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A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman
From one of the world's leading planetary scientists, a luminous memoir of exploration on Earth, in space, and within oneself--equal parts ode to the beauty of science, meditation on loss, and roadmap for personal resilience
Deep in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, three times farther from the sun than the Earth is, orbits a massive asteroid called (16) Psyche. It is one of the largest objects in the belt; if its substantially metal core could be mined, the entire mass might be worth as much as ten-thousand-quadrillion dollars. But (16) Psyche has the potential to unlock something even more valuable: the story of how planets form, and how our planet formed. Soon we will find out, thanks to the extraordinary work of Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the Principal Investigator of NASA's $800 million Psyche mission, and the second woman ever to be awarded a major NASA space exploration contract.
The journey that brought her to this place is extraordinary. Amid a childhood of terrible trauma, Elkins-Tanton fell in love with science as a means of healing and consolation. But still she wondered, was forced to wonder: as a woman, was science for her? In answering that question, she takes us from the wilds of the Siberian tundra to the furthest reaches of outer space, from the Mayo Clinic, where Elkins-Tanton battled ovarian cancer while writing the Psyche proposal, to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where her team brought that proposal to life.
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman is a beautifully-constructed memoir that explores how a philosophy of life can be built from the tools of scientific inquiry. It teaches us how to approach difficult problems by asking the right questions and truly listening to the answers--and how we may find meaning through exploring the wonders of the universe around us.
Deep in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, three times farther from the sun than the Earth is, orbits a massive asteroid called (16) Psyche. It is one of the largest objects in the belt; if its substantially metal core could be mined, the entire mass might be worth as much as ten-thousand-quadrillion dollars. But (16) Psyche has the potential to unlock something even more valuable: the story of how planets form, and how our planet formed. Soon we will find out, thanks to the extraordinary work of Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the Principal Investigator of NASA's $800 million Psyche mission, and the second woman ever to be awarded a major NASA space exploration contract.
The journey that brought her to this place is extraordinary. Amid a childhood of terrible trauma, Elkins-Tanton fell in love with science as a means of healing and consolation. But still she wondered, was forced to wonder: as a woman, was science for her? In answering that question, she takes us from the wilds of the Siberian tundra to the furthest reaches of outer space, from the Mayo Clinic, where Elkins-Tanton battled ovarian cancer while writing the Psyche proposal, to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where her team brought that proposal to life.
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman is a beautifully-constructed memoir that explores how a philosophy of life can be built from the tools of scientific inquiry. It teaches us how to approach difficult problems by asking the right questions and truly listening to the answers--and how we may find meaning through exploring the wonders of the universe around us.
9 pages, Audio CD
First published June 7, 2022
76 people are currently reading
4050 people want to read
About the author
Lindy Elkins-Tanton
5 books30 followersLindy Elkins-Tanton has also published under the name Linda T. Elkins-Tanton.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a scientist studying the formation and evolution of rocky planets. She was born and grew up in Ithaca, New York, and now splits her time between Arizona and the quiet hills of western Massachusetts.
Elkins-Tanton is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission, ASU Vice President for the Interplanetary Initiative, and co-founder of Beagle Learning, a tech company led by CEO Turner Bohlen, training and measuring problem-solving and critical thinking. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT. She was a researcher at Brown University, faculty at MIT, and a director at the Carnegie Institution for Science before moving to a directorship at Arizona State University. She has led four field expeditions in Siberia. She has been the Astor Fellow at Oxford University, is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the American Mineralogical Society, and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton’s research and work lies in three related areas: The physics and chemistry of terrestrial planetary formation and internal evolution, creation of effective interdisciplinary teams for maximizing discovery, and student-centered learning and the reformation of education for the Information Age.
Using models and observations, she and her collaborators have explicated how the evolution of planetesimals (the building blocks of planets) includes partially differentiated and other complex compositional structures, explaining observations from meteorites and asteroids. Her work on the accretion of rocky planets shows that rocky planets everywhere are likely born habitable: Even the magma ocean stages of terrestrial planet formation retained sufficient water to create habitable planets without additional water delivery.
