A review by ursulamonarch
Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist by John Brockman

2.0

Overall I found this collection to be very frustrating. As others have noted, the "answer" to "how a child becomes a scientist" from this book seems to be "have parents who are scientists." Additionally, out of the 27 essays, only 6 seem to be written by women, and underrepresented minorities are definitely underrepresented here. Many of the essays included objectification of women (often citing the idea of "getting girls" to be a motivator to become a famous scientist), although I will note that Lynn Margulis also called herself "boy crazy," so maybe some of this is just scientists recounting their growth, including puberty.

Having said that, a few of the essays were really well written and thought provoking, and the contributors are big names. I'd recommend picking out a few of interest if you happen upon this book; my favorite was probably VS Ramachandran.