Unless indicated otherwise, these book reviews have been written by Margaret Reilly

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. Barbara Goldsmith. Atlas Books, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2005. Hardcover, 256 pp, $23.95. ISBN 0-393-05137-4

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first woman to receive a degree in physics from the Sorbonne. She was 36 years old, the mother of a young daughter, and had just completed her doctoral dissertation. All this was accomplished in an era when women were considered incapable of being productive scientists: neither their physical nor mental capacities were considered able to support this. Very few women pursued advanced degrees in any discipline. Women rarely had any life of their own beyond household duties and childrearing. Yet Marie Curie became an outstanding woman scientist. Author Barbara Goldsmith, with access to extensive archival material and conversations with Marie's daughter Eve Curie Labouisse and granddaughter Hélène Langevin-Joliot, tells the story of this remarkable woman.

Marya Salomee Sklowdowski was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, the fifth child and fourth daughter of Wladyslaw and Bronislava Sklowdowski. Her parents, though well-educated, were limited in the positions open to them in the Russian-occupied region of Poland. When Marya was four years old, Bronislava was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Wladyslaw oversaw the care of their children, crafting their lives "into periods of study and exercise." Marya was seven years old when her beloved twelve-year-old sister Zosia died with typhus. Seriously ill, their mother watched from home as Marya, stunned with sadness, walked in the funeral procession. Within a few years, Bronislava also was dead. Over-whelmed with grief, Marya mourned in private and devoted herself to her studies. At age fifteen, she graduated first in her class from a very demanding Russian gymnasium, the European counterpart of high school.

The years of effort to excel in her studies, to suppress her feelings of hatred for the injustices the Russians perpetrated on the Polish people, and to hide her grief at the loss of her sister and mother, left Marya in a severe depression, one of many such episodes that would occur throughout her lifetime. She isolated herself in her room, spoke to no one, and ate little. She was sent to stay with relatives in the country, where she enjoyed the "happiest, most perfect year of her life." She read for pleasure, took long walks, and played with her cousins.

When Marya returned to Warsaw, there was no money to support the advanced education that she and her sister Bronya both desired. Bronya aspired to be a physician and Marya to be a scientist or "something ... of importance to the world." All of their father's meager resources were paying for his only son's medical education. Marya offered to work as a governess and send money to her sister to study medicine in Paris. When Bronya achieved her degree, she brought Marya to Paris in November of 1891 to enter the School of Sciences at the Sorbonne.

Marya registered as "Marie," the French equivalent of her Polish name, and again became obsessed with learning.

Goldsmith sets the scene for Marie's life as a scientist, noting the many prominent scientists of that era. Wilhelm Röntgen had discovered X-rays. J. J. Thompson in England was studying subatomic particles, and Ernest Rutherford observed that radiation contained two different kinds of rays, which he named alpha and beta rays. Henri Becquerel, who would share the Nobel with the Curies, had described spontaneous radiation emitted from uranium ("uranic" or Becquerel rays). The Curie brothers, Jacques and Pierre, had discovered piezoelectricity. Among Marie's professors at the Sorbonne were mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré and physicist Gabriel Lippmann, who would become her mentor.

Marie and Pierre Curie were drawn to each other by their mutual scientific interests, although neither had thoughts of marriage initially. Marie had vowed to never again become romantically involved: an earlier failed relationship had left her humiliated and heartbroken. Pierre considered women to be a distraction from "important work." Yet he soon recognized Marie's profound intellectual abilities, and persuaded her to marry.

For her dissertation, Marie chose to study Becquerel's "uranic rays." She developed a method to measure these rays, and also discovered two elements (polonium and radium) which have greater radioactivity than uranium. In 1903, Marie and Pierre shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Becquerel. The Nobel committee planned to award this prize to only Pierre and Becquerel. When Pierre learned of this, he informed the committee that he would not accept the prize if Marie were not included. At the ceremony, Pierre was referred to as "Professor Curie," and Marie as "Madame Curie," although she had completed her doctoral degree and was also "Professor Curie." The Curies did not attend the program: Marie again was suffering a severe depressive episode induced by a miscarriage and the death of her father. At a later date, Pierre alone was invited to give the acceptance address, in which he praised Marie and her accomplishments. Pierre was seated on the dais, Marie in the audience.

