Book review: Lives in science: how institutions affect academic careers

What can we learn when we study people across the course of their professional lives? Joseph C. Hermanowicz asks this question specifically about scientists, and in Lives in Science he tracks fifty-five physicists through different stages of their careers at a variety of universities across the country. He explores these scientists’ shifting perceptions of their jobs to uncover the meanings they invest in their work, when and where they find satisfaction, how they succeed and fail, and how the rhythms of their work change as they age. Jennifer Miller believes the book deserves the attention of anyone interested in the sociology of science.