Barbara McClintock was a celebrated geneticist whose 70 years of meticulous experiments in the genetics of maize, or Indian corn, have been lauded for their contributions to today’s most cutting-edge technology and science, including genetic engineering and bacterial reactions to antibiotics. Winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, she first became interested in genetics while studying at Cornell University in the 1920s. The threads of McClintock’s remarkable work, woven against deep-rooted prejudices that often made funding difficult to attain, and sustained at times only by her deep level of commitment and determination, form the backdrop of this dramatic new biography. Crisply written and illustrated,
Barbara McClintock
illuminates the struggles and achievements of one of the most important scientific minds of our time.