Originally posted at: A Girl that Likes Books Put passion ahead of trainingWhy I read this book?While listening to the Nature podcast this April I learned about this book. Needless to say, as a young scientist myself I went to get it immediately. I couldn't read it until know, and boy, was I missing out!What's the book about?Edward Wilson is a renowned scientist, particularly in the fields of entomology and sociobiology. He has won several prizes, including a Pulitzer, and in this book he shares...

This is my 91th book for my Goodreads 2016 Reading Challenge ;)Edward. O. Wilson, a biologist himself (in fact, he is the world's leading expert in myrmecology (study of ants)), he writes a "practical" and "realistic" book of advice for anyone considering a career in science.Some main points include: 1. Contrary to popular belief, you should stay in science because there is a great need for scientists!2. Do it out of love. Passion is what will get you through your career, not high IQ or math ski...

A Retired Non-Scientist Reads "Letters To A Young Scientist"As its title implies, Edward Wilson's "Letters to a Young Scientist" (2013) is cast in the form of 20 letters addressed to young people who are considering science as a career. The book says a great deal about science and study, but it is much more. The book teaches that a person should have passion for what he or she chooses to make of life, whether in science or in another field. The book teaches about science and about the value of h...

an inspiring work aimed primarily at those interested in pursuing a career in the sciences, e.o. wilson's letters to a young scientist is an autobiographical glimpse into the personal life and background of one of our most eminent biologists. one needn't be a student to find value and richness in wilson's letters, but for a young person trying to a carve out a direction for themselves, this book could well be a catalyst for reassessing their interests and academic pursuits. the wisdom and advice...

This books should more accurately be titled "Letters to a very young field biologist," or "Anecdotes from an entomologist that may only be of minimal interest if you have no interest in bugs."Thankfully, it was a quick read.E. O. Wilson is clearly a successful and prolific scientist, but success in biology does not good-general-science-advice make. It's always interesting, to me, to hear about how researchers started their careers. Oftentimes it's encouraging to learn that some favourite minds f...

Everyone who has taken an ecology class has heard of E.O. Wilson, and as a Zoology major in school I had to learn all about his theory of island biogeography. I saw this book a couple months ago and decided to grab it because I'm attempting to get into graduate school as a lower GPA student. I've been very discouraged thus far and thought this book might give me the encouragement I needed. For the most part, it did. The book does a great job of rousing the inner scientist and dreamer in you. A l...

"Letters to a Young Scientist" might easily be mistaken as a call for young Americans to take up arms on the scientific battlefield in the fight to conquer the unknown. To be sure, Wilson pushes for a greater understanding of the scientific community by the youth of his homeland. He touches on how misunderstood the sciences have become to both our students and the institutions which teach them. However, the overarching argument in "Letters to a Young Scientist" is not actually directed at the pr...

Although I am not the target audience, I enjoyed this a great deal, though it just reinforced my regret in not being able to follow multiple life paths that called to me, such as science. Some chapters were more cohesive than others, and some of the “lessons” seems more tacked on to what was otherwise just a story Wilson wanted to tell, but even so the stories are valuable in and of themselves to young scientists. My 14-year-old future marine biologist is already reading it, and indicated that s...

Heart-felt, encouraging and joyful!Wilson’s enthusiasm for the next generation of scientists shines through each page of this book. A mixture of anecdotes from the authors career and his peers compliment these bite-sized letters well, leaving one with a yearning to make their own discoveries. In a time where many papers are published each day, Wilson’s reassurance that there is space for each person who wishes to be a scientist to fulfil their dream is particularly inspiring. After all, the more...

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Recognition of Boundaries: "Letters to a Young Scientist" by Edward O. WilsonAn interesting book - not least for those of us doing and communicating science.Adding to it I have two long standing concerns:1) There is an important distinction between science and scientists. The former (science) is a collective outcome of a process that broadly swims towards an improved understanding of some abstract and probably unattainable truth. It's

This book is full of inspirational ideas and good advice from a respected scientist to those just entering the field. The problem I have with it is that it seems too ready to pin down how to do science and how not to do science; what science is and what it is not. It also suggests that science is the one correct lens through which to view the universe. These narrow ways of understanding seem to influence Wilson's scientific ethic, which defends trivialization and commodification of individual no...

Wilson does an excellent job at summarizing some very important pieces of advice in science. He espouses the importance of the "prepared mind", the necessity of in depth and general knowledge of the subject area, and the benefits of being passionate about your area of interest. He provides some encouraging remarks for students who do not excel at math, and some observations about the importance of IQ in science (he actually argues that a high IQ may be harmful because it does not necessitate tha...

This is best suited for a young adult who has a passion for insects. Others would probably get a sense of what he's talking about, but the examples definitely come from his own experiences.The first third of the book and the last chapter, I think are the most relevant. If I were to write a similar set of letters, it would read quite differently, mostly because my background is different from Wilson's. (Of course, his opinions are many-fold more credible than mine given that he's a prof at Harvar...

Before going into this review I need to make one message crystal clear - this book is an essential read for anyone taking a Ph.D or considering a career in science regardless of their discipline. This is how profound a read this book is.This book takes the form of short to medium length letters by O.E. Wilson, a (mostly) retired biologist from Harvard who imparts his knowledge onto reader in the form of advice and often relates it to his own experience. The letters are easily read, and for the m...

Letter's to a young scientist should be re-titled as "Letters to a young person considering science". This book has very little in the way of advice for someone who is already in a formational science program, let alone someone already in a PhD program. Wilson spends a lot of time reminiscing about his past, which makes the book very biology focused. Another consequence of his focus on his own career is that this book becomes unhelpful to someone who is unsure about their aspirations in science....

The title is correct, this is a book aimed to convince a young person, probably in high school, to continue their studies as a scientist. The author really puts things in perspective of his own life as an ant researcher at Harvard. A few decades back when I was in high school, I was the target market for this book, a kid interested in science and interested in ants. I even had put together a game of different ant species warring with each other. Ends up I was more interested in building things,

I wanted to like this. Yet, Wilson's cavalier attitude about the life of insects, sadly too typical of biologists, is distressing to me. He recommends that a curious scientist crush a honeybee to observe the alarm pheromone. Perhaps—to some—the notion of crushing the head of a little bee and destroying its organs is commonplace. His defense that a worker bee has only the lifetime of a month does little to help—the monarch butterflies live similarly brief lifestyles, and I do not think ephemerali...

should have been called letters to a young biologist really interested in ants. lots of material reused from earlier books, particularly the (great) Consilience. i'll take Rilke's original, please.

The beginning of this book was rather boring. It really catered to really Young Scientists (i.e. those in elementary school). I didn't care for all the Ant-talk. I was hoping for more discussion on other sciences but it was quite insect based. It did get better in the second half.

I usually don't write reviews, but I saw a lot of negative reviews on this book. That really sucked because I absolutely loved it. Like the title suggests, this book is a collection of letters in which Wilson gives advice to young college-age students, backing up his points with anecdotes. The beginning of this book is more focused on straight-forward advice while toward the end, each letter is a personal anecdote with a central message/ lesson to be learned. Since Wilson is a biologist, not all...