<p>Hi Can anyone suggest interesting autobiographies for teens- especially scientists?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Sir Edmund Hillary’s comes to mind. I believe it’s called “View from the Summit”. I have a list at work I can check on Monday and add some more.</p>
<p>The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas’ Horse: The Autobiography of Carl Djerassi.</p>
<p>He’s a renowned chemist (one of the inventors of one of the first birth control pills), then got into the humanities. H (Ph.D. in organic chemistry) says he’s quite the renaissance man.</p>
<p>My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall</p>
<p>My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla (a rival of Thomas Edison’s)</p>
<p>An oldie but goodie…the Double Helix by James D. Watson</p>
<p>Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman. My kids loved it. I read it and found it highly entertaining.</p>
<p>Not an autobiography but a gripping true story of science-The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. And this IS an autobiography, but not about a scientist-Twelve Years a Slave (a new movie is out based on this). D has enjoyed the series of autobiographies by Maya Angelou.</p>
<p>Second Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman. The sequel isn’t quite as good, but it’s still interesting. I haven’t read it, but I’ve enjoyed Oliver Sach’s essays. His autobiography is called, Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical BoyhoodI.</p>
<p>And not a scientist, but fascinating are both volumes of Roald Dahl’s authobiography , Boy and Solo.</p>
<p>And for a young woman, I thought Vera Brittain’s *Testament of Youth *was wonderful. It’s mostly about her experiences as a nurse in WW1.</p>
<p>My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas Gandhi. He thought of it as a work of science.</p>
<p>In at the Beginnings: A Physicist’s Life, by Philip Morse. This is a great autobiography because the author is fantastically well read, can write pretty decently, and you’ve probably never heard of him even though he’s one of the fathers of MIT’s CS department, came up with a model for the diatomic molecule where you can solve Schrodinger’s Equation exactly, is one of the American pioneers of the field of Operations Research, and has done a ton of other really cool things. He writes from the perspective as a “moderately successful” scientist. One that knows won’t be a household name, but has been happy with his career.</p>
<p>Leonardo’s Notebooks, by Leonardo da Vinci (Author) , H. Anna Suh (Editor)</p>
<p>Is a biography close enough? Walter Isaacson wrote biographies of Albert Einstein, as well as Benjamin Franklin.</p>
<p>Terwitt, you might enjoy this.
[I</a> wrote a response to the Forbes article about my Tesla comic - The Oatmeal](<a href=“http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_response]I”>I wrote a response to the Forbes article about my Tesla comic - The Oatmeal)</p>
<p>[The</a> memoirs of Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking: Evolution in the head](<a href=“http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/evolution-head]The”>http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/evolution-head)</p>
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<p>Dawkins and Hawking have both recently come out with ‘memoirs’.</p>
<p>Temple Grandin’s “Animals in Translation”. She’s autistic and professor of animal science. Fascinating.</p>
<p>Jane Goodall’s, “Africa in My Blood”. My daughter, a big fan, suggested this. I have not read it yet.</p>
<p>It may be old fashioned but as a teen I loved Helen Keller’s the Story of my Life - I think she is an inspirational person.</p>
<p>D2 loved Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson.</p>
<p>“Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman”</p>
<p>After discussing with my son, we are going to start with Mr. Feynman. Hopefully, I can get in some other ones too. </p>
<p>Thank you all for your suggestions!</p>
<p>Maples. “Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist”</p>
<p>Edward O Wilson. “Naturalist”</p>
<p>I second mathmom’s suggestions of Dahl’s Boy and Solo. Boy is laugh-out-loud funny and Solo will make every adventurous teen want to become a pilot.</p>