On the Earth, she and her team confirmed that the Siberian flood basalts caused the end-Permian extinction: The magmatism released carbon, sulfur, and halocarbons sufficient to drive catastrophic global climate change, and the flood basalts began with a world-record volume of volcaniclastics, many burning a significant coal volume.
Finally, the Beagle Learning team has shown how the productivity of research questions can be rated using a rubric and scored successfully by artificial intelligence.
She and her family love traveling and discovering the people, animals, and plants of new places. At home she keeps trail cams up to record the nocturnal activity around their houses; in Massachusetts, the cameras record bears, fishers, grey foxes, owls, and more. She’s recently been learning how to identify mosses. On weekends, she and her husband, mathematician and educator James Tanton, hike in the desert, mind their lime and grapefruit trees, and watch the Gambel’s quail.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is a scientist studying the formation and evolution of rocky planets. She was born and grew up in Ithaca, New York, and now splits her time between Arizona and the quiet hills of western Massachusetts.
Elkins-Tanton is the Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission, ASU Vice President for the Interplanetary Initiative, and co-founder of Beagle Learning, a tech company led by CEO Turner Bohlen, training and measuring problem-solving and critical thinking. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT. She was a researcher at Brown University, faculty at MIT, and a director at the Carnegie Institution for Science before moving to a directorship at Arizona State University. She has led four field expeditions in Siberia. She has been the Astor Fellow at Oxford University, is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the American Mineralogical Society, and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her.
Lindy Elkins-Tanton’s research and work lies in three related areas: The physics and chemistry of terrestrial planetary formation and internal evolution, creation of effective interdisciplinary teams for maximizing discovery, and student-centered learning and the reformation of education for the Information Age.
Using models and observations, she and her collaborators have explicated how the evolution of planetesimals (the building blocks of planets) includes partially differentiated and other complex compositional structures, explaining observations from meteorites and asteroids. Her work on the accretion of rocky planets shows that rocky planets everywhere are likely born habitable: Even the magma ocean stages of terrestrial planet formation retained sufficient water to create habitable planets without additional water delivery.
On the Earth, she and her team confirmed that the Siberian flood basalts caused the end-Permian extinction: The magmatism released carbon, sulfur, and halocarbons sufficient to drive catastrophic global climate change, and the flood basalts began with a world-record volume of volcaniclastics, many burning a significant coal volume.
Finally, the Beagle Learning team has shown how the productivity of research questions can be rated using a rubric and scored successfully by artificial intelligence.
She and her family love traveling and discovering the people, animals, and plants of new places. At home she keeps trail cams up to record the nocturnal activity around their houses; in Massachusetts, the cameras record bears, fishers, grey foxes, owls, and more. She’s recently been learning how to identify mosses. On weekends, she and her husband, mathematician and educator James Tanton, hike in the desert, mind their lime and grapefruit trees, and watch the Gambel’s quail.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
June 22, 2022
I really wanted to love this. It is really interesting, but it felt choppy. I prefer books that have a nice flow. I just have a hard to getting passed that once I start to get irritated.
December 16, 2023
I am not a big fan of memoirs. Those that I have read have been book club selections, as is this book. My complaint is that they, in my opinion, contain an ample amount of drivel and subtle pleas for compassion. It was with trepidation that I began this memoir by Lindy Elkins -Tanton. This one was different as my four stars attest to. What a pleasant surprise - one of the benefits of belonging to a book club. This woman is brilliant and her accomplishments are amazing; she is a woman to be reckoned with.
Ms. Elkins-Tanton’s insistence on team building both in the business world and in teaching was an essential part of why the team she led was selected by NASA to launch a 800 million dollar project called Psyche. (She is only the second woman ever to be granted a major NASA contract). This 3-4 year planetary exploration of a metal-rich asteroid thought to be a failed planet hopefully will explain how the earth’s core was formed. Also interesting were group field trips to Siberia which resulted in proof that climate change gasses caused mass extinction some 252 million years ago. No small things.
