A Life Force in Life Science

A Life Force in Life Science is a remarkable book about a remarkable person, it tells the amazing story of Ida Smedley MacLean.

She earned the reputation of being not only smart and very bright, she was also known for her charismatic personality, too.

She was born in Birmingham in 1877 and, at a time when women working in the sciences was still very much a novelty, she studied chemistry at Cambridge University.

She went on to perform pioneering work in biochemistry and was able to garner a number of international prizes and awards for her work.

During the Great War she worked with Chaim Weizmann (a future president of Israel) making great contributions to the war effort.

She founded the British Federation and then the International Federation of University Women and did sterling work throughout her life to improve the rights of women in the workplace.

She was also a key figure during the 1930s to enable Jewish women scientists and other women academics to find not only asylum but also work within the UK and the USA. Please bear in mind that she was also raising her two children and caring for a husband who was seriously ill.

Author of the book Penny Freedman has been able to tell the remarkable story of this most remarkable of scientists and women by relying on Idas's own letters and diary entries, plus memorabilia. To which she had unique access granted by Ida's granddaughter.

As well as being a gifted academic (a BA in Classics and Philosophy from Oxford, an MA in Linguistics from the University of Kent and a PhD in Shakespearean studies from the University of Birmingham, Penny Freedman is a published author of multiple crime novels.

She points out that Robert, her husband, who is a professor of biochemistry, became interested in Ida when he noted that she was the first female chairman of the Biochemistry Society in the 1920s. By chance he was allowed access to her lifelong collection of papers and memorabilia and was working on them whilst he was receiving treatment for cancer.

Subsequent to his death Penny realised that she could not see his work go to waste and felt strongly that Ida was a female and a scientist that people should know about.

The book is illustrated with contemporary images.

It's a very well written book and needs to be on the bookshelves of all scientists, lovers of biographies and people interested in the studies of women.

It's published by The Book Guild at £9.99.