A Scientific Fairy Tale

Abstract

Let's start with some trivia questions: What novels have you read with a woman as the main character? Little Women, Anna Karenina, . . . Okay, you have the idea. Now, what novels have you read with a woman scientist as a main character? Do Coma and Abyss count? How about Jurassic Park? And now the final question: What novels have you read with a woman scientist as the main character in a real-life situation? Hmmm. So, now you know one of Carl Djerassi's purposes in writing his latest novel NO—to examine the challenges facing women working in the tribal (Djerassi's word) world of science. In choosing as his protagonist a woman from India, Renu Krishnan, Djerassi intended to raise the bar for our heroine even higher, since she would have to overcome not only the impediments a woman raised in the U.S. might encounter, but also those of a woman coping with the demands ...