title: Summary of Lab Girl: by Hope Jahren | Includes Analysis
author: Instaread Summaries
description: In her memoir Lab Girl, Hope Jahren describes the life shes lived and the knowledge shes learned as a scientist trying to find her way in the world. Focusing mostly on a period of professional development that stretches from 1997 to 2008, the bulk of the narrative follows Jahren from her first appointment as a professor in Atlanta to her current job at the University of Hawaii. Navigating personal and professional challenges including bipolar disorder, meager budgets, and sexist work environments, Jahren and her eccentric lab manager, Bill, learn a lot about themselves, each other, and the mysterious lives of plants. Growing up in Minnesota, Hope feels starved for human connection. Her parents and her three older brothers are quiet, distant, and seemingly emotionless. The only sure love in her life is the feeling she experiences in her fathers laboratory, a place where she feels happy and curious
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Lab Girl X Hope Jahren Alfred A. Knopf New York · Toronto
  2016](images/Jahr_9781101874943_epub3_001_r1.jpg)![Lab Girl X Hope Jahren
  Alfred A. Knopf New York · Toronto
  2016](images/Jahr_9781101874943_epub3_001_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK
  
  
  PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF AND ALFRED A. KNOPF CANADA
  
  
  Copyright © 2016 by A. Hope Jahren
  
  
  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a
  division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and in Canada by Alfred A.
  Knopf Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Ltd., Toronto.
  
  
  [www.aaknopf.com](http://www.aaknopf.com)
  
  
  [www.penguinrandomhouse.ca](http://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca)
  
  
  Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin
  Random House LLC.
  
  
  Knopf Canada and colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House Canada Ltd.
  
  
  Portions of Chapter 1 originally appeared in _Nautilus_ , Issue 34:
  “Adaptation” ([nautil.us](http://nautil.us)), as “My Family, 