Elizabeth Finkel – författare

Offering a dramatic counterpoint to the findings that from elementary school through to college, women's interest in science steadily declines, and that "real science" only occurs in research and laboratory investigation, this text describes women engaged with science or engineering at the margins. In an innovative high school genetics class, a school-to-work internship for prospective engineers, an environmental action group and a nonprofit conservation agency, the authors found a high proportion of women who were successful at learning and using technical knowledge, and advancing in equal percentages to men. This text explores how women still had to pay a price, working outside traditional laboratories, receiving less financial compensation and little public prestige, unless they acted like male professionals.

Australia’s best science writing is showcased in this collection drawn from some of this the nation’s best publications. Questions such as these are addressed: How were Ned Kelly’s bones finally identified? What makes cockroaches some of the most successful creatures on the planet? Could some obscure bacteria finally rid the world of dengue fever? and How did infant reflux become the disease of the moment? From the furthest reaches of the universe to the microscopic world of our genes, science offers writers the kind of scope other subjects simply can’t match. Good writing about science can be moving, funny, exhilarating, or poetic, but these essays are honest, rigorous, and true to the research that underlies it.