An unforgettable tell-all that’s rife with details of insurrection, scientific breakthrough, and overcoming the odds.
One of the world’s most successful scientists reveals how systemic sexism in science has suppressed women and undercut scientific progress—but she is confident that positive change lies ahead.
In this beautifully written memoir, Colwell, a leading microbiologist whose many accolades include being the first female director of the National Science Foundation, exposes “a deep-seated bias against women in science [that] has been documented at almost every level, from Nobel Prize winners down to undergraduates.” While readers may not be surprised to learn that science is a male-dominated field, the stories the author recounts from her decades of experience as a researcher, educator, society president, and entrepreneur are shocking in their scope. She describes men wielding gender as a weapon and rigging the scientific system of recognition and reward against women based on unfounded theories of inferior intelligence and ability. One male professor told her, “we don’t waste fellowships on women” and that “the only degree you’re going to get is in the maternity ward of a hospital.” Rather than capitulate, Colwell persevered and achieved unrivaled success. In deliberate and often captivating prose, she describes time after time when she created opportunities for herself and for her female peers and students. She also tells the stories of other women whose determination, insight, and talent helped to chip away at the glass ceiling. “In the dozen years after my presidency [1984-1985],” she writes, “six women…became presidents of [the American Society for Microbiology]—more women presidents than the society had ever had before.” Colwell’s unshakeable belief that “more women equals better science” shaped her historic tenure at the NSF and informs her concluding chapter, a motivating collection of tips for aspiring scientists. Colwell’s grit and brilliance shine through on every page of the book, which is as much a call to arms as it is autobiography.
An unforgettable tell-all that’s rife with details of insurrection, scientific breakthrough, and overcoming the odds.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-8127-6
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.
A delightful ode to birds and a powerful defense of the planet we share with them.
In this moving memoir, filmmaker and novelist Kumar explores encounters with birds as meditations on the natural world. Told in a series of vignettes comprised of notable bird sightings, the narrative offers countless magnificent reminders of the beauty and force of nature as well as warnings of human-caused destruction as bird populations plummet due to such factors as habitat loss, water shortages, and changing temperatures. Kumar didn’t take up birding until her 20s, when a chance encounter on the beach with some avid birders and a flock of curlews transformed her life. This experience became her access point to nature, and she nurtured that connection, whether living in urban settings like Los Angeles or, later, rural New Mexico, where “even the winters are sun-drenched.” Through birds, the author was able to revisit the childhood intimacy with her surroundings that she cherished growing up in the heavily forested mountains of northeastern India. “Birds became a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world,” she writes, and “allowed me once again to relish solitude in the way I had as a child.” This sense of enchantment permeates the book as she brings us along on her adventures, including long odysseys to see bald eagles, bobcat sightings through her living room window, and glimpses of the mango-colored tanager in a city park. The author is clearly concerned about leaving a planet rich with wildlife for her children, but her ancestors are also on her mind. She lost both her parents and brother as a young adult, and she connects to their spirits through birds and nature. Ultimately, this is a book about the interconnectedness of generations and ecosystems, and birds are the conduit between the two. “Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us,” writes Kumar.
An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-57131-399-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Milkweed
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
Solid data and reasoned conjecture strike a harmonious balance in a new SETI.
A jocular title does not even hint at the real wonders of this cook’s tour of alien life.
Astrophysicist Frank, author of Light of the Stars and The Constant Fire, has been obsessed with the idea of extraterrestrial life since childhood. After years of dreaming about exploring the cosmos for signs of intelligent life, he and other scientists are on the threshold of a new era of unprecedented discovery in the field of astrobiology. He details not only recent revelations in the detection of exoplanets, but also the search for technosignatures, indicators of technologically advanced species on worlds light years distant. These are not merely elements of science fiction. They are realities now within human reach thanks to the continuing development of ultra-powerful telescopes and to the sea change in a scientific culture that once scoffed at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Frank’s enthusiasm is contagious, occasionally over-exuberant, and there is plenty of hard science in this survey, which the author presents with economy and accessibility. The book brims with fascinating facts and speculations, from the particulars of astrobiology to Dyson spheres. Frank’s cosmic tour makes stops at such milestones as the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation, showing how these 1950s advances continue to inform our thinking about the possibility of technological civilizations. The author also recounts the origins and current manifestations of the UFO craze and how the advancement of actual science has been impeded by 70 years of pop culture images that haunt our collective expectations. Frank advises we look for alien life where it most likely exists: deep space. He also stresses the key point that we have only begun to peer into the universe with instruments capable of breakthrough discoveries, a useful riposte to critics of the effort. Throughout, Frank champions the importance of demanding standards of evidence: “They are, literally, why science works.”
Solid data and reasoned conjecture strike a harmonious balance in a new SETI.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780063279735
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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