yet interested in physics and unsure of how to integrate the two. In the letter Franklin extolls the merits of colleague Maggie Benston, whose contributions to feminist thought and pedagogy, Franklin stated, issued from her integrated way of being and philosophical foundation in science. She cites as an example Benston's point that the negative side effects of contraceptive pills are considered tolerable according to present medical practices that are permeated by the patriarchal bias of reductionism. New methodologies are radically needed, she stressed, in concord with Benston's writings. Franklin's trust in relying on scientific principles to navigate even daily struggles such as an environment "surrounded by jerks" characterizes the letter's cheerful closing, in which she recommends "taking field notes" and imagining oneself as an "explorer come upon a strange tribe." In the letter Franklin mentions as an interested aside the extremely early state of research in solid organic matter, compared to the very well studied condition of solid state physics. She speculates that the neglect of this research area could have a political component, given its benefits to humans rather than to the military. Pacifism, feminism and war Ursula Franklin explains in a prelude to her 2006 collection of papers, interviews and talks that her lifelong interest in structures, in what she terms "the arrangement and interplay of the parts within a whole," has been at the root of most of her activities. Looking back after almost 40 years, she adds, "I can see how I have tried to wrestle with just one fundamental question: 'How can one live and work as a pacifist in the here and now and help to structure a society in which oppression, violence, and wars would diminish and co-operation, equality, and justice would rise?'" As part of the answer, Franklin turns to the metaphor of mapmaking to explain her intellectual journey. "Increasingly I found the maps of conventional wisdom inadequate for my travels," she writes. "I became unwilling and unable to orient my life according to national maps depicting the realms of 'them' and 'us,' of good guys and bad guys, of winning, defeating, and being defeated; in short, all those maps drawn up for travel towards private gain and personal advancement." Franklin concludes that she has been guided in understanding what she calls "the real world" by "the maps of pacifism and feminism". For her, feminism meant a completely new point of view: