Mary Buford > Recent Status Updates

Phenom - I don’t want to finish it

I don’t love that she stole equipment from another experiment knowing she likely had more grant funding than them. That feels icky.

👍

The interaction with her former mentor and transfer of his equipment to her felt very deep to me. I understand how heavy it must have felt for one science legend to pass over his whole life’s work to her in a parking lot on a random day.

I like the book it’s interesting, sometimes relatable from my position, and entertaining. Also inspiring sometimes especially about persistence and grit. It does make me a bit uneasy how she openly talks about nicknames from past students and mocks them in her stories about them.

It’s so crazy that she switched up the field trip itinerary to drive 8 hours out of the way for a tourist stop because an undergrad suggested it. I’m conflicted on how to feel about that because I don’t understand the context and timing available for the trip, but it seems a tad irresponsible?

I really like hearing about how happy she was during her first year at Georgia Tech - and how at home she felt frolicking around the science department and campus at night. I’m glad she’s happy.

Trees are so cool! So whimsical with their eternal intricate pump systems and wood

I’ve realized Bill is the lab partner she already introduced in the beginning and is more of a brother figure for her which feels better.

I’m enjoying reading about her PhD project on the hackberry pit and discovering that the latticework is opal - it reminds me how cool chemistry is and I get how it could become obsessive. I’m curious why she felt she would never be like the any of the women she knew.

From her account meeting Bill and the field trip I get a bit of a superiority complex vibe. Like she and Bill think they are better than the rest of the students and take pride in watching them from the outskirts. Their quick intense bond makes me a bit nervous too that he’s going to turn out to be manipulative or something.

I liked the lessons about her pine tree having a life just like hers and how it died even though it should have out lived her. I also liked the story about how seeds wait for their chance and only get one, as do we.