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Louise B. Young

Born: 1919 in Springfield, Ohio
Died: May 8, 2010 in Lake Forest, Illinois

Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Louise lived in Winnetka, Illinois for many years.

Biography: A noted author on science and the environment, she wrote on a wide range of topics, including atmospheric science, ecology, physics, and astronomy. She was born in 1919 on a remote farm in southern Ohio. In 1936 she won a scholarship to Vassar College, where she majored in physics –the only woman in her class to do so. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa she worked for a time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York where she specialized in the work of Edward Steichen and Ansel Adams. At the start of World War II she was invited to join the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, where she was part of an elite team of scientists developing the new science of radar. In 1944 she married Hobart P. Young and moved to Winnetka Illinois, where she lived for many years. Beginning in the 1960’s she wrote a series of books that explained the basics of physics, astronomy, geology, and environmental science for lay audiences. In 1973 she published Power Over People, one of the first books to point out the potential health risks posed by high-voltage power lines due to the electromagnetic fields that they create. Other books include The Unfinished Universe, Sowing the Wind, Earth’s Aura, Exploring the Universe, and The Blue Planet. Her most recent book, Islands: Portraits of Miniature Worlds, argued that the history of island ecologies can help us understand how better to manage the global environment. She remained active into old age, publishing her last book at the age of eighty. She also fulfilled a lifelong dream when, at the age of sixty, she earned a Master’s of Science degree in Geology at the University of Chicago


Awards:
  • -- Sandburg Literacy Award

Primary Literary Genre(s): Non-Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Louise B. Young on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=louise+b.+young


Selected Titles

Islands :
ISBN: 0716739666 OCLC: 40698676

W.H. Freeman, New York : ©1999.

Louise Young explores some of the most fascinating of these isolated landscapes, particularly those whose stories address the delicate balance that exists between the land, the people, and other living beings. An environmentalist and geophysicist, Young describes the unique history and personality of each island - its birth and evolution, the geology that has shaped its landscape, and its human, plant, and animal inhabitants.

  Power over people
ISBN: 9781601298867 OCLC: 228118463

Oxford University Press, New York : ©1992.

For most of us, life is spent in one vast electromagnetic field. In the office we sit in front of computer terminals, at home, in front of the television. We cook our meals in microwave ovens, trim our hedges with electric shears, illuminate our houses, workplaces, and streets with incandescent and fluorescent lighting. And until only recently, the potential hazards imposed by life in the shadows of high-voltage power lines have hardly been considered. First published in 1973, Power Over People was the first book to address the frightening potential side effects of our dependence on electrical.

Sowing the wind :
ISBN: 0130835021 OCLC: 20453606

Prentice Hall Press, New York : ©1990.

The blue planet
ISBN: 0452007089 OCLC: 10824468

New American Library, New York : [1984], ©1983.

  The blue planet /
ISBN: 0316977071 OCLC: 9555504

Little, Brown, Boston : ©1983.

Chronicles the evolution of our planet by tracing humankinds discovery of the earth's inner workings.

The unfinished universe /
ISBN: 0195080394 OCLC: 26399171

Oxford University Press, New York : 1993.

 

 

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