It's time to honor the significant scientific contributions of Esther Zimmer Lederberg. In A Hidden Legacy, Thomas E. Schindler shares the story of this remarkable microbiologist and offers insight into why her legacy has been obscured for so long.
In the mid-20th century, microbiologist Esther Zimmer Lederberg and her then-husband, Joshua Lederberg, made a series of remarkable discoveries that contributed to the biochemical understanding of the gene. Together, they laid the foundation for molecular biology and the field of bacterial genetics. In 1958, he alone was awarded the Nobel Prize for their work. Esther's ingenuity was largely ignored and undervalued by the Nobel committee and has continued to be obscured by historians of science.
In this book, Thomas E. Schindler shares many of Esther's hidden scientific contributions and her role in the discoveries that launched her then-husband's celebrated career. A Hidden Legacy delves into how, as a couple, the Lederbergs established a new field of bacterial genetics in the decade leading up to the discovery of the DNA double helix. Their impressive series of achievements includes the discovery of: *l bacteriophage and the first plasmid, known as the F-factor; how viruses carry bacterial genes between bacteria; and fundamental properties of bacterial sex. Schindler explains how Esther's research revealed unique features of bacterial sex that are now essential to our understanding of molecular biology and evolution.
A magnificent story of a remarkable scientist, A Hidden Legacy takes readers through the process that scrambled the tree of life and offers insight into the role Esther played in uncovering these secretes of bacterial and viral genes.
Industry Reviews
"The author does an excellent job of explaining how the growing understanding of bacterial reproduction allowed molecular biology to flourish as a discipline and shaped scientific understanding. The biography deftly portrays the science scenes -- particularly in the vivid description of Lederberg's use of a makeup pad to transfer bacteria from one petri dish to another instead of to dab powder on her cheeks, a major improvement in lab techniques. A concise and
well-written account of a little-known yet important biologist." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Esther Zimmer Lederberg (1922-2006), the best known American woman microbial geneticist in the 1950s, was a pioneer and founder of her field. Her scientific discoveries remain at the center of global health policy in antibiotic resistance, but she hasn't received, as yet, recognition from the field or the general public. In this biography, Thomas E. Schindler pays tribute to Esther's obscured legacy by sharing her story and providing a detailed examination of
the work she conducted in labs at Stanford, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale. Esther's lifelong passion for science and her remarkable achievements should inspire new generations of women
scientists and girls to better overcome the combined gender, race, and class bias." -- Pnina Geraldine Abir-Am, Historian of Science and Resident Scholar, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University
"An insightful, readable biography of a remarkable scientist, her deep affection for and knowledge of the bacteria that rule our world, and her major contributions to the Nobel Prizes won by her husband and former teacher, which have never been properly acknowledged. This should be read by every woman in big-time research science, technology and medicine, and by those who love them." -- Tom Shachtman, author of Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold
