The Best American Science Writing 2001 (Best American Science Writing) [Paperback]

Timothy Ferris (Author), Jesse Cohen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0060936487 | ISBN-13: 978-0060936488 | Publication Date: October 16, 2001

This "richly informative, wide-ranging, and intellectually provocative" - Alan Lightman - annual series carries the imprimatur of Timothy Ferris, one of our foremost writers in astronomy. Like the 2000 edition, The Best American Science Writing 2001 will cover the full range of scientific inquiry - from biochemistry, physics and astronomy to genetics, evolutionary theory and cognition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From a brief survey of the unique, matriarchal society of mandrills to a hard-hitting critique of Africa's AIDS policy, this comprehensive anthology, the second in this series, boasts 23 articles culled from some of the nation's most preeminent periodicals the New Yorker, National Geographic, Harper's, Scientific American and the New York Times. These essays are in their finest form when they challenge the popular mindset and expose the politics that undermine scientific achievement. Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher, for example, aptly summarize the conflict that has been raging since pathologist Michele Carbone suggested that an ordinarily harmless simian virus, introduced into the human gene pool through contaminated polio vaccines, may be the cause of some cancers. Richard Preston's lengthy overview of the race to decode the human genome, on the other hand, pointedly highlights the politics and petty rivalries (most notably between Nobel Prize-recipient James Watson and Celera's senior scientist, Craig Venter) that both impeded and accelerated the decoding process. Several of the remaining entries will alternately amuse and intrigue the reader. Joel Achenbach speculates about extraterrestrial life by examining the conditions that limit the emergence of life; Andrew Sullivan's intimate account surveys the role of testosterone in society; and Stephen Jay Gould reveals the medieval origin and treatment of syphilis (bleeding and purging by spittle). Despite the occasional weak entry such as Freeman J. Dyson's unsubstantiated, rosy predictions about the future of "green technology" (or biotechnology) this anthology of lucid, eloquent essays will satisfy popular science enthusiasts. (Oct. 1)CATTLE: An Informal Social HistoryLaurie Winn Carlson. Ivan R. Dee, $27.50 (352p) ISBN 1-56663-388-5~Carlson (A Fever in Salem; Boss of the Plains: The Hat that Won the West) offers a well-researched exploration of the symbiotic relationship between humans and cattle. Beginning with prehistoric cave drawings, she traces the history of cattle through domestication, agriculture and industrialization, which, she argues, has led to current concerns about food safety. In Europe, domesticated cattle herds led to the development of clans with social hierarchies and complex rule systems. She plumbs the link between woman and cattle: because women cared for the herd, Carlson argues that such societies were "largely female-dominated, or at least gender neutral." She examines the halcyon days of cattle ranching in the American West, exploring early conflicts between ranchers, the federal government and moneyed interests. Carlson pays particular attention to the effect American industrialization and science had on cattle and considers the ramifications of such developments as canning and refrigerated rail cars to carry meat across the country to consumers. She examines the benefits cows have brought, most notably perhaps the vaccine for smallpox, as well as concerns about mad cow disease and E. coli infections. Carlson reveals such historical footnotes as the role butter played in the Protestant reformation and makes sometimes unexpected connections, such as her ruminations on the link between selective breeding and the eugenics program in Nazi Germany.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

As acclaimed science writer Ferris, the coeditor of the second volume in this fine series, explains, good science writing is a tremendous challenge. Not only do science writers have to elucidate new and complicated material for a possibly science-resistant audience but they have to be good storytellers, and a gift for metaphor and a witty streak don't hurt either. Although some topics are urgent and controversial, all lines of scientific inquiry change our perception of the universe and are therefore vital and invaluable. The entire spectrum of science is covered with literary acumen here, from astronomy to physics, evolution, medicine, and the impending freshwater crisis. There's Stephen S. Hall on embryonic stem cell research; Helen Epstein on AIDS in South Africa; Peter J. Boyer on DNA testing; John Terborgh on why wild animals seek the company of humans; Michael S. Turner on dark matter; Greg Critser on obesity; and Malcolm Gladwell on oral contraceptives. Natalie Angier, Stephen Jay Gould, Joel Achenbach, and Richard Preston round out the volume. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ecco (October 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060936487
• ISBN-13: 978-0060936488
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #969,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Timothy Ferris is the author of twelve books - among them The Science of Liberty and the bestsellers The Whole Shebang and Coming of Age in the Milky Way, which have been translated into fifteen languages and were named by The New York Times as two of the leading books published in the twentieth century, and Seeing in the Dark, named one of the ten best nonfiction books of 2002. He also edited the anthologies Best American Science Writing 2001 and the World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics. A former editor of Rolling Stone magazine, he has published over 200 articles and essays in The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Harper's, Scientific American, Vanity Fair, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, and other periodicals.

