Scientists have a reputation for being focused on their work?and maybe even dull. But take another look. Did you know that it"s believed Galileo was scolded by the Roman Inquisition for sassing his mom? That Isaac Newton loved to examine soap bubbles, and that Ivan Pavlov gave all of his dogs cute names? That Albert Einstein loved to collect joke books, geneticist Barbara McClintock wore a Groucho Marx disguise in public, and Grace Murray Hopper was named the first Computer Science Man of the Year?even though she was a woman? With juicy tidbits about everything from favorite foods to first loves, the subjects of Kathleen Krull and Kathryn Hewitt"s Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and What the Neighbors Thought) are revealed as creative, bold, sometimes eccentric?and anything but dull. The entertaining style and solid research of the Lives of . . . series of biographies have made it a favorite with families and educators for twenty years. This new volume takes readers through the centuries and across the globe, profiling the fascinating men and women whose curiosity has transformed our understanding of our world.