Items14The creator’s order
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Lab Girl (2016)★ 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2016Jahren’s lab manager Bill is central to the story of how she built a working life in science. She gives their friendship room alongside the chapters on plants, so you can see what it takes to keep doing research when space and money are uncertain. Start here for a memoir that pays attention to who…0 - 2
What Do You Care What Other People Think?Feynman recounts serving on the commission that investigated the Challenger disaster. His demonstration with a rubber seal and ice water gave a public audience a way to see the effect of cold that the commission was examining. Read his account for the difference between having a technical concern…0 - 3
The Sky Is for EveryoneStart with Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s contribution, then try a chapter by an astronomer from another generation. These first-person accounts let you compare the opportunities people had to do research and what they were expected to overcome to stay in the field. A change of narrator can make the same…0 - 4
Uncle Tungsten (2001)★ 8.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2001Young Sacks learns about metals from Uncle Dave, who makes light bulbs with tungsten filaments. An ordinary object becomes the starting point for questions about why one material behaves differently from another. The memoir follows the pleasure of having someone around who will take a child’s…0 - 5
A primate's memoir (2001)★ 6.5/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2001Sapolsky returns to study a troop of baboons in Kenya over more than two decades. The long span lets you watch the lives and social positions of individuals change as he gets to know the troop. Read this for the patience it takes to see when a pattern holds and when a first impression needs…0 - 6
The Calculus of FriendshipStrogatz and his former high school teacher Don Joffray keep exchanging problems in letters for more than thirty years. As the student becomes a professor and the teacher retires, both still have something to teach the other. It’s a good choice if you want to watch a collaboration take shape…0 - 7
Finding the Mother Tree (2021)★ 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2021Simard recounts asking whether trees growing near each other could exchange carbon, then testing that question with colleagues in the field. Pay attention to the gap between the question an individual study can answer and the larger picture of the forest that she draws from it. The memoir gives you…0 - 8
My Life with the Chimpanzees (1996)Published Jan 1, 1996Long stretches of watching at Gombe make a small gesture worth noticing. Goodall’s account gives context for observations such as seeing a chimpanzee use a piece of plant material to fish for termites. It’s an accessible first-person look at how being able to follow an animal closely changes which…0 - 9
Recollections of My LifeCajal recalls a childhood passion for drawing that his father tried to discourage. Later in the book, his studies of the nervous system show where patient looking and the ability to draw became part of his scientific work. The two parts together make you think about what a person brings to a…0 - 10
A Mind Always in MotionSegrè remembers working with Carlo Perrier to identify the element they later named technetium. His account follows the work from evidence that needed explaining to a claim they could defend. It’s a chance to read how a physicist remembered sharing the problem with a chemist.0