This memoir got better and better as her achievements became more astounding. She writes beautifully and convincingly. Through many adversities including gender bias (what else is new?), health and family issues, and setbacks, she is honest and forthcoming. There is no overload of scientific terminology to show how smart she is and how ignorant the reader is. Lindy Elkins-Tanton makes me proud of our gender.
July 18, 2022
Excellent, brutally honest memoir of a scientist who overcame serious trauma, faced misogyny in her field and created a team that will send a cubesat to an asteroid in a NASA mission that she is leading. Don’t fear the science! The descriptions of her research trips to Siberia are fascinating.
December 16, 2025
Unfortunately not my fav, sorry but you can really tell lindy is a scientist and not an author lol
June 28, 2022
3.75 rounded up
LOVED the memoir parts of this book. This felt like two books though, part memoir, part how-to manage a team and create a culture.
I would have probably read both of these if they were separate books, and loved both of them! Instead I felt disappointed when the memoir stopped in favor of the less exciting how-to, and spent these parts just hoping another memoir story would come around soon. The change in the author's voice between these two made the disparity even more acute.
The memoir parts were so good I wish I could have given 5 stars.
LOVED the memoir parts of this book. This felt like two books though, part memoir, part how-to manage a team and create a culture.
I would have probably read both of these if they were separate books, and loved both of them! Instead I felt disappointed when the memoir stopped in favor of the less exciting how-to, and spent these parts just hoping another memoir story would come around soon. The change in the author's voice between these two made the disparity even more acute.
The memoir parts were so good I wish I could have given 5 stars.
January 14, 2025
Despite being quite a choppy piece of writing, this memoir is a fascinating look into the life of a female scientist who led the efforts to get the Psyche NASA mission off the ground. She describes well the life and career challenges she had to face, throws in a healthy amount of science jargon for those who like that kind of thing, and shares good advice on the topics of dealing with harassment, making teams function, and charting one's own path. The chapter about visiting Russia was interesting but a bit long and out of place in the scope of the larger memoir.
January 15, 2025
crazy i put this on my tbr in high school and now i am in a research group with her and taking her class. life is wild man lindy u are so cool.
May 30, 2022
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is an impressive woman, and many of her achievements are explored in depth in her memoir. Particularly interesting was her geological field work in Siberia, and her strong interest in team-building and advocacy for gender equality in academic and scientific communities.
However, the structure of her memoir is somewhat disjointed, and some elements of her history are incompletely presented. We spend considerable time focusing on her education, field work as a geologist, academic career and investigative work and project proposals for NASA, and much less on her personal life. Perhaps that is how it should be, as her achievements make her a significant role model for young women who aspire to the sciences. She is passionate about her work, but also as an advocate for gender equality in the workplace.
I left her book feeling as though I understood her road to career success, her acknowledgement that her path to the top included some detours in the business world, and her obvious passion for her planetary science work. However, I wish she would have better elaborated her upbringing, and even a bit about her own parenting style towards her son. But what disappointed me the most is her failure to go beyond the surface level of her history with depression . She seems to feel she is cured, and that it can never return which made me wonder how much she truly understands about mental illness. As I noted, her personal story feels incomplete, but as a testament to a woman in science, it is a worthwhile read.
As usual, I listened as an audiobook and narrator Lisa Flanagan did an excellent job portraying this story.
However, the structure of her memoir is somewhat disjointed, and some elements of her history are incompletely presented. We spend considerable time focusing on her education, field work as a geologist, academic career and investigative work and project proposals for NASA, and much less on her personal life. Perhaps that is how it should be, as her achievements make her a significant role model for young women who aspire to the sciences. She is passionate about her work, but also as an advocate for gender equality in the workplace.
I left her book feeling as though I understood her road to career success, her acknowledgement that her path to the top included some detours in the business world, and her obvious passion for her planetary science work. However, I wish she would have better elaborated her upbringing, and even a bit about her own parenting style towards her son. But what disappointed me the most is her failure to go beyond the surface level of her history with depression . She seems to feel she is cured, and that it can never return which made me wonder how much she truly understands about mental illness. As I noted, her personal story feels incomplete, but as a testament to a woman in science, it is a worthwhile read.
As usual, I listened as an audiobook and narrator Lisa Flanagan did an excellent job portraying this story.
December 9, 2025
Took me ages but I finally finished this book. Ahg, I went back and forth on it so many times. I myself am a scientist and a young woman, so I expected to connect with this memoir more. Sections of this book were utterly enthralling—notably, the chapters describing fieldwork in remote Siberia and the chapters walking through the Psyche Mission proposal process—but I really struggled to get through other sections. I think I had a hard time with the sections that describe all the “inbetweeness” of science. So many important topics are brought up, but I just couldn’t get away from feeling like the way they were written in such a way that centered more on victimhood than was likely intended. This was an unfortunate distraction from the greater truths encapsulated by the book. The end was redemptive in many ways, I finished the book feeling nothing but, “Dream bigger!” coursing through my body. What a lovely way to end a book.
May 29, 2022
I love to read and listen to stories of scientific careers, especially these more meandering ones. Such is the case of Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who accomplished exceptional success in the world of science despite many adversities and traumatic experiences in her youth.
There are intertwined themes: a deeply personal memoir; notes from lab and fieldwork; analysis of the higher education system and misogynistic management culture in academia. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that the part which for me was the most interesting – stories from her fieldwork in Siberia – was dominated by these other two themes. But I think this book will be priceless for any woman who is considering a career in STEM disciplines.
Trigger warning: there are mentions of child abuse and rape.
Thanks to the publisher, William Morrow, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
There are intertwined themes: a deeply personal memoir; notes from lab and fieldwork; analysis of the higher education system and misogynistic management culture in academia. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that the part which for me was the most interesting – stories from her fieldwork in Siberia – was dominated by these other two themes. But I think this book will be priceless for any woman who is considering a career in STEM disciplines.
Trigger warning: there are mentions of child abuse and rape.
Thanks to the publisher, William Morrow, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
August 7, 2022
I am not typically a space fan but I enjoy reading about women scientists. It's alway disheartening how much ego and patriarchy try to keep women scientists down. There is that dynamic in this book but it is also a personal journey from a survivor and someone who put her scientific dreams on hold for a fairly long time. Now she is the PI of a space mission, having won the NASA competition after 5 years of work.
The most interesting aspect of the book for me was her approach to learning how to ask questions in a meaningful way. It's worth the read for that alone.
My greatest issue with the book was the amount of bouncing around in time. I had a hard time knowing what part of her life she was in at times.
The most interesting aspect of the book for me was her approach to learning how to ask questions in a meaningful way. It's worth the read for that alone.
My greatest issue with the book was the amount of bouncing around in time. I had a hard time knowing what part of her life she was in at times.
September 6, 2022
Torn between 3 and 4 stars; I overall enjoyed my reading experience so I'm rounding up. Lindy has lived a fascinating life and has a gift for explaining scientific concepts in ways that someone with little-to-no experience in the field can understand! However, the narrative gets a bit choppy, going back and forth on the timeline, and I struggled to find an overarching theme/message/point. Definitely an enjoyable read, especially for those invested in academia, but do not expect too much narratively. Still wish we had spent more time talking about Siberia.
June 15, 2022
DNF at 12%. The author's lack of self awareness of her own internalized classism and immense privilege was more irritating than the story was interesting. Yuck. Returned early, do not recommend.
January 3, 2025
Hardcover |
This book just feels too important to not give it 5 stars. I’m a better person for having read it. Thank you Lindy, for all of your honesty, transparency and hard work.
This book just feels too important to not give it 5 stars. I’m a better person for having read it. Thank you Lindy, for all of your honesty, transparency and hard work.
July 28, 2022
I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I was interested enough to finish it. The beginning life story feels as if it's written to a certain person or people, there just weren't enough broad connections to make it relatable. Details felt thrown in, some of which were big life moments. What was left felt like a justification for why she made the decisions she did, but again, they felt more personal than universal--more like a diary.
