and historical scholarship no longer need emphasize women's participation as exceptions to the norm. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through faculty. A. K. Ackerberg-Hastings University of Maryland University College