Archive for December, 2012

This is an attribute to the life of a courageous scientist-woman, Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, who died at the age of 103 at her home in Rome. Her eagerness to study and research defeated any artificial boundaries to learning: Fighting against masculine domination in science; and fighting against the blind racist anti-Semite rules issued by Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime. They didn’t let her do research in a university because she was Jewish, so she set up a small laboratory in her home. Among other things, she discovered critical chemical tools that the body uses to direct cell growth and build nerve networks.