The extensive attention given to the Curies after the Nobel award took much time away from their research. Pierre, in declining health, wanted to accomplish as much work as possible. Marie was devastated when he died in a traffic accident in 1906. She stoically accepted the teaching position which had been established for Pierre, and became the first woman to be named a full professor at the Sorbonne.

Marie won a second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in chemistry for her work with polonium and radium. However, she was asked to not appear at the award be-cause she had been involved in a scandalous affair with French physicist Paul Langevin. Marie replied that "there is no connection between my scientific work and the facts of private life." She attended the ceremony, and in her acceptance address she acknowledged others who had studied radioactivity but noted that she alone had isolated the pure salt of radium.

As a result of this affair, Marie was asked to leave France. No such action was requested of Langvin. Once again, Marie encountered gender-based double standards. She refused to leave Paris, but descended into a deep depression. Just as she was recovering, Germany invaded France. During the war, Marie recognized the value of diagnostic X-ray for treating wounded soldiers. She established mobile X-ray units ("Les Petites Curie"), some of which she herself drove to front line hospitals.

After the war, Marie continued re-search at the Curie Institute which had been established for her in Paris. Her daughter Irène became her laboratory assistant in their quest for practical uses for radiation.

This book is a wonderful tribute to a woman who did not let gender bias keep her from pursuing her dreams. Goldsmith looks back into history to bring Marie Curie's story to life.

Radiation and Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream. Alan E. Waltar. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2004. Hardcover, 336 pp, $28.00. ISBN 1-59102-250-9

Alan Waltar, in his book Radiation and Modern Life, tells of the multitude of uses for radiation technology that have fulfilled this dream of Marie's. He begins by defining radiation and describing its varied characteristics that make it suitable for a variety of uses in "modern life." For example, the well-known technologies of X-rays, radiation therapy for malignancies, and the whole "alphabet soup" of CAT, PET, MRI, and SPECT scans in the field of medicine. Gamma radiation is used to sterilize medical equipment, and radioactive tracers are used to measure cardiac function. Radiation technology in the form of nuclear power plants produce electricity in a more environmentally friendly manner than burning fossil fuels. Radioisotopes monitor water flow in rivers and underground aquifers. Airport runway lights utilizing radioactive isotopes are independent of electricity and continue to glow despite power failures.

After chronicling the many applications of Marie Curie's research, Radiation and Modern Life closes with a "Glimpse into the Future," speculating on possible further uses for this technology. A glossary and tables of radioisotopes conclude this excellent book which explains radiation and its applications in a manner easily understood by all readers.

This book is a wonderful tribute to a woman who did not let gender bias keep her from pursuing her dreams. Waltar updates the vast contemporary influence that Marie's work continues to exert.

Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders and Others. Larry G. Eggleston. McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2003. Hardcover, 222 pages, $35.00, ISBN 0-7864-1493-6.

Women played many roles during the American Civil War. Disguised as men, many concealed their gender and served as soldiers in battle. Others volunteered as nurses and physicians. Some were spies. "Daughters of the regiment" carried flags into battle. Author Eggleston, in Women in the Civil War, relates the stories of many of these remarkable women.

One is Jennie Hodgers, born in Ireland and living in Illinois at the outbreak of the war. Under an assumed male name, she enlisted in 1862 in the Illinois Volunteer Army and participated in many battles, including the Siege of Vicksburg. When she became ill with chronic diarrhea, she persuaded doctors to treat her as an outpatient so that her gender would not be discovered. After her recovery, she returned to her regiment and fought in several more major conflicts. She served until the end of the war, claiming the longest service of any woman soldier in the Civil War.

When she returned to civilian life, she held a variety of men's jobs and was granted a man's pension for her war years. Although her gender was eventually discovered, she was granted full military honors at her death.

