SCIENTISTS GET DRESSED

From muddy waders and ragged work gloves to spacesuits and full-body panda suits, scientists in the field show off their wardrobes.

Starting with Mae Jemison on the cover, Rose puts an unusually diverse gallery of researchers on the figurative runway, full-color photos actually showing them at work studying sea turtles and volcanoes, an eclipse, whale sharks, glaciers, and honeybees…not to mention donning a spacesuit, maneuvering out of a wheelchair to gather tardigrades from a forest canopy, carrying a rescued bald eagle (previously met in the author’s Beauty and the Beak, 2017), and doing brain surgery. So where are the white lab coats, you ask? Meet neuroanatomist Marian Diamond, posing in one with a preserved human brain and the elegant hatbox in which she carries it when visiting classes. The narrative, printed in two fonts, with the smaller offering further detail for older readers, is paired to several color photos, often on gatefolds, that mix full-body views with inset close-ups of specimens or gear. Aside from a few group shots the men and women here are introduced by name, and though everyone is generically dubbed a “scientist” in the primary narrative, each specialty is identified at the end. There the author also places review questions and examples of citizen-scientist projects open to young volunteers.

An eye-opening catalog of STEM wear.