"This unorthodox book presents the stories of six intrepid women of science in eighteenth-century France whose lives and accomplishments have until recently been forgotten: mathematician and philosopher Elisabeth Ferrand, astronomer Nicole Reine Lepaute, field naturalist Jeanne Barret, garden botanist Madeleine Françoise Basseporte, anatomist and inventor Marie-Marguerite Biheron, and chemist Geneviève d'Arconville. These six inspiring figures made their mark on their respective fields of science and on Enlightenment society more generally as they defied strict gender expectations and conventional norms"-- Provided by publisher.
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