Great collection of brief biographies of scientists and descriptions of their work, grouped into the following four broad categories: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth & Space. Also interspersed throughout are a few individual pages spanning broad scientific concepts such as DNA, lab tools, and computers. The colourful illustrations and photographs bring the scientists' contributions to life for young readers. I was very glad to see a significant number of female scientists included in this collection -- not just the "popular" ones like Nobel laureates Marie Curie and Dorothy Hodgkin, but also less familiar names like Mary Golda Ross and Nettie Stevens. This is certainly a book I will recommend to students, especially those who love learning about the history of scientific discoveries and those who aspire to STEM careers!

Joining the burgeoning shelf of science history books for the young comes this very suitable volume. Practically every story gets an equal two page spread, whether you are the ancient German woman who first worked out what caterpillars were about (becoming butterflies, of course) or the lady who worked out how we could tell what the sun was made of. The succinctness helps, in my mind, for there's none of the modern dressing more 'woke' volumes burden themselves with. That said, Mary Anning really did have to fight against misogyny, so perhaps aspects of the tales like that should be featured more than they are. The jury is out, but what is patently clear is that this has many qualities needed to convey its science history very well indeed, and by including many characters from around the world I'd never heard of, was able to teach me much. A strong four stars.