Books in Giants of Science series

Talk about a "glowing reputation"! Marie Curie, the woman who coined the term radioactivity, won not just one Nobel prize but two—in physics and in chemistry, both supposedly girl-phobic sciences. As with her previous star-studded biographies of Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, and Sigmund Freud—all three chosen as ALA Notable Books—Kathleen Krull offers readers a fascinating portrait of this mythic "giant of science" who abhorred publicity. And she also places Curie’s ground-breaking discovery of two elements within the framework of science at that time.

A French-born scientist, Pasteur invented a process that eventually bore his name: pasteurization. He also created a vaccination for rabies, studied cholera, anthrax, and other deadly diseases that were caused by microbes. His important discoveries and writings about germs were a huge advance for modern medicine, one that paved the way for other scientists to eradicate what had previously been common but deadly diseases.

For thirty years, the whole last half of his life, Leonardo da Vinci was obsessed with unlocking the secrets of nature. His notebooks are the mind-boggling evidence of a fifteenth-century scientist standing at the edge of the modern world, basing his ideas on observation and experimentation. Scrupulously researched, juicily anecdotal, this book will change children’s ideas of who Leonardo was and what it means to be a scientist. Award-winning biographer Kathleen Krull will focus on five other "giants of science"— Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein. Each book presents a compelling portrait of an individual as well as a picture of the world at a particular time and place.

MP3 CD Format Albert Einstein: his name has become a synonym for genius. His wild case of bedhead and playful sense of humor made him a media superstar--the first, maybe only, scientist-celebrity.He wasn't much for lab work--in fact he had a tendency to blow up experiments. What he liked to do was think--not in words, but in “thought experiments."" What was the result of all his thinking? Nothing less than the overturning of Newtonian physics.Once again, Kathleen Krull delivers a witty and astute look at one of the true Giants of Science, and the turbulent times in which he lived.

MP3 CD Format All his life, Charles Darwin hated controversy. Yet he takes his place among the Giants of Science for what remains an immensely controversial subject: the theory of evolution.Darwin began piecing together his explanation for how all living things change or adapt during his five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle. But it took him twenty years to go public, for fear of the backlash his theory would cause.Once again, Kathleen Krull delivers a witty and astute picture of one of history's greatest scientists.

MP3 CD Format Kathleen Krull's biographies for young readers have received accolades from publications such as Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal, and here she profiles Sir Isaac Newton--the father of calculus and the man who pioneered studies of gravityWhat was Isaac Newton like? Secretive, vindictive, withdrawn, obsessive, and, oh, yes, brilliant. His imagination was so large that, just “by thinking on it,"" he invented calculus and figured out the scientific explanation of gravity. Yet Newton was so small-minded that he set out to destroy other scientists who dared question his findings. This compelling portrait of Newton, contradictions and all, places him against the backdrop of 17th-century England, a time of plague, the Great Fire of London, and two revolutions. Krull details Newton's lonely childhood, his education, and his sometimes tumultuous relationship with contemporaries in this captivating and concise look at one of history's greatest geniuses.