RITA LEVI-MONTALCINI

Valente details the life, struggles, and revolutionary research of Nobel Prize–winning Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909-2012).

Born in Turin to a prominent Jewish family, Levi-Montalcini began life as a painfully shy child in a stringently patriarchal society. She studied medicine at the University of Turin against her father’s wishes, under the tutelage of histologist Giuseppe Levi (no relation).She showed determination and skill as a neurobiology researcher, but her life was upended, like those of so many other Italian Jews, by the rise of fascism and World War II. As antisemitic laws banned Jewish people from nearly all aspects of public life and the Nazis occupied Northern Italy, Levi-Montalcini carried out her research precariously and in secret. Conducting experiments in a bedroom lab on chicken eggs, she began her study of a neuropeptide that would eventually be called nerve growth factor—the co-discovery of which won her a 1986 Nobel Prize. After the war, she accepted a research position at Washington University of St. Louis, eventually joining forces with biochemist Stanley Cohen. Together, they broke new ground regarding nerve growth factor, proving to the scientific community that the nervous system could be influenced by external factors. This discovery facilitated breakthroughs in developmental neurobiology and disease and wound treatments. Levi-Montalcini was also a lifelong advocate for women’s equality, education, human rights, and the use of science as a force for good. Over the course of this book, Valente’s prose can feel dry or clinical at times, particularly when it’s discussing scientific research: “Their main objective was to understand the role of the intrinsic, genetic factors vis-à-vis the extrinsic or environmental ones in the differentiation of the nervous centers.” However, the book’s style is otherwise straightforward, which makes it a good fit for young readers, and Levi-Montalcini’s remarkable life is nothing short of inspiring. Valente’s attention to detail and immense admiration for her subject shine through on every page of this work, which also includes such backmatter as Levi-Montalcini’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech and an excerpt from her memoir.

A thorough, glowing biography that sheds light on the achievements of an extraordinary scientist.