Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (Epub)

Description

Does for botany what Oliver Sacks’s essays did for neurology, what Stephen Jay Gould’s writings did for paleontology.” —The New York Times

In these pages, Hope takes us back to her Minnesota childhood, where she spent hours in unfettered play in her father’s college laboratory. She tells us how she found a sanctuary in science, learning to perform lab work “with both the heart and the hands.” She introduces us to Bill, her brilliant, eccentric lab manager. And she extends the mantle of scientist to each one of her readers, inviting us to join her in observing and protecting our environment.

Warm, luminous, compulsively readable, Lab Girl vividly demonstrates the mountains that we can move when love and work come together.

User’s Reviews

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography• A New York Times Notable Book • Winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Film Prize for Excellence in Science Books • Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, TIME.com, NPR, Slate, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kirkus

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I started and could not finish this book 2 years ago, so yesterday I decided to read it. As in 2016, I enjoyed the science-related chapters and asides/sections discussing any science. The memoir chapters dragged, reminding me of rambling, daily journal excerpts. If this book were fiction, I’d have said the protagonist is an unreliable narrator, who’s not a very relatable person.Dr. Jahren spends almost all day at the lab; I estimate >100 hours/week. She expects the same of her grad students, who don’t come close to meeting any of her expectations. Except for Bill—her favorite grad student and later her lab partner—I can’t recall her teaching, mentoring, or even caring about students. Worse, she HAZES them!When Jahren gets a new student, she makes them use a pen and label HUNDREDS of empty vials with “long and complicated alphanumeric code, rich with Greek letters and nonsequential numbers . . .” After the newbie has toiled away most of a day, Jahren comes up with a staged excuse and proceeds to throw ALL the vials into a trash can . . . while the newbie watches. Jahren then says it’s a bad omen if she sees that the newbie regarded his/her time as having value. She adds: “As a corollary, any recognition of futility was perhaps worse.”Dr. Jahren may be an outstanding scientist, but I believe I would’ve hated being one of her grad students.2 stars because this time, I was able to make it to the end.

⭐ I strongly wanted to love this book, because my friends have recommended it to me as a triumph of female scientists. A review likened it to “what Oliver Sacks did for neuroscience,” which of course got me excited. I am sincerely disappointed.It has some interesting plant fun-fact chapters thrown into the story of an absolute mess of a career which comes across as part whining, part self-congratulatory tale of grit, and very little substance. She talks about making some absolutely reckless and terrible decisions, for which she should absolutely not be rewarded and yet is by the success of this book. She manages her lab in a horrifying way that is sometimes border-line abusive to grad students and her departments. She very occasionally mentions on a surface level ways in which being a woman impeded her, but never states any facts, just that she got a feeling from people from time to time that they didn’t think highly of her.And to top it off, I remembered all of the plant fun-facts from my high school biology classes and recent pop-science reports, so I didn’t even get to learn about plants.Overall as a female scientist I found this book tremendously disheartening and wish I had not spent money on it.

⭐ Jahren is a beautiful writer. Her chapters on soil and trees and plants were gripping and eye opening–even for this scientist reader. Yet this book, which might better be considered a platonic love story to Bill, her long time lab partner, rather than a book about the life of a scientist, was tainted by the gleeful disdain that Jahren and Bill show for many other people. I would give the book five stars if she’d just stuck to the plants and Bill.At one point Jahren compares the intelligence of her graduate students to her dog– and the dog wins. She refers to another quiet student on a trip as “warm-blooded cargo,” because of his uselessness as a driver. What really sealed the deal for me was the road trip. 5 Days before a conference, Jahren and Bill decide they want to attend. They decide to drive cross country, taking two graduate students with them to share in the driving (not to enrich their education or anything). One day, Jahren does not heed multiple warnings and directs the graduate student driver to go straight into a snow storm. Predictably, the van flips when they hit some ice. Lessons Jahren learned: 1) When you pee into bottles make sure to cap them. 2) Wear a seat belt. The student driver, understandably shaken, asks to be dropped off at the airport so she can fly home, but Jahren and Bill yell at her and refuse, calling her a quitter. They drag her to the conference in the banged up van so that Jahren can deliver the talk that was so important that it was never mentioned again in the book. When they return, Jahren nobly claims responsibility for the busted university van (as she should– she was in charge!). How selfless.Jahren and Bill enjoy giving their students a repetitive, meaningless task, like labeling hundreds of bottles, and then telling them that, sorry, they won’t be using their work after all. To pass their sadistic test a student must both resign his or herself to the monotony that is science and accept that the work was wasted, but also salvage something from the time spent. A memorable student saved all the bottle caps, hoping they could be “spares” in the future.There are little stories like this woven into the book, souring the beautiful language on scientific discovery and personal passion. I was a graduate student once and this culture is pervasive and horrifying and drives good students from pursuing science. A student may have the passion, but s/he just can’t contend with being treated like the scum on Jahren’s shoes. I admire Jahren’s scientific successes and her obvious dedication, but it is overshadowed by her perpetuation of a problematic culture.

