Lab Girl - Hardcover

Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I d been a scientist. Ann Patchett"

Hope Jahren s "Lab Girl "burns with her love of science, teaching us the way great teachers can. This is a powerful book that is as original as it is deeply felt. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
"Lab Girl "surprised, delighted, and moved me. I was drawn in from the start by the clarity and beauty of Jahren s prose, whether she was examining the inner world of a seed, the ecosystem around the trunk of a tree, or recounting her own inspiring journey.With"Lab Girl," Jahren joins those talented scientists who are able to reveal to us the miracle of this world in which we live. Abraham Verghese
Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I d been a scientist. Ann Patchett"

Award-winning scientist Jahren delivers a personal memoir and a paean to the natural world. The author s father was a science teacher who encouraged her play in the laboratory, and her mother was a student of English literature who nurtured her love of reading. Both of these early influences engrossingly combine in this adroit story of a dedication to science. Jahren s journey from student to scientist has the narrative tension of a novel, and characters she imbues with real depth. The heroes in this tale are the plants that the author studies, and throughout, she employs her facility with words to engage her readers. We learn much along the way . . . Trees are of key interests to Jahren, and at times she waxes poetic. The author draws many parallels between her subjects and herself. This is her story, after all, and we are engaged beyond expectation as she relates her struggle in building and running laboratory after laboratory at the universities that have employed her. Present throughout is her lab partner, a disaffected genius named Bill, whom she recruited when she was a graduate student and with whom she s worked ever since. The author s tenacity, hope, and gratitude are all evident as she and Bill chase the sweetness of discovery in the face of the harsh economic realities of the research scientist. Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres. " "Kirkus Reviews" "(starred)"
Lab Girl"made me look at trees differently. It compelled me to ponder the astonishing grace and gumption of a seed. Perhaps most importantly, it introduced me to adeeplyinspiring woman a scientist so passionate about her work I felt myself vividly with heron every page. This is asmart, enthralling, and winningdebut. Cheryl Strayed
Hope Jahren s "Lab Girl "burns with her love of science, teaching us the way great teachers can. This is a powerful book that is as original as it is deeply felt. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
"Lab Girl "surprised, delighted, and moved me. I was drawn in from the start by the clarity and beauty of Jahren s prose, whether she was examining the inner world of a seed, the ecosystem around the trunk of a tree, or recounting her own inspiring journey.With"Lab Girl," Jahren joins those talented scientists who are able to reveal to us the miracle of this world in which we live. Abraham Verghese
Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I d been a scientist. Ann Patchett"

Jahren, a professor of geobiology, recounts her unfolding journey to discover what it s like to be a plant in this darkly humorous, emotionally raw, and exquisitely crafted memoir. Jahren, who loves [her] calling to excess, describes the joy of working alone at night, the multidimensional glory of a manic episode, scavenging jury-rigged equipment from a retiring colleague, or spontaneously road-tripping with students. She likens elements of her scientific career to a plant driven by need and instinct. But the most extraordinary and delightful element of her narrative is her partnership with Bill, her lab partner and caring best friend. It s a rare portrait of a deep relationship in which mutual esteem [is] unmarred by sexual tension. For Jahren, a life in science yields the gratification of asking, knowing, and telling; for the reader, the joy is in hearing about the process as much as the results. "Publishers Weekly "(starred review)
Award-winning scientist Jahren delivers a personal memoir and a paean to the natural world. The author s father was a science teacher who encouraged her play in the laboratory, and her mother was a student of English literature who nurtured her love of reading. Both of these early influences engrossingly combine in this adroit story of a dedication to science. Jahren s journey from student to scientist has the narrative tension of a novel, and characters she imbues with real depth. The heroes in this tale are the plants that the author studies, and throughout, she employs her facility with words to engage her readers. We learn much along the way . . . Trees are of key interests to Jahren, and at times she waxes poetic. The author draws many parallels between her subjects and herself. This is her story, after all, and we are engaged beyond expectation as she relates her struggle in building and running laboratory after laboratory at the universities that have employed her. Present throughout is her lab partner, a disaffected genius named Bill, whom she recruited when she was a graduate student and with whom she s worked ever since. The author s tenacity, hope, and gratitude are all evident as she and Bill chase the sweetness of discovery in the face of the harsh economic realities of the research scientist. Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres. " "Kirkus Reviews" "(starred)"
Lab Girl"made me look at trees differently. It compelled me to ponder the astonishing grace and gumption of a seed. Perhaps most importantly, it introduced me to adeeplyinspiring woman a scientist so passionate about her work I felt myself vividly with heron every page. This is asmart, enthralling, and winningdebut. Cheryl Strayed
Hope Jahren s "Lab Girl "burns with her love of science, teaching us the way great teachers can. This is a powerful book that is as original as it is deeply felt. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
"Lab Girl "surprised, delighted, and moved me. I was drawn in from the start by the clarity and beauty of Jahren s prose, whether she was examining the inner world of a seed, the ecosystem around the trunk of a tree, or recounting her own inspiring journey.With"Lab Girl," Jahren joins those talented scientists who are able to reveal to us the miracle of this world in which we live. Abraham Verghese
Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I d been a scientist. Ann Patchett"

