The Lost Women of Science, Our Book For Young Readers

The Lost Women of Science, Our Book For Young Readers

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Carol Sutton Lewis: Welcome to the Lost Women of Science Podcast, where we uncover the remarkable stories of women who change the world of science, but whom have been forgotten or written out of history completely. I'm your host, Carol Sutton Lewis. Today we're talking about something special that came out of the podcast, the Lost Women of Science: a book for young readers.

The book was co-authored by our very own Katie Haffner and Melina Gerosa Bellows, published by Penguin Random House Bright Matter imprint. Katie and Melina have taken some of the Best Lost Women of Science podcast episodes and transformed them into a collection of biographies of 10 exceptional women in stem, written for children aged eight to 12.

The stories are complimented with eye-catching illustrations by Karen Lee and interactive elements like recipes and experiments that are sure to delight these young readers. The mission behind Lost Women of Science has always been to make these stories known. Now with this book, our aim is to give young people role models who show them what's possible.

In today's conversation, we'll talk with Katie and Melina about how this book came to be, what they discovered along the way, and how these stories can inspire the next generation of scientists. 

So let's get started. Katie and Melina, congratulations on this book. Now, tell me, how did the idea for turning the Lost Women of Science podcast into a book come about? Katie, let’s start with you.

Katie Hafner: I believe—I could be wrong—that it was my agent, my literary agent, who said this would make a great book series and I know just the guy at Penguin Random House to do this. And so he—my agent Jim Levine, bless his heart—he got in touch with Tom Russell at Penguin Random House and said, there's this great podcast and they're accumulating all these great stories and it should be a book. And Tom said, what a great idea. And that was the start of it. This book is all part and parcel of our mission, which is to inspire girls and young women. And, you know boys too, to go into the STEM fields. So a book made just a ton of sense. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: And then Melina, how did you come into the picture? 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Well, I had a history with Penguin Random House because for nearly two decades I was the editor-in-chief of National Geographic Kids, and Penguin Random House was our book distributor. And so when they needed a middle grade word wrangler, Tom Russell thought of me, and so that's when I was brought into the project.

Carol Sutton Lewis: So let's jump into talking about some of the scientists who were profiled in this book. First I want to mention Dorothy Andersen, who was the first person to identify the disease of cystic fibrosis. And I think her story was the one that started the Lost Women of Science podcast. Isn't that right, Katie? 

Katie Hafner: Yes.

Carol Sutton Lewis: Tell us about her. 

Katie Hafner: Indeed, so Dorothy Andersen, gosh, we all fell in love with her—I mean, we fall kind of in love serially with our subjects, wouldn't you say, Carol, since you've-

Carol Sutton Lewis: Absolutely.

Katie Hafner: Yeah, I know. And so Dorothy, we really fell hard for her. So she was a pathologist in the early 1900s and she did autopsies on babies who had died from what was routinely misdiagnosed as celiac disease. And she was doing an autopsy one day in the early 1930s and she decided that this was not celiac. There was something else going on because she noticed lung involvement in the cadaver of this baby and, and so she ended up writing a 50 page single author paper naming the disease cystic fibrosis, and that came out in 1938 and she is such a hero. Such a hero. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: Mm. So full disclosure to our listeners, not only am I excited to interview the authors of this book, I am a former producer on Lost Women of Science. I did produce an episode, and it's actually featured on the cover of this book. There's an illustration on the cover—this beautifully illustrated book—of Yvonne Y. Clark, also known as YY, or almost always known as YY. 

And she was the first woman to earn a mechanical engineering degree from Howard University and she later helped bring moon rocks back to Earth. So I reported and produced the series of episodes for Lost Women of Science back in 2022. And I just have to throw in here that I loved so many things about this story that are highlighted in the book, including how YY’s family, which is an upper middle class, well-educated black family in the 1930s, really encouraged her to pursue her dreams of- of engineering. A little unusual to encourage your daughter to do that back then. How she used her engineering expertise to help solve problems for the US Army and nasa, and importantly how she channeled her ambitions into teaching other women this engineering when the doors were closed on her own ability to have a full-time career in the field. So, I just have to say how happy I was to see her on the cover and to have her story included in this book. So thank you all very much for that. 