⭐ The first time I experienced this book, it was the audio version performed by the author. I loved it, so I bought it, and read it through a second time. Although oftentimes when I discuss a book with friends I come to like it a little bit less or more, in the case of this book, that was not the case. My friend pointed out that she does some unethical things (and she does) but that didn’t sway me. Instead, I appreciated the fact that she has become such a successful person in spite of the fact that like all of us, she IS flawed and she is not afraid to share that fact. I loved that readers learn that she suffers from a mental illness (this isn’t a spoiler, the book is ranked #1 in bipolar disorder). I love that she has such a great relationship with her lab partner, Bill. And I love that she provides tons of interesting information about plants. In fact, there is very little that I don’t love about this book. The one thing that I wonder, even after experiencing it two times, is that she keeps details of her upbringing somewhat private and alludes to not having been shown a lot of love; however, that didn’t change the fact that I loved the book.In summary, I can’t imagine anyone who is the slightest interested in STEM subjects who wouldn’t enjoy reading this book. Great companion reads: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer and All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora.

⭐ ‘Lab Girl’ is more memoir than a book full of science trivia about plants. Every other chapter is a short piece about plant properties and they are all very interesting. Ms. Jahren covers such areas as bacteria, seeds, the importance of sterilization during lab research, fungus, soil, vines and weeds, communication between plants, how trees manage seasons, plant sex, and plant memory. I found myself also looking up additional information about plants the author mentioned such as cholla cactus, the hackberry tree, the monkeypod tree, and horsetails. Her explanations are rooted in solid science including evolution. There is no biblical nonsense about the planet being only six-thousand years old. There are also no photos or sketches in the nonfiction work.Ms. Jahren’s memoir explains in a self-deprecating manner throughout the book that scientific investigation of the plant world is what drives her. God knows, she isn’t doing it for the money. Funding is a constant concern in her specialized field. Her love of discovery and sharing it with the world, no matter how inconsequential people may think it is, made it impossible not to like the book and author. Her decades-long friendship with a quirky gentleman named Bill adds a lot of humor to the work. While much of ‘Lab Girl’ deals with her working in a hospital pharmacy, their road trip mishaps, lab accidents, and sexism in the science field, the book’s true charm is the author’s down-to-earth personality. Ms. Jahren is quite introspective and honest about her insecurities as well as struggles being bipolar. The author’s chapter on being pregnant and giving birth are, in itself, worth picking up a copy of Lab Girl.’ Overall, the memoir is a pleasant look at a field where patience is not only a virtue but a necessity.

⭐ Cannot imagine why this book was chosen for the “big read” book in 2020 except maybe because everything is 2020 is sad, so they thought it fit? The way she treated her lab partner, Bill, was atrocious. She had no qualms about him being homeless, desperately poor, or hungry. Her sense of “humor” was annoying – putting bad music on the radio on purpose, or harassing the nurses while in the hospital during her pregnancy are a couple of examples.

⭐ When someone in my book club chose LAB GIRL for our next discussion, I didn’t rejoice. With what is happening in the world these days, all I want to do in my spare time is eat Snickers bars and watch The Office re-runs. I was wrong. This is a terrific read.LAB GIRL is the memoir of a brilliant and passionate geobiologist whose love for science is infectious, in a good way. The book traces the history of Hope Jahren and her lab manager, Bill, who is her science nerd clone, as they endeavor to establish and fund their research.But the book is so much more than that.Although Jahren does not make a big issue over this, one can see how hard it is to be a woman working in the sciences. When you read the book, take note of Jahren’s treatment at Johns Hopkins during her pregnancy. Also, regardless of how many research successes and awards Jahren has to her name, she lives under the constant tension of trying to find grants to support her work.Jahren’s writing is gorgeous. She talks about leaves, soil and seeds in a way that will permanently change your ideas and attitudes regarding plant life. As I pulled a weed the other day, I thought about all that went into the fact that the weed existed. I yanked it out of the ground anyway, but not without deep appreciation of how it got there.This memoir is about Jahren’s passion for science and also her devotion to her kindred spirit, Bill. If you are looking for lots of information about her relationship with her parents, her husband and her son, you won’t find it on these pages, which is okay. Instead, Jahren’s gift to us is her delightful and informative view of the natural world.