Jahren grew up in small-town Minnesota, playing in her father s science lab and laboring in her mother s garden. Her first book invites readers to fall in love, as she did, with science and plants. The award-winning scientist travels the world studying trees with her best friend and lab partner, and finds refuge from life s conflicts in the lab. There I transformed from a girl into a scientist, just likePeter Parkerbecoming Spider-Man, only kind of backward, she writes. Jennifer Maloney, "The Wall Street Journal, " The Hottest Spring Nonfiction Books
Jahren, a professor of geobiology, recounts her unfolding journey to discover what it s like to be a plant in this darkly humorous, emotionally raw, and exquisitely crafted memoir. Jahren, who loves [her] calling to excess, describes the joy of working alone at night, the multidimensional glory of a manic episode, scavenging jury-rigged equipment from a retiring colleague, or spontaneously road-tripping with students. She likens elements of her scientific career to a plant driven by need and instinct. But the most extraordinary and delightful element of her narrative is her partnership with Bill, her lab partner and caring best friend. It s a rare portrait of a deep relationship in which mutual esteem [is] unmarred by sexual tension. For Jahren, a life in science yields the gratification of asking, knowing, and telling; for the reader, the joy is in hearing about the process as much as the results. "Publishers Weekly "(starred review)
Award-winning scientist Jahren delivers a personal memoir and a paean to the natural world. The author s father was a science teacher who encouraged her play in the laboratory, and her mother was a student of English literature who nurtured her love of reading. Both of these early influences engrossingly combine in this adroit story of a dedication to science. Jahren s journey from student to scientist has the narrative tension of a novel, and characters she imbues with real depth. The heroes in this tale are the plants that the author studies, and throughout, she employs her facility with words to engage her readers. We learn much along the way . . . Trees are of key interests to Jahren, and at times she waxes poetic. The author draws many parallels between her subjects and herself. This is her story, after all, and we are engaged beyond expectation as she relates her struggle in building and running laboratory after laboratory at the universities that have employed her. Present throughout is her lab partner, a disaffected genius named Bill, whom she recruited when she was a graduate student and with whom she s worked ever since. The author s tenacity, hope, and gratitude are all evident as she and Bill chase the sweetness of discovery in the face of the harsh economic realities of the research scientist. Jahren transcends both memoir and science writing in this literary fusion of both genres. " "Kirkus Reviews" "(starred)"
Lab Girl"made me look at trees differently. It compelled me to ponder the astonishing grace and gumption of a seed. Perhaps most importantly, it introduced me to adeeplyinspiring woman a scientist so passionate about her work I felt myself vividly with heron every page. This is asmart, enthralling, and winningdebut. Cheryl Strayed
Hope Jahren s "Lab Girl "burns with her love of science, teaching us the way great teachers can. This is a powerful book that is as original as it is deeply felt. Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
"Lab Girl "surprised, delighted, and moved me. I was drawn in from the start by the clarity and beauty of Jahren s prose, whether she was examining the inner world of a seed, the ecosystem around the trunk of a tree, or recounting her own inspiring journey.With"Lab Girl," Jahren joins those talented scientists who are able to reveal to us the miracle of this world in which we live. Abraham Verghese
Some people are great writers, while other people live lives of adventure and importance. Almost no one does both. Hope Jahren does both. She makes me wish I d been a scientist. Ann Patchett
Deeply affecting. . . . a totally original work, both fierce and uplifting: a biologist s natural history of her subjects, and herself. In "Lab Girl," pioneering geobiologist Jahren limns her journey [from] insecure young scientist [to] medals and professional and personal fulfillment. Jahren recognized as an undergrad that science would be her true home a place of safety, warmth, and light [where] she could be part of something larger than herself. A belletrist in the mold of Oliver Sacks, she is terrific at showing just how science is done. But her prose reaches another dimension when she describes her remarkable relationship with a lab guy, an undergraduate loner named Bill. The research partners dig holes, gather soil samples, battle personal demons, and keep each other grounded. Jahren s writing is precise, as befits a scientist who also loves words. She s an acute observer, prickly and funny as hell. Elizabeth Royte, "ELLE"
Attentive to subtle signs of growth and change, geobiologist Jahren turns her gaze not only outward but also inward and finds wonder even in minutiae: the flourishing of a seed, an emotional efflorescence in her own psyche. Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life. Dawn Raffel, "More""