Katie Hafner: Yeah, we love YY.

Carol Sutton Lewis: So Melina, do you have a favorite scientist from the book?

Melina Gerosa Bellows: I actually do, and it's Katie's grandmother. Can I tell you why?

Carol Sutton Lewis: Oh, sure, sure.

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Well, first of all, Katie, I just, the rich detail that makes your grandmother come alive and all of the bits and pieces about how she wasn't the warm and cuddly type, but yet she was doing these incredible things and your family always talked about your grandfather and not your grandmother. And then the story about how when you were visiting her and you got pink eye and she lovingly nursed you through that and it showed you this side to your grandmother that you didn't know existed. And then you got to reach into her mind more deeply and see who she really was by going and investigating who was this fascinating person that was in your family that you didn't know half of her story. And when I read this story to the kids, maybe it's because I read it in your first person voice, or maybe it's because she tossed up the, the, the toast scraps for the poodles and all of the rich detail, but they, their eyes just sparkle and they just come alive. So I just love this story. Maybe the most in the book.

Katie Hafner: That's so well put. I have to say when I give talks about Lost Women of Science to kids, I put up the picture of her, my grandmother, and I say, and this is my own grandmother. And there's kind of a gasp. It's like, oh my gosh, a personal connection. It's your grandmother. And then that gets kids really interested. They love the personal connection.

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Will you tell us about her?

Katie Hafner: So my grandmother, Leona Zacharias, was married of course to my grandfather, Gerald Zacharias, who was a very well known, a very prominent atomic physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. He was a science advisor to Eisenhower. He was at MIT for years and years. He invented the atomic clock, blah, blah, blah. And so that's all we ever heard was about his science and his fame, and we just thought, you know—I don't even know what I knew about my grandma, I knew very vaguely that she did something scientific and that was it.

Carol Sutton Lewis: So what was it like uncovering and writing about your own family’s connection to this history?

Katie Hafner: So my grandmother, Leona, I actually called her Ona because I couldn't pronounce, I don't know, maybe I couldn't say grandma or something. So she was always Ona to me. She got her PhD around the time that Dorothy Andersen got hers at Columbia University. She went to Barnard and got her PhD at Columbia and she was a biologist. So then she of course followed my grandfather from New York where he was also at Columbia to Boston, where he got a position in the physics department at MIT, and she ended up working at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard and she was doing research into this epidemic that was in the 1940s that was affecting these newborns. So they were newborns who were born with perfectly fine vision and then went blind. Premature newborns. It's actually what blinded, um, Stevie Wonder. And it was called retrolental fibroplasia at the time. It's now known as retinopathy of prematurity. And it was this big mystery, why are these premature babies going blind? And she helped solve it. She did not solve it single handedly, but she definitely played a role in, in the journey. 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: And it was such a surprising find that it was the incubators and too much oxygen was causing the eye to not form correctly, and the retina was detaching and it was causing this blindness. But, it was such a surprise and nobody was really looking closely until Katie, your grandmother, Ona, actually figured out the medical mystery and it wasn't until past, way past, her time that she got the credit. Is that right? 

Katie Hafner: To tell you the truth, I'm not sure she ever got the credit until we did our episode on her. For instance, my grandfather's Wikipedia page doesn't even mention her. I don't even think it mentioned that he was married to her Um, so what we did—talk about revenge of the Lost Women of Science Crew—we have a whole project that we do with Wikipedia. It’s called the Wikipedia Project, and we get our money from the Craig Newmark foundation (philanthropies). So what we do is we go back and correct and edit and enhance and create Wikipedia pages, and so we made one for her. And, um, hers now is more, is more robust than his. I know. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: That's, that's really great, 

Katie Hafner: Isn't it?  

Carol Sutton Lewis: The power of the Lost Women of Science. I love it. 

Katie Hafner: I do too. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: And we’ll be back with more right after the break.

BREAK

Carol Sutton Lewis: I’m back with Katie Hafner and Melina Gerosa Bellows to talk more about the women in their new Lost Women of Science book for middle school readers. These women profiled in the book often worked in the shadows of their male peers and many times never got credit for their work. But that didn't stop them. They each had a drive that really led them to pursue the work, regardless of the credit. Melina, what patterns did you see across their stories about curiosity, perseverance, and grit? 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: I think there's not a woman in this book that didn't have this superpower, first of all, of curiosity, because these women, back then, they were not doing it for the credit. And we know that because they didn't even get the credit. But, what they were doing it for was this inner drive to know more, and each of them had their passion projects and they were just gonna keep learning and growing and learning and growing until they got all the way down these incredible rabbit holes. And very little stopped them and there was so much to stop each of them in their day. You know, in some cases it was race. In most cases it was that these women were ahead of their time and colleges wouldn’t even let them enroll, but no matter what, they just kept going. They had the grit to keep going.

Katie Hafner: I think that's so true. And so right on. And also, I take it one step further, which is, you know, I'll see something in the natural world and just sort of forget about it. But what is it that made them, like, I'm thinking Melina right now about, um, um. Well about Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin and, I mean-

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Oh, I was thinking about her too and now she was told she was wrong. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: What did they tell her she was wrong about?

Melina Gerosa Bellows: So she was the first person to correctly surmise that the stars are primarily composed of hydrogen and helium gases. And this flew in the face of the prevailing notion back in the day. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: Mm. So she was a scientist who had discovered what the stars were actually composed of and the, the senior team—the senior scientists at Princeton—tried to tell her she didn't know what she was talking about.

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Yes, and she made a decision that she really came to regret. She backed down because at that time she knew that Princeton University’s all male … they had the authority to make or break her career. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: It's so great that her story is included in this book and, and it, this actually leads me right into my next question because it's not just a collection of biographies, it's really an opportunity for young readers, particularly young female readers, to see themselves in these stories.

So what do you both hope that young girls can take away from reading this? 

Katie Hafner: I hope that when these girls read a book like this and they see, you know, the proverbial dancing backwards and in high heels thing happening on every page, then they'll think, oh, no problem. I can do this, or I wanna do this, or I wanna know the, you know, the modern day equivalent of what the stars are made of. Maybe, I mean, it takes an extraordinarily curious person to, to, to want to know these things. So, let's not shoot for the stars, so to speak with our readers, but let's hope that it nudges kids in that direction. Right? Wouldn't you say Melina? 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: I would, and you know what, I'd also say that kids can't dream what they can't see. So representation isn't a bonus, it's a catalyst for the girl readers of this book. And there, you know, there were some interesting research by Microsoft that girls who have female STEM role models are three times more likely to pursue those fields.

So, what I love about this book is the stories are inspiring and they make science not be this dry thing in a textbook, but like a life you can live. And now they have a window into a world that maybe, even if they have a little interest, they'll keep going towards. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: And Melina, you did such a great job in taking these stories and enhancing them with experiments and recipes. What was your thinking and how did you go about finding the extras to include in the book? 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Well, at National Geographic Kids, we did a lot of research, both quantitative and qualitative, and there's one thing I really know is that you have to put little sticky mirrors on everything so the reader can see themself in whatever they are reading and a large wall of type is just not gonna cut it. So, you have to create these little sidebars where readers can be like, oh, I can try this. I can actually be a scientist and do a mini science experiment in my kitchen with my mother helping me. Or I can do a book cipher. I love that we have like how to be a code breaker in the Elizebeth Smith Friedman chapter. And for those that like to bake, we've got a seaweed cake recipe where, you know, readers can experiment in the kitchen and bake. So just doing all sorts of things, I think adds to the experience of reading a profile about a really inspiring scientist.