I will admit to my person experience as a 23 year veteran high school science teacher giving me a particular bias, but there were some slights against secondary education which didn't seem fair (it's just math, in high school, just get a textbook and teach it to yourself) and although I agree that many aspects of our educational system are broken, the solutions given here were geared towards what university level students are ready for. In a vacuum, not understanding all of the other expectations and requirements of secondary educators, I bristle at higher ed instructors boiling down what needs to happen in order to make education as a whole better. That said, the most interesting part of the book for me was her educational ideas, and I think her focus on asking great questions is brilliant. I just wish she'd consult some secondary educators to learn what the pressure points are in that system, so that we could really start having a conversation about how we change an entire system to help learners develop into articulate, inquisitive leaders.
I was equally interested in the places where her gender identification and presentation bumped up against a male-dominated system. This was where I felt her personal story clearly fit into broader issues that women and non-binary folks are dealing with today, and lots of men in lots of different fields would do well to read that section of the book. I don't doubt that she is an excellent team leader, and I think her story here is important because I firmly believe that if we are going to make spaces for non-cis-men in all areas, we need to think about reconstructing the spaces we inhabit together in ways that consider all genders and the various ways "strength" and "success" can be seen within in our socially constructed expectations of gender and leadership.
Learning about the mission was fascinating, and her appreciation for her team and leadership style are palpable. It could have been condensed a wee bit, but she is clearly crazy excited about the project and how far the team has come, so I will forgive her that. I am excited to see the mission unfold in the hopefully near future.
I will admit to my person experience as a 23 year veteran high school science teacher giving me a particular bias, but there were some slights against secondary education which didn't seem fair (it's just math, in high school, just get a textbook and teach it to yourself) and although I agree that many aspects of our educational system are broken, the solutions given here were geared towards what university level students are ready for. In a vacuum, not understanding all of the other expectations and requirements of secondary educators, I bristle at higher ed instructors boiling down what needs to happen in order to make education as a whole better. That said, the most interesting part of the book for me was her educational ideas, and I think her focus on asking great questions is brilliant. I just wish she'd consult some secondary educators to learn what the pressure points are in that system, so that we could really start having a conversation about how we change an entire system to help learners develop into articulate, inquisitive leaders.
I was equally interested in the places where her gender identification and presentation bumped up against a male-dominated system. This was where I felt her personal story clearly fit into broader issues that women and non-binary folks are dealing with today, and lots of men in lots of different fields would do well to read that section of the book. I don't doubt that she is an excellent team leader, and I think her story here is important because I firmly believe that if we are going to make spaces for non-cis-men in all areas, we need to think about reconstructing the spaces we inhabit together in ways that consider all genders and the various ways "strength" and "success" can be seen within in our socially constructed expectations of gender and leadership.
Learning about the mission was fascinating, and her appreciation for her team and leadership style are palpable. It could have been condensed a wee bit, but she is clearly crazy excited about the project and how far the team has come, so I will forgive her that. I am excited to see the mission unfold in the hopefully near future.
September 1, 2022
Part biography, part science, part description of the upcoming Psyche mission. Knew I wanted to read this as soon as I could get ahold of it - and preferably before the launch, which was then scrubbed.
The description of the NASA and/or JPL vetting program was fascinating. The science behind solid cores and the early solar system was interesting, and fairly well presented. The author had to overcome a lot in life, and this gives a clear window into that. The entire book lives up to the title.
And yet... I thought the story could flow better. Instead it jumps around, trying unsuccessfully to touch on all the topics. The timeline was roughly chronological, but that also was hard to follow. A better book about the science and process would be four stars, and a better structured biography would be the same. For me, the average of the two brings down the rating.
The worst part, not at all the author's fault - is that the mission isn't finished yet. Will there be a sequel, or a revision? I'll be watching for it.
The description of the NASA and/or JPL vetting program was fascinating. The science behind solid cores and the early solar system was interesting, and fairly well presented. The author had to overcome a lot in life, and this gives a clear window into that. The entire book lives up to the title.
And yet... I thought the story could flow better. Instead it jumps around, trying unsuccessfully to touch on all the topics. The timeline was roughly chronological, but that also was hard to follow. A better book about the science and process would be four stars, and a better structured biography would be the same. For me, the average of the two brings down the rating.