Elizabeth Van Leew organized a complex widespread spy ring that infiltrated even the home of Jefferson Davis. The daughter of a wealthy Richmond, Virginia, family, she was an ardent critic of slavery. After her father's death, she freed all of her family's slaves. She did not agree with her home state's intent to secede from the Union. She volunteered to assist Union prisoners incarcerated in Richmond, supplying them with food, medicine, and books. From these prisoners, and from Confederate officers and government officials who visited her home, Van Leew learned valuable information that she conveyed to the Union army. She would send messages torn into pieces, each piece carried by a different messenger, sometimes in hollowed-out shoe soles. A former slave who had remained in the Van Leew household gained employment as a maid at the home of Jefferson Davis, and there gathered information that she committed to memory and verbally passed along to the bakery delivery man.

Ah, Those Irish Colleens! Heroic Women of Ireland. Helen Walsh Folsom. Cumberland House, Nashville, TN, 2003. Paperback, 295 pages, $16.95, ISBN 1-58182-355-X.

Irish history also has many remarkable women, several of whom come to life in the pages of Ah, Those Irish Colleens! Born in 453, Saint Bridget (also spelled Brigid) was the daughter of a prince and his bondswoman. From an early age, she was distressed at how hard her mother worked, for little compensation, and at the starving children and elderly in the village. She delighted in her assigned farm work, but never lost her desire to help the poor and oppressed. She gained freedom for her mother and herself, then went to live with her father, where she proceeded to give many of his valuable possessions to the poor. She rebuffed her father's attempts to "find her a husband," and in 470 was professed a nun and spent the remainder of her life caring for the poor. She established the cathedral at Kildare, and built many monasteries and schools. She is the Patroness of modern Ireland.
Jane Francesca Elgee was deeply concerned about the poverty and oppression of the Irish people in the 19th century. Under the pen name "Speranza," she wrote for the revolutionary newspaper The Nation. When the paper's editor, Charles Gavan Duffy, was on trial for many of the "traitorous words" in the paper, Elgee interrupted the courtroom proceedings to claim authorship of the articles in question. The trial disintegrated and neither Duffy nor Elgee was imprisoned. Elgee then turned her talents to writing about Irish folklore and translating European literary classics. She married Sir William Wilde, a physician knighted by Queen Victoria. Their son was the noted Irish author, Oscar Wilde.

Women of Space: Cool Careers on the Final Frontier. Laura S. Woodmansee. Apogee Books (Collector's Guide Publishing), Burlington, Ontario, Canada, 2003. Paperback, 208 pages, $22.95, ISBN 1-894959-03-5.

Women of Space highlights the variety of career options related to space exploration. Brief biographies of more than one hundred remarkable women, with job titles ranging from artist to astronaut, are presented. For example, Lucy McFadden manages education and public outreach for NASA's "Deep Impact" study of the composition of comets and is working on a mission to investigate the largest asteroids, Vesta and Ceres. She holds a doctorate in geology and geophysics. Kendra Perkins is a Government Affairs Specialist at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she coordinates cooperation between space programs and the government. Her early interest in space was enhanced by the Challenger accident in 1986, which she witnessed on television when she was in the fifth grade.

Marlene Grenon and Joan Saary are young medical doctors pursuing interests related to space exploration. Dr. Grenon's area is the effect of microgravity on the cardiovascular system. Dr. Saary's specialty is occupational medicine: the health of workers as individuals and as groups. She explains that this includes workers in space exploration, who "are like many other workers - they are generally healthy people doing their job in an extreme environment." Educators teach in schools and museums about space exploration. Artists prepare a variety of media to explain technological advances to the general public.

Women of Space includes a brief history of women in space and of major events in space exploration; advice for those with an interest in space careers; a list of resources including websites for further information regarding space exploration; and a CD containing interviews, documents, and a video. This book closes with a moving tribute to Kalpana Chawla, who lost her life when the Columbia spacecraft disintegrated upon reentry to Earth's atmosphere in February of 2003. Chawla knew the risks of space flight but believed in its importance in advancing knowledge of the universe. Several photos show a beautiful young woman with a radiant smile - a truly remarkable woman.

These books are of interest to many persons, including students of women's history, American history, or Irish history. Women seeking career guidance may find Women of Space to be especially useful. And readers who simply enjoy learning of the accomplishments of women will find each of these books immensely rewarding.

