A Hidden Legacy: The Life and Work of Esther Zimmer Lederberg

by Thomas E. Schindler

Overview

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: ? 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197531693
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/17/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Thomas E. Schindler is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Illinois-Chicago. After earning his PhD in microbiology and immunology, he conducted post-doctoral research at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He worked in research and development for Xytronyx, Inc., a biotechnology company, for eight years before pursuing a career as a high school chemistry teacher in Falls Village, Connecticut. Today, he is an accomplished science writer who has devoted several years to researching and writing about the neglected heroine of bacterial genetics, Esther Zimmer Lederberg.

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter 1: An Abiding Affection Chapter 2: The Pathway to Bacterial Genetics Chapter 3: Graduate School: Mentored by the Future Nobel Laureates, George Beadle and Edward Tatum Chapter 4: The Anomaly of Bacterial Genetics Chapter 5: Love in the Laboratory: A Marriage of Two Prodigies Chapter 6: Strange Genetics: Bacterial Genes Move Sideways Chapter 7: Clarifying the Unique Features of Bacterial Sex Chapter 8: Replica Plating: Esther Repurposes Her Compact Makeup Sponge Chapter 9: The Matilda Effect: Joshua Lederberg's Brilliance Obscured His Wife's Reputation Chapter 10: What She Did for Love: Demoted from Research Collaborator to Nobel Wife Chapter 11: Behind the Laboratory Doors: For Over One Hundred Years of Science, Women Participated in Obscurity Chapter 12: Antibiotic Resistance, the Horrendous Consequences of Bacterial Sex Chapter 13: The Lederbergs' Stanford Years, 1959-1976: Growing Apart, the Collaborative Couple Divorce Chapter 14: The Central Importance of E. coli and ? Phage in the New Molecular Biology Chapter 15: Making Music and a New Life Epilogue: A New Tree of Life and a New Concept for the Gene Acknowledgments Index

Editorial 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

From the Publisher

2021-11-17
A debut biography focuses on an overlooked but groundbreaking scientist.

In this book, Schindler introduces readers to Esther Zimmer Lederberg, who developed crucial microbiology techniques in the mid-20th century but received little recognition for her efforts. The biography follows Lederberg from her New York City childhood to Hunter College, where she moved from studying languages to exploring biology, through her graduate and postgraduate career, where she flourished in the laboratory. Lederberg married a fellow scientist, Joshua Lederberg, and the two collaborated as partners at first. But Joshua’s career advanced at a much faster pace, and Lederberg was not included when he won the Nobel Prize in 1958 for work they had both done. Their marriage fell apart over the next decade, and with Joshua no longer championing her research, Lederberg fell largely into scientific obscurity. Later in life, she pursued a passion for music, which led to a second marriage that lasted until her death in 2006. Along with recounting the events of Lederberg’s life, Schindler explains the scientific discoveries that she was a part of, placing her work in the context of the evolution of biology in the 20th century. The author makes a compelling case for Lederberg’s scientific achievements and illuminates her long “love affair with bacteria,” bringing her to life from the historical record. The book is thoughtful in its depictions of both Lederberg and Joshua. While she is clearly the protagonist, he does not become the villain as a result, and Schindler offers plausible theories about their divorce and different career paths that go beyond excusing Joshua as a product of his time. Although some of the transitions between the science sections and Lederberg’s life story are a bit abrupt, 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