[Book Review] Hope in the lab

Hope Jahren is a biologist whose research focuses on plants. The author’s partnership with Bill, her lab manager, seems to be unorthodox but you learn how important this relationship is to her research and to her life. This is the kind of easy teamwork that you could only hope to find one day. They make it seem like everything would be ok as long as they had each other, even with the all consuming worry about running out of funding looming in their futures every few years.

Interspersed with the narrative chapters are beautifully written shorter pieces about plant life, describing the biology and building metaphors with that stage of life in the author’s ongoing story. You can feel Jahren’s deep love and appreciation for trees by the way that she has crafted these chapters, and they are a pleasure to read. If even a fraction of her appreciations for trees can be transferred to the reader, she has done her job.

Although I currently find myself exiting academia and may relate more to her students that didn’t prove to live up to their potential, I can say that I appreciate Jahren as a fellow scientist. She works hard and loves her work. That is something that is difficult to find, and I am glad that people like her exist in this world to do the science that should be done.

I would encourage all young scientists, whatever gender identity you ascribe to, to read this book. Women may find it an inspiring story of a fellow woman who made it in a man’s field. Anyone trying to get into academia will be able to relate to the feelings of helplessness in the face of lack of funding and lack of people willing to listen.

Science isn’t always about the publications. Sometimes it is about the struggle to get there. Hope Jahren shows us that.