Carol Sutton Lewis: Notwithstanding the advancements that women have made in science—that is, they get more credit now for what they're doing—it's still really hard. And so parents really, really need to encourage our daughters and our sons to dive into the science of it all.

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Yeah, and I think this is a great book for a mother-daughter book club because the content from the podcasts is so interesting for adults. This is not a kid book. This is a book that's interesting for really any age. And some of my friends have read the book before giving it to their daughter- 

Katie Hafner: Oh really?

Melina Gerosa Bellows: And they've enjoyed it just as much as their- yes, yes. 

Katie Hafner: Oh, I love that. 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Very erudite friends with PhDs read the book and once they started, they didn't wanna put it down because it's fun. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: So, the book came out in August and since then, you’ve already done a few book events. Could you tell me about the public reaction to the book?

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Yes, I'd love to. So, uh, in one day I spoke to 500 kids: 250 kids at one school, Chevy Chase Elementary, and then later that day, another 250 kids. And I start the talk by asking, asking the students to show me with the show of hands, have they ever done something and been told that they did a terrific job either by a teacher or a parent or a caregiver, and how did that make them feel? So I had them give me thumbs up, thumbs down, or medium. So everyone gave me a thumbs up, not surprisingly. And then I said, have you ever done just as good a job on something and no one noticed? No one said, good job? And how does that make you feel? And then I got obviously 250 thumbs down and I said, that didn't stop the 10 women that went on to change the world that are in this book. They didn't get the credit that was due to them and it wasn't fair. And kids hate injustice. Hate injustice. So they're all in, uh, at this point. And then, you know, we start telling them about all of these incredible women that were driven simply by their superpower of curiosity. And really, that's a superpower that's available to everybody. And I think that this book really is a love letter to the power of curiosity. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: Thank you Katie and Melina so much for joining us to talk about your new book.

Katie Hafner: Oh, and also Carol, we are running a little contest. If you spot the book in the world, like in a bookstore, or in a library, or even on someone’s shelf, or in a school, take a picture, send it to our Instagram account, which is @lostwomenofsci and we will send you a little thank you present.

Carol Sutton Lewis: Oh, nice. So everyone that's at L-O-S-T-W-O-M-E-N-O-F-S-C-I, @lostwomenofsci

Katie Hafner: On Instagram. 

Carol Sutton Lewis: So thank you so much Katie and Melina, for joining us to talk about this great book. 

Melina Gerosa Bellows: Thank you. 

Katie Hafner: Thank you, Carol. It was such a pleasure.

Carol Sutton Lewis: It was a pleasure. It's a great book and I can't wait for everyone to read it.

This has been Lost Women of Science Conversations. The Lost Women of Science book is out now. This episode was hosted by me, Carol Sutton Lewis, Gabriela Saldivia was our producer and our sound engineer for this episode. Thanks to Jeff DelViscio and our publishing partner, Scientific American. Thank you to our senior managing producer, Deborah Unger, our program manager, Eowyn Burtner and co-executive producers, Katie Hafner and Amy Scharf.

The episode Art was created by Lily Whear and Lizzie Younan composes our music. Lost Women of Science is funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Anne Wojcicki Foundation. We're distributed by PRX. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please go to our website lostwomenofscience.org and subscribe, so you'll never miss an episode that's lostwomenofscience.org.

Please share this episode and give us a rating wherever you listen to podcasts. And you can find the Lost Women of Science book out now in bookstores everywhere, so please go pick up a copy. It’s worth doing even if your children are older than middle school as it’s great for adults to read and to give to friends with kids. This book is so engaging and will be interesting to everyone.

I'm Carol Sutton Lewis. See you next time.

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