I'm a scientist - a geobiologist who's been studying trees, flowers, seeds, and soil for over twenty years. One day, I realized that I wanted, needed, to tell people - and not just other scientists - about my life in science. Hope Jahren More Quotes by Hope Jahren More Quotes From Hope Jahren A tree's wood is also its memoir. Hope Jahren wood also memoir tree A cactus doesn't live in the desert because it likes the desert; it lives there because the desert hasn't killed it yet. Hope Jahren live because cactus desert I am not a farmer; I am a researcher who studies the plants that come to your dinner table, which means that I ask questions for a living. Hope Jahren plants farmer i-am dinner My laboratory is like a church because it is where I figure out what I believe. Hope Jahren like i-believe church believe Every acorn on the ground is just as alive as the three-hundred-year-old oak tree that towers over it. Hope Jahren ground just alive tree Plants are not like us, and the more you study plants, the more different and deep ways you see that they are not like us. Hope Jahren plants deep see you I am a scientist. To be specific, I am a woman scientist. This, I have been told and have come to believe, is a good thing. In fact, it is such a good thing that America needs more of us. Everyone seems to be very sure of this. The thing that no one is sure about, however, is how to make it happen. Hope Jahren woman i-am good believe If every seed turned into a plant, we'd be living in a very different world. Hope Jahren seed living plant world You can pick wild strawberries with your eyes closed, locating them by smell, for they are two parts perfume to one part taste. An hour of searching might yield a handful if you're lucky. Wild strawberries can't be encouraged, nor can they be discouraged: They come to you unbidden and unearned. They appear, or do not, by the grace of the sun. Hope Jahren eyes you grace sun The world is a fickle place, and it's not fair. But if you're getting most of your rewards from you, then you can use that as a kind of compass, and you can be secure in the fact that you're working for the right reason, and you're going in the right direction. Hope Jahren direction place you world No matter how much funding I get, I'm always thinking, 'This is temporary. This is fragile. It could all end tomorrow, and how am I going to make today worth it? If this is my last day in the lab, what can I do so that I can walk out of here saying, 'That was a good day?'' Hope Jahren walk day good today I love rocks with the unconditional love that you lavish upon a newborn baby. Hope Jahren you rocks baby love One cannot rule out a blizzard in Minnesota after Labor Day, and so when I travel for Thanksgiving or any time in the fall, I am careful to fly into Des Moines instead of Minneapolis and then drive the 200 miles north to my hometown. Hope Jahren i-am day thanksgiving time I was a promising graduate student. I landed a position as a professor before I even started to write my dissertation. While I prepared to start my new job, I decided that I would begin by studying the brine that bleeds sideways within the rocks that underlie the inner Aegean region of Turkey. Hope Jahren studying new job start My father was a scientist, and I grew up in his laboratory. Maybe I am like him, but he is not like me. Hope Jahren i-am like me father My father was a physicist, while I am a biogeochemist. I live to study plants, and he has never had more than a generic interest in biology. Hope Jahren plants live i-am father While both plants and animals awaken via distinct changes in metabolic functioning, most plants prefer to err on the side of caution, waiting for hints of full-on summer before they bloom. Hope Jahren plants animals waiting summer A true scientist doesn't perform prescribed experiments; she develops her own and thus generates wholly new knowledge. Hope Jahren true new own knowledge I love the quiet forest that stands between my lab and my home. Hope Jahren forest home quiet love A seed knows how to wait... A seed is alive while it waits. Hope Jahren seed wait how alive
