Women scientists in India get some inspiration to go with their aspirations. Writing on the Indigenus blog, Nature India editor Subhra Priyadarshini highlights a new book, Lilavati's Daughters: The Women Scientists of India (http://tinyurl.com/pqgknz). The book, named for the legendary daughter of a twelfth-century mathematician, presents 98 biographical essays and Priyadarshini recommends it for those in search of role models.

The book “has every emotion one ever attributes to women scientists — patience, angst, perseverance, fears, euphoria and above all incessant struggle in the face of a thousand odds,” she writes. The book comes on the heels of announcements of government programmes aimed at easing the burdens of family-work balance on young women to help stem the high numbers dropping out of science. Whether such programmes will be implemented properly or embraced by women scientists is a topic that has been raised in several discussions at the Nature India forum.

The Indigenus post includes a link to the Indian Academy of Sciences, where the book can be read online (http://tinyurl.com/qtc5h7).