Into the heart of brightness: An ethnobotanist's memoir celebrates a life in science

"We have barely scratched the surface of the medicinal value of plants," says Emory ethnobotanist Cassandra Quave, shown in the field in South Georgia.

Cassandra Quave's story is like a tropical forest: Varied, colorful, bursting with life and and laced with hidden pathways that must be constantly cleared to move along them. Her new memoir guides readers through a world of plants and the people entwined with them. The story is sometimes dark but mostly uplifting, lit up by her personal revelations and scientific discoveries.

"The Plant Hunter: A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicines" was recently published by Viking. 

"I was inspired to write the book because people have found my work interesting," says Quave, associate professor in Emory's Center for the Study of Human Health and the School of Medicine. "It's a chance to tell the larger story of my life, bringing together all of the different parts of it."

Read more here.

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