Book Review by Sandra Ceraulo

Unstuck: A Tool for Yourself, Your Team, and Your World. Keith Yamashita and Sandra Spataro. Penguin Books, 2004. Hardcover, 179 pp., $19.95, ISBN 1591840376.

If you're working hard and getting no-where, then Unstuck may be the book for you. Geared mainly toward teams of workers but applicable to individuals, Unstuck is a quick read that helps people think out-of-the-box when their progress is stalled. Its ideas can be applied to scientists stuck on a research project just as it can be applied to managers and businesspeople.

Written by Keith Yamashita, a San Francisco consultant who works with corporations undergoing large-scale strategic change, and Sandra Spataro, an Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Management who previously worked at the Oracle Corporation, the book seeks to encourage creative thinking in those who are just plain stuck.

The book grew out of popular lectures Spataro asked Yamashita to give in her course at Yale. Casual language and a humorous tone characterize Unstuck and help nudge its readers toward creativity. For example, the book includes an eight-question quiz to help readers assess just how stuck they are. One question is "Do you have a clear inspiring purpose?" with possible answers of Yes, No, and Hmm …. Unstuck also has a colorful and crisp graphic design in orange, green, black and white and numerous diagrams that can help inspire creativity, too.

According to Yamashita and Spataro, getting unstuck involves three simple steps that are also the three main sections of the book. They are admitting that you're stuck, diagnosing why you're stuck, and getting unstuck. Being stuck or out of balance occurs when the system of people, rewards, culture, strategy and processes do not revolve around a common purpose. By evaluating the balance of their work systems, people can recognize when they are stuck. Scientists could be lacking rewards in the form of valid data or they could be immersed in a scientific subculture that isn't conducive to creativity.

Diagnosing why they're stuck involves identifying which of the "serious seven" problems the organization or individual has. These are feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, directionless, hopeless, battle-torn, worthless, and alone. That's an excellent seven-word summary of emotional states that can stall progress.

Getting unstuck is the fun part according to Yamashita and Spataro, and they offer numerous ways to do it. These include getting ideas across to the world, writing down your ideas, going to the "unofficial" power or influential people and bringing in new "brainiacs." Other ways of getting unstuck involve praising and respecting team members, making the brand reflect the team's purpose, and embracing and befriending an enemy of the team. Unstuck suggests that new blood brings new ideas but that old members of the team must be respected, too.

Along with its advice, Unstuck gives mini case studies of how major corporations such as PBS, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, and the Gap got stuck and then unstuck. For example, according to Unstuck, PBS overcame feeling directionless in 2000 by holding a summit and inviting famous and experienced names such as Sally Field, Robert Redford, Jason Alexander and Charlie Rose. The 70-member crew searched for new directions to follow the esteemed past of PBS, and then pledged as ambassadors for PBS after the summit.

For another example, Unstuck describes how Hewlett-Packard (HP) was stuck in the 1990's because they were "competing in so many different markets." In 2001, HP acquired Compaq, or befriended a previous corporate enemy, and "it was like giving a shot of adrenaline to the whole system." According to Yamashita and Spataro, the goal of becoming the industry leader then became clear, and HP's employees were energized by it.

The advice in Unstuck revolves around the importance of having a vision and a goal and is general enough to apply to any type of science or business. Readers may have heard some of the suggestions in the book, e.g., write down your ideas, before. Still, Unstuck is written and organized in such a fun and unique format, it reminds readers how to be creative and is likely to get them unstuck.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Lynne Truss. Gotham Books, New York, 2003. Hardcover, xxvii + 109 pages, $17.50. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.

"A woman, without her man, is nothing."
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

Eats, Shoots and Leaves offers this pair of sentences, along with numerous other examples, as proof that punctuation really does matter: it can significantly change the meaning of a "string of words." Using delightful humor and wonderful analogies, author Lynne Truss guides the reader through the proper use of all punctuation marks.

Truss calls the comma a "grammatical sheepdog . . . it tears about on the hillside of language, endlessly organizing words into sensible groups and making them stay put: sorting and dividing, circling and herding; and of course darting off with a peremptory 'woof' to round up any wayward subordinate clause that makes a futile bolt for semantic freedom." Truss cautions intelligent and sparing use of the comma to separate items in a list, join two complete clauses into one sentence, and to introduce direct quotations.