⭐ This book is in part the autobiography of a female scientist with a career in a field that is both male-dominated and in which basic science is the meat and potatoes—by which I mean a discipline with few of the commercial applications at which companies, foundations, venture capitalists, and governments are willing to throw millions. Interspersed into the autobiographical chapters are short essays on trees and the ways they survive, grow, and interact with each other and their environments. So it’s a mix of biography and pop science, and was one of the most well-received science-themed books of last year (2016.)The book is arranged into three parts. The first 11 chapters are entitled “Roots & Leaves” and these cover Jahren’s path to becoming a scientist from her childhood in an unexpressive Scandinavian family in rural Minnesota, through her college job in a hospital lab, and onto her graduate education. Part II consists of 12 chapters that cover Jahren’s years as a junior faculty member, most of which takes place at (my alma mater and former employer) Georgia Tech. The title of this chapter, “Wood & Knots,” gives one some indication of where the author’s story sits in this part of her life. She experiences both growth and set-backs during her time in Atlanta. The last part, “Flowers & Fruit,” describes the period in which not only her professional life, but also her personal life begins to bear fruit. During these years she moved her lab to Johns Hopkins, got tenure, built a family, and eventually moved to Hawaii to work for the University of Hawaii.Besides Jahren, the only other major character in the book is her side-kick Bill, who was an undergraduate where she did her doctorate in California. The two met when Jahren was the Teaching Assistant for a course that Bill took, and subsequently he followed her from lab to lab as her research assistant. Bill’s mix of workaholic diligence, nerdiness, dysfunction, and adroit sarcasm made him a sort of soulmate of science. Their strange, platonic relationship is at the heart of the book, and is in part what keeps the reader wondering and turning pages. Her dog, her husband, and her child are all secondary characters by comparison (perhaps not in her life but in the science-centric story she is telling) though her son becomes a central player near the book’s end. The other people are cameos by grad students and other faculty members.Jahren’s use of language is skillful and at times poetically beautiful. There’s a great deal of humor in the book, much of which stems from the dialogue between her and Bill. While the parts of the books about trees didn’t wow me as much as Wohlleben’s “The Hidden Life of Trees,” that may be because I read his book first and, therefore, was clued into some of the fascinating arboreal secrets. That said, these botanical sketches are intriguing and readable. The only place that the book bogged down for me was in incessant complaints about the difficulty of keeping a lab funded. (And this is from a person who was paid from grant money—job perpetually at risk–at the same Institute where Jahren struggled. But now I’ve lived in India for the past four years so… first world problems, right?)I’d recommend this book for readers generally. I think it may be particularly insightful for young women choosing a career in science, but the book shouldn’t be shunted into a parochial box. There are a number of elements that will keep one reading. For some it will be a fascination with the unexpectedly complex life of trees. For some, the tension of this life story may have a lot to do with the mental health issues that Jahren struggles with. These issues aren’t put front and center in the book, but there are points at which their impact is felt. A few will just be wondering what exactly is going on with her relationship with Bill.

⭐ I was sucked into this memoir probably because I’m about the same age, from roughly the same places in Dr. Jahren’s life and I’m also a scientist. However, it also helped that she has a very engaging writing style with all the personal details that makes me wonder how the *heck* she remembered every tiny detail. This is not a simple “I was born, grew up and lived” story. It reads like a novel, with plot twists, heroes, villains and a relatively happy ending.I appreciate the way she incorporated her struggles with mental illness, women in science and university funding (which will make any tuition paying parent give a HARD look at the college they are paying to educate their child at) within the book but never came off as whiny or complaining. Simply this is “the way it is”. She is also deeply personal with her own thoughts on her childhood, the self doubts we all have in our twenties and eventually parenthood.It was an entertaining, informative and inspiring read. Sometimes we don’t know if we’re making the right decisions, but if we made them, they are at least ours.

⭐ This is one of those books that’s a no-brainer purchase. Everybody who reads it loves it. Though Hope Jahren is supposedly a geochemist and geobiologist, anyone who reads this knows that, actually, she is an alchemist. Somehow she transmutes her complicated, dirty, and daunting journey from childhood to mid-career scientist into a fascinating portrayal of the spirit. What spirit? you wonder. Well, it’s whatever it takes to document the triumph of substance over style, of curiosity over indifference, of care over careerism, of heart over all the forces that try to squeeze it out of our lives — and out of our chronicles of science.At this point in the history of the species, I daresay only a woman could write it — not only because her experience as a woman is an important theme of the book, but because she brings a people-centered point of view that I fear most men scientists would still be disinclined to offer. But that’s a minor point. Jahren’s account is a narrative, and she is a gifted writer and storyteller. I’m equally grateful that she used her gifts in describing the life of plants she loves as well as the lives of the people she loves.It’s a wonderful, personal, thoroughly original — even magical — book.

Keywords

Free Download Lab Girl in Epub format
Lab Girl Epub Free Download
Download Lab Girl 2016 Epub Free
Lab Girl 2016 Epub Free Download
Download Lab Girl Epub
Free Download Ebook Lab Girl