The worst part, not at all the author's fault - is that the mission isn't finished yet. Will there be a sequel, or a revision? I'll be watching for it.
June 2, 2025
I'm part of a science themed book club, not because I'm that interested in science, but more because book clubs are fun and we always have good conversations. I end up reading a sci-fi novel every other month, and then a non-fiction science book the other months. The novels are almost always about space and the non-fiction is typically about space, or medicine, or like a micro history of something really interesting, like refrigeration.
After reading this book I can confidently say that I just don't give a fuck about geology. Hiking a mountain is pretty fun, plate tectonics is pretty cool, and then much like a cliff at the top of a mountain, there is a step dropoff in my interest in geology. I'm not saying that understanding how planets are formed isn't important work, but I sure am glad it's somebody else's job to learn about it.
After reading this book I can confidently say that I just don't give a fuck about geology. Hiking a mountain is pretty fun, plate tectonics is pretty cool, and then much like a cliff at the top of a mountain, there is a step dropoff in my interest in geology. I'm not saying that understanding how planets are formed isn't important work, but I sure am glad it's somebody else's job to learn about it.
June 20, 2022
Wow. I liked this so much that I was left wishing for a whole genre of books similar to it so that I could keep reading. It was so well written. I've followed the author on twitter for awhile now and work in one of the labs that developed one of the instruments for Psyche (the Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab). All I really knew about the author beforehand was that she was awesome, but I didn't know any details. This book remedied that, covering personal life, career path, and a lot about leadership in education, teams, and organizations. I especially appreciated her courage in writing about some very serious personal challenges like sexual abuse, divorce, cancer, and other health issues. I think those things really helped to humanize her -- she has so many accomplishments under her belt that this book could've been entirely filled with boat loads of elaboration about them. The more curated string of her accomplishments and challenges through the career path was also really inspiring. So many of the questions she had at each stage were ones that I've had, e.g., solving the two body problem, and is so common among all of my peers in academia. I don't know that I've read any other book that actually described them. And boy, has she moved a lot in her career. I'm still early career and I too have moved a lot, but it really struck home when reading an experienced professor's journey in such a condensed form. I also really enjoyed the chapters that dug into her leadership philosophy. The new course she developed focused on "next natural questions" was extremely interesting. Similarly, her thoughts about how to effectively lead a team, be it as a director of an organization or the PI of a NASA mission. I too am the PI of a NASA mission, albeit one that is 100x smaller in scope but this is just step-1 on my journey targeting success like hers. But wow, hearing about the proposal development, CSR, site visit -- I also went through all of that in 2020 for an astrophysics SMEX ($150M mission) that ultimately didn't get selected and again I was struck by how unusual it was to be reading about all of these things in a book. I wish it _wasn't_ unusual. Everything she said about how rare it is to make it to that stage, how lucky everyone on the team is to be competing at that high a level, it's all true but also means that it can be so hard to learn about the process before living it. #PI_Daily on twitter really helps learn what the day to day is like, but this book zooms that way out to show an example of what kind of career can land you in such a position, what kinds of things a potential PI might be thinking about and working on, and what the crunch time preparation looks like. Really, I can't recommend this book highly enough -- to my colleagues but also to the general public.
August 19, 2023
I loved this memoir from the start. The utter honesty and truthfulness that was portrayed while giving great insight into being a woman in STEM was amazing. Although I gravitate towards Biology, it was interesting to read about Geology and Planetary Science.
While reading, I stumbled across one of Lindy Elkins-Tanton’s Ted Talks (titled Change Begins With a Question). In it she talked about Beagle Learning- the company that she and her family helped create- and I loved to hear and read about it. (I can also attest that she is as eloquent of a speaker as she is a writer).
While reading, I stumbled across one of Lindy Elkins-Tanton’s Ted Talks (titled Change Begins With a Question). In it she talked about Beagle Learning- the company that she and her family helped create- and I loved to hear and read about it. (I can also attest that she is as eloquent of a speaker as she is a writer).
September 27, 2022
don’t, just don’t unless you are really excited by her NASA mission.