Gratifying, spirited . . . a moving chronicle of an eminent research scientist s life . . . It takes a passionate geobiologist with the soul of a poet to make us swoon in the face of computational amplitude . . . Jahren s aim is to make the reader appreciate the fascinations of studying flora, to infect us with the same enthusiasm that has driven her ever since she was a child hanging around in her father s lab, falling hard for the sensuous allures of the slide rule. Early on she discovers one generous mystery of scientific inquiry in the course of making it, it makes you . . . Jahren s literary bent renders dense material digestible and lyrical, in fables that parallel personal history. Her lab partner Bill [is] a character every bit as extraordinary as any of the wild organisms she describes . . . Jahren is determined we stop taking trees for granted: so plant one tree this year, she implores. Trees nourish life in uncountable, always beautiful, ways, and to plant one is to plant hope. Melissa Holbrook Pierson, "The New York Times Book Review"
Engrossing . . . Vladimir Nabokov once observed that a writer should have the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist. The geobiologist Hope Jahren possesses both in spades. Her new memoir is at once a thrilling account of her discovery of her vocation and a gifted teacher s road map to the secret lives of plants a book that, at its best, does for botany what Oliver Sacks s essays did for neurology, what Stephen Jay Gould s writings did for paleontology . . . By crosscutting between chapters about the life cycle of trees and flowers and other green things, and chapters about her own coming-of-age as a scientist, Jahren underscores the similarities between humans and plants tenacity, inventiveness, an ability to adapt but, more emphatically, the radical otherness of plants. . . [In] the laboratory of her father, who taught introductory physics and earth science at a local community college, she discovered the rituals and magic of science: She embraced its rules and procedures and the attention to detail it demanded. Science gave her what she needed: a home as defined in the most literal sense, a safe place to be . . . She communicates the electric excitement of discovering something new something no one ever knew or definitively proved before and the grunt work involved in conducting studies and experiments: the days and weeks and months of watching and waiting and gathering data, the all-nighters, the repetitions, the detours, both serendipitous and unfruitful . . . Along the way, she comes to realize that her work as a scientist is also part of a larger enterprise: she is part of the continuum of scientists who have each built upon their predecessors work, and who will hand down their own advances to the next generation. Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times
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Warm, witty . . . Born andraised in a rural Minnesota town built around a meat-processingplant and defined mostly by its brutalwinters and Scandinavian restraint, Jahren assumed thatthe grim endurance of her Norwegian-immigrant ancestorswas her legacy. She did turn out to be tenacious, thoughnot exactly in the way she had pictured: Long hours spent entertaining herself as achild in her physics-teacher father s workspace piqued Jahren s interest in science, and her housewife mother s unhappines...

A memoir by an award-winning paleobiologist traces her childhood in her father's laboratory, her longtime relationship with a brilliant but wounded colleague and the remarkable discoveries they have made both in the lab and during extensive field research assignments.