Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Laureate: Her Life and Work in Medicine [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Eugene Straus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1999

This authorized biography of Rosalyn Yalow is the life story of one of the few Nobel Prize-winning women in science. An outspoken woman and a complex hero in an age of superficial celebrity worship, this is the complete tale of her remarkable rise from child of uneducated immigrant parents to shining star in a male-dominated profession and world. As this story unfolds - as told by a respected physician who was her scientific colleague and friend - we learn of a young girl who against all odds grew up into one of the most venerated women in science. Her life story is related intermittently against the backdrop of her later years, when, after having won the Nobel Prize and suddenly felled by a stroke, she was brought to a hospital where, soiled with blood and unrecognized, she was "dumped" as a charity case onto another hospital. From a long line of strong women, Rosalyn emerged from being the daughter of immigrant parents struggling to make ends meet, to the young, determined woman who made it her destiny to break all barriers. Young and energetic, she broke into the sciences as a lone female graduate student in physics, outshining her male classmates. She refused to accept a conventional career as a physics teacher, and instead pioneered in the new field of nuclear medicine. Along with Solomon Berson - her brilliant and charismatic partner - she created a mom and pop scientific laboratory that rivaled and surpassed the giants in bringing new understanding to diagnosing human disease. Did breaking the gender barrier in building a world class laboratory and struggling to make a great discovery take its toll on her personal life? Straus investigates that question through first-hand interviews with Yalow, and her family, friends, and colleagues, not glossing over her complex relationship with her daughter nor the suicide of her much overshadowed brother.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This biography of Rosalyn Yalow chronicles more than the life and scientific achievements of a dedicated research scientist. The tenacity Yalow applied to achieving her life's goals--a good family and a Nobel Prize-winning scientific career (medicine-physiology, 1977)--reveals what is both wonderful and wrong with United States research science and medicine. Issues like gender bias, informed consent for patients in clinical trials, fear of radioactivity, and the role of research, education, and patient care in hospitals, where the bottom line looms large, are all discussed in the context of this remarkable woman's life.

As a Jewish woman, Rosalyn Sussman was unique among her classmates when she began graduate school in physics at the University of Illinois in 1941. Three and a half years later, more quickly than anyone else in her program, she completed her Ph.D. By then, she had married a classmate, Aaron Yalow, who would be her husband for the next 50 years. Through memoir and interviews with Yalow's professional and biological families, it is clear that nothing was going to stop her from achieving her goals, and that this aggressive drive affected those close to her.

Without ever submitting a research grant proposal, Yalow and Solomon Berson, her second husband and research partner, were able to develop the radioimmunoassay (RIA), still a key component in biochemical research. Yalow and Berson freely trained scientists from all over the world in RIA and kept no secrets from the scientific community. Such openness stands in stark contrast to today's secretive, competitive, grant-driven culture of academic research. Strauss's biography pays tribute to a remarkable scientist and offers a unique snapshot of science in the latter half of the 20th century. --Irwin Scot Hirsh --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Yalow, the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine, is fortunate in her biographer. Straus worked with her for 15 years and was physician to her mother and son. He devotes much space to her work with Sol Berson on blood volume, the thyroid, insulin, and the major pioneering effort that created the field of radioimmunoassay, and he covers all this clearly and engagingly. Yet the book is basically a story of relationships, the most important of them being Yalow's relationship with herself. Throughout her life, she always knew what she wanted and how to get it, so when she received the Nobel, there were stars, not tears, in her eyes. A woman in a man's world, she had a not-to-be-denied, almost overwhelming personality that disposed of every obstacle and whose effects on her daughter, son, and husband Straus thoroughly discusses. Straus shows, above all, the almost perfect meshing of her and Berson's strengths and weaknesses. Yalow emerges from these pages as a model for women in science. William Beatty --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 277 pages
• ISBN-10: 0738202630
• ASIN: B000H2N30A
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,912,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about a pioneering woman., June 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Laureate: A Biographical Memoir (Hardcover)

Rosalyn Yalow, from a poor uneducated family in the Bronx, and educated in the New York City public school system, became the first American educated woman to make it to the top in science or medicine. A nuclear physicist who never took a course in biology, she developed a method to identify and measure vanishingly small amounts of almost any substance in body fluids and tissues. As a result her work revolutionized virtually every aspect of medicine and biomedical science. What did it take to succeed in universities, hospitals, and scientific establishments that were completely dominated by men and male culture? What price did she pay? What barriers still stand in the way of women in these fields? This book speaks to these questions and more. It provides a searching and sensitive portrait of an overpowering woman who stood alone, fought for her place, and guided other women to follow their dreams and abilities. Yet the book is about human relationships; motherhood, marriage, partnership, and especially Yalow's relationship with herself. It is also about the ongoing struggle to achieve equal opportunity for all people. It reads like a novel, with a poetic feel for words and structure. Even the science is seamless and available to readers with little or no scientific background. Here is a great book about a great woman who is not an actress, not a heiress, not a figure in a political scandal, but a towering intellectual figure who changed the world. I couldn't put it down. Read it, then give it to your kids. Especially the young adult boys and girls.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for anyone who thinks about society and culture., June 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Laureate: A Biographical Memoir (Hardcover)

As someone who is concerned with how gender influences our movement within society and our personal development, I found this book fascinating. To say nothing of the fact that this is one of very few books about a woman of intellect and emotional control of daunting proportions. As a woman physician, this book provided insight into my own development and future path. But as a woman, I hope men read this book. The insights go far beyond medicine, or careers, to the center of the gender issues that face us all.