Truss compares the exclamation mark to a "big attention-deficit brother who gets overexcited and breaks things and laughs too loudly." It "shouts, flashes like neon, and jumps up and down," and is properly used to add emphasis and change the tone of voice of a sentence.

The apostrophe "has always done its proper jobs in our language with enthusiasm and elegance, but it has never been taken seriously enough." Possessive pronouns (e.g., ours, theirs) do not take an apostrophe; possessive nouns do (e.g., "boy's hat," "babies' bibs"). The apostrophe is used in place of omitted figures in dates ("summer of '68") and for omitted words ("it's your turn" in place of "it is your turn"). An apostrophe is not proper in possessive "its turn" ("turn" belonging to "it"). Truss declares that "confusion of . . . 'it's' with . . . 'its' is an unequivocal signal of illiteracy."

Ideas into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing. Elise Hancock. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2003. Paperback, xiii + 147 pages, $18.95. ISBN 0-0818-7329-0.

Elise Hancock describes "science writing" as "not writing to experts, but to everyone else." Scientific findings are made "tangible, real and apparent" for a "large, diverse audience." Hancock's Ideas into Words enables the reader to BE an writer and to DO science writing. To BE a writer, she advises to "cultivate curiosity" about many things, to try new hobbies, read a variety of magazines and books, be anxious to learn about new subjects. Practice writing: carry a notebook to record observations, keep a journal, take a writing course. Designate a place which is used only for writing: keep it well stocked with pencils, pens, paper and other writing needs, and keep distractions to a minimum.

To DO science writing, start with a story idea, "anything interesting that other people don't know yet." It should be "something good enough to be worth writing and reading." Ideas can come from anywhere: be observant, be aware of agencies and universities involved in scientific research. Attend lectures. Hancock provides many suggestions for finding story ideas.

Once the idea begins to form, learn the basics in that field of knowledge, and obtain an interview with a person involved in that research. Prepare questions in advance, but do not be bound by them. Do not send questions beforehand: fresh, spontaneous responses can provide the best information. The interview should be in person, in the morning, and in the scientist's laboratory or office, never in a restaurant with its many distractions. Cover the "newsroom's famous five Ws - Who, What, Where, Why, when. Then add another W for Wherewithal (funding for the study), plus an H for How and a big question mark for Why Should the Reader Care Anyway?" At the end of the interview, set up a means for further communication.

Once the material for the story has been gathered, writing can begin. Subsequent chapters of Ideas into Words discuss "Getting Started," "The Nitty Gritty of Writing," and "Refining Your Draft."

Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How. Jennifer Peat, Elizabeth Elliott, Louise Baur and Victoria Keena. BMJ Books, London, 2002. Paperback, xv + 292 pages, $39.95. ISBN 0-7279-1625-4.

Peat and the coauthors of Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How state, "To be a good writer, all you need to do is learn and follow a few simple rules." The major emphasis of this book is writing research papers for journal publication. Each chapter begins with specific objectives. For example, objectives of the chapter on "Writing your paper" include "how to construct a neat abstract" and "write an effective introduction." An abstract should outline the design of the study, and briefly state the major findings and conclusions. Always do a "serious word trim": remove all unnecessary words and condense the remaining ones to less than 250 words.

The introduction to a research paper should be short and "snappy," one page long. State the focus of the study in the first sentence. Summarize the relevant work done in that field, and the questions remaining to be answered. This background will supply the rationale for the study. The final paragraph of the introduction will detail the aims of the study. The introduction does not include a summary of the results: these are highlighted in the discussion and conclusion.

The chapter on "Finishing your paper" addresses "writing a short snappy title," setting up references, and utilizing the "peer review process" by asking coauthors and colleagues to critique the manuscript. Scientific Writing: Easy When You Know How offers tips on writing other documents such as postgraduate theses, letters to journals (these must "carry a clear and succinct message and have instant appeal"), editorials (which are short, pertinent reviews that extend thinking beyond published study results), and narrative reviews (which summarize current developments in an area of general interest). Additional topics briefly addressed are writing style, grammar, and punctuation. Many references, including websites, are listed at the end of each chapter.