Reader Comment on Lab Girl

I was happy to post yet another review of a book about a female scientist. For a review on The Code Breaker, go to Reader Recommendations on this blog and look for Book Review. I read Lab Girl about five years ago, before I read the book about Jennifer Doudna. What is similar between the two stories is that both women were time and again discouraged from becoming research scientists. Jennifer Doudna’s high school counselor even told her that “girls don’t become scientists.” Hope Jahren was considered eccentric and difficult by many of her male colleaques. The field of research science is very competitive by nature, and that isn’t a bad thing at all. Sometimes, however, it seems that the women find the playing field anything but level. Here’s hoping for more books celebrating women who have chosen to pursue one of the sciences for her career! Thank you Richard May and the Kiawah Conservancy for your book review on Lab Girl. Credit for the book review of It’s Only One should go to Heather Smith.

Frances Boyd