A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman: A Memoir

By Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Book Overview

"Fierce, absorbing, and ultimately inspiring." --ELIZABETH KOLBERT

"[A] riveting book, beautifully written." --Washington Post

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, potentially containing the equivalent of the world's total economy in metals, though they cannot be brought back to Earth. 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063086905
• ISBN13: 9780063086906
• Release Date: June 2022
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Instantly a new favorite book

I can't get over this book. It is incredibly inspiring and so well written. Elkins-Tanton is someone who I am so very happy they put their life down on paper, good and bad parts. This memoir felt, above all, honest. She wrote her life the way it happened, without much artifice or obvious streamlining for 'narrative' which I appreciate because life is never narrative. I read memoirs to experience a life different from my own and this book delivers that. What most resonated with me is that she is someone who has not just lived life and is recounting it, but she looked for insights every day in her life and she shares these insights with us as readers. She was constantly learning and figuring out what she could glean from every job and relationship and experience, in a way that is humble and earnest, not didactic. This woman very casually within this memoir taught me so much about both working and personal relationships, about hard-work, about endurance. Loved this book, can see myself coming back to it for years to glean more from it. Should warn there is mentions of childhood abuse for anyone who can't read material like that. She does cover addressing this in therapy.