Plants make excellent metaphors. Seeds can wait years for the right sprouting conditions; saplings strive for light; trees form symbiotic relationships with other organisms and struggle to reproduce.

Geochemist Hope Jahren writes with such flair that a reviewer is tempted to just move out of the way and quote her. Consider the top of page 64 in her new book, “Lab Girl” (Knopf, 290 pp., $26.95): ...

The eyes of the scientific community are often fixated on the flash and thrill of those disciplines that are seen as sexy or which make for good publicity — namely, all things relating to space ...

The first, tiny root that emerges from a baby plant can make it or break it. Anchor to a good patch of ground, and the plant can thrive for decades. Set up someplace else, without enough water or ...