Biologist Hope Jahren has studied plants for more than two decades, but the seeds of her love of science were planted early. Her father was a scientist and even though she didn’t see many women in the lab, she had no doubt as to what she wanted to do. In her new memoir, Lab Girl, Jahren writes about her life and her constant search for funding to keep her plant research going. But she also blends personal stories with passages about plant biology and uses metaphor to deliver the gospel of science to casual observers of the natural world.