The first third of the book is great.
Then it goes downhill to name dropping and self congratulatory. She also packed in the science, something I’m not afraid of, but waaaaay too much for a book to the general public, IMO. By the time she gets to discussing the NASA mission she led I was bored and again she got into the weeds.
Overall, I nearly gave it two stars.
The first third of the book is great.
Then it goes downhill to name dropping and self congratulatory. She also packed in the science, something I’m not afraid of, but waaaaay too much for a book to the general public, IMO. By the time she gets to discussing the NASA mission she led I was bored and again she got into the weeds.
Overall, I nearly gave it two stars.
July 6, 2022
Wish I liked this a whole lot more.
November 26, 2024
3.5 stars
July 22, 2022
The extraordinary story of Elkins-Tanton’s path to science. An unconventional success story. She also explores scientific thinking as a philosophy for life. A times, this felt very clunky.
January 9, 2026
Technically I DNFed this but I’m letting myself count it as read because I got like 90% through and I suffered too much for it to count for nothing. I was so drawn into this book by the title and thought it was going to be so much more, but was disappointed. I was simply bored. I did learn a few things I suppose, as someone who wants to pursue a STEM PhD, but I don’t think even that made the read worth it.
June 20, 2022
Enjoyable read from an impressive female leader. Especially after fighting through abuse and beating cancer. I am rooting for Lindy and the Psyche Mission; rooting for the science and the team. I liked following the human side of the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2022
Won through Goodreads giveaways. A fascinating account of the journey of a woman in STEM! I would love to see an afterword following the completion of the mission at hand.
December 8, 2022
On the fence about this one. I hoped for a memoir about her working relationships and how she overcame the obstacles in the male dominated STEM field. While there was some of that, parts of the book consisted of scientifically quite lengthy descriptions of the authors projects, almost like she modified and included some of her talks and proposals to increase the length of the book. There is nothing really wrong with it, but sometimes it sounded more like a geology/astronomy textbook, than a memoir.
January 1, 2023
Reading this book was incredibly refreshing and inspiring in the current academic culture. Lindy Elkins-Tanton is probably the most successful earth and planetary scientist out there. This statement would probably be contested by some, but then, what does success mean? Besides being the PI of the Psyche NASA mission, Lindy has repeatedly managed to push visions and knowledge beyond what a one person could do. She harnesses the power of the collective mind without diminishing the individual. Her journey as a female geoscientist in a male dominated field hasn’t been easy either, and it became even more difficult with increasingly more influential leadership positions at Carnegie DTM and ASU. I took so many notes on scientific inquiry and what it means to be a scientist, leadership, academic and personal integrity, resilience and education. And as a younger female geophysicist, I can only strive to follow some of her convictions for science and education.
“I wish with all my heart that every person could, in at least one discipline, pursue and come to know through a long path traveled all that has been discovered, right to the edge of human understanding.”
“I wish with all my heart that every person could, in at least one discipline, pursue and come to know through a long path traveled all that has been discovered, right to the edge of human understanding.”
December 2, 2022
Leo's pick for the Masursky Book Club. I had high hopes, but there is a lot of padding in this. Why do I care about her time riding horses or raising dogs? And the very young sexual abuse is SO disturbing, but adds almost nothing to understanding her life. In the whole book, there is *maybe* 25% of the chapters about her work with the space program, so it feels a bit like a bait and switch. The part about doing geology in Russia kind of redeemed a book that would have otherwise felt almost like a waste of time. Though the short chapter about her course, teaching grad students to ask better questions, was really interesting.
March 27, 2023
A delightful rendering of the curvy path that badass scientist Lindy Elkins-Taunton took from youth to head of a NASA mission with a billion dollar budget.
Wittily written, this book gives us both fascinating earth science and the righteous fury of watching a smart, driven woman overcome sexism to reach the pinnacle of her field.
I listened to this book on tape--it was stellar!
Wittily written, this book gives us both fascinating earth science and the righteous fury of watching a smart, driven woman overcome sexism to reach the pinnacle of her field.
I listened to this book on tape--it was stellar!
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