Ferris wrote and narrated three television specials - "The Creation of the Universe," which aired repeatedly in network prime time for nearly 20 years, "Life Beyond Earth" (1999), and "Seeing in the Dark" (2007). He produced the Voyager phonograph record, an artifact of human civilization containing music and sounds of Earth launched aboard the twin Voyager interstellar spacecraft, which are now exiting the outer reaches of the solar system. He was among the journalists selected as candidates to fly aboard the Space Shuttle in 1986, and has served on various NASA commissions studying the long-term goals of space exploration and the potential hazards posed by near-Earth asteroids.

Called "the best popular science writer in the English language" by The Christian Science Monitor and "the best science writer of his generation" by The Washington Post, Ferris has received the American Institute of Physics prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His works have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor Ferris has taught in five disciplines - astronomy, English, history, journalism, and philosophy - at four universities, and is now emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting, diverse, and readable collection, June 21, 2002

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Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2001 (Best American Science Writing) (Paperback)

This is the first of these collections that I have read, and it is very good. The articles are chosen from a wide spectrum of publications from the year 2000, including Scientific American, National Geographic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, etc., which means most of the essays were written in 1999 or thereabouts. There is a minor concentration on the exciting developments in genetics and microbiology, including "The Recycled Generation" by Stephen S. Hall, which is about stem-cell research; "The Genome Warrior" by Richard Preston, which is about Craig Ventor and the human genome project; "DNA on Trial" by Peter J. Boyer, focusing on lawyers Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld's Innocence Project; and a couple of articles on AIDS, "The Mystery of AIDS in South Africa" by Helen Epstein and "The Virus and the Vaccine" by Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher.

My favorite piece was "The Small Planets" by Erik Asphaug where I learned a little about the surprising physics of asteroids, in particular that they are most likely composed of rubble held lightly together by low gravity instead of being solid objects. When they collide, the "rubble piles" are disturbed, but within a few hours most of the pieces come back together again if the collision was not too violent. I also particularly liked John Terborgh's piece "In the Company of Humans" in which he demonstrates that animals can be attracted to humans for reasons as diverse as safety in numbers (like different species of birds foraging together) or being fascinated by a lemon-scented detergent used by a primatologist. He relates the story of a sick peccary that hung out near humans until it got well, that way avoiding hungry jaguars. Also fascinating was Greg Critser's "Let Them Eat Fat" which is about how the fast food industry is "super-sizing" us into obesity. (By the way, I tried for the first time a few months ago a Krispy Kreme donut, just to see what all the fuss was about. It was a warm puppy of an "empty-calorie" confection, pure white flour, made almost as light as air, smothered in fat and glazed with pure white sugar. It practically melted in my mouth. I can see how a steady diet of these babies could lead to a nutritional nightmare.)

Also good were Andrew Sullivan's "The He Hormone" about the phenomenon of testosterone, and Jacques Leslie"s "Running Dry" which is about the mixed blessing (and ultimate failure) of damming rivers, and the present and future crisis in the supply of fresh water.

There is a sprinkling of rather ordinary pieces by scientific heavyweights, John Archibald Wheeler, Ernst Mayr, Stephen Jay Gould, and Freeman J. Dyson, which are collected here perhaps as much for the prestige they lend to this volume as for the value of the essays. But you be the judge.

The interesting articles by Joel Achenbach and Robert L. Park, "Life Beyond Earth" and "Welcome to Planet Earth," respectively, serve well as introductions to their recently published books, Captured by Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe (1999), and Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud (2000), again, respectively.

Bottom line: this eminently accessible collection is well worth the candle.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "People don't like to face reality", March 18, 2002

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Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2001 (Best American Science Writing) (Paperback)

If you are indeed one of those people, you'd better not read this book. Nearly every page confronts you with a new reality. In some essays you'll have your nose forcibly rubbed in it. But don't despair, even with some of the grim pictures presented here, nearly all contain some message of hope, as well. Timothy Ferris has assembled an impressive array of science writing covering topics ranging from quantum physics to the water you drink. There's something here for everyone, but read them all, new doors may open for your mind. And, typically with Ferris, he begins the collection in an unexpected way - a poem from John Updike. Who but Updike could produce sensitive, compelling verse about transparent sea animals?

Examining the universe is an overwhelming challenge. Galaxies, stars, gas clouds, planets - the images appear almost daily. But what about the stuff we can't see? Michael Turner, an astronomer with impressive narrative skills, describes his quest for "dark matter," the mysterious stuff that may be impeding the expansion of the cosmos. He notes that the "missing mass" often credited with explaining why the universe isn't evolving the way we once thought, is a misnomer: "It's the light, not the mass, that's missing." Turner's explanation of what's actually happening will surprise the reader. In another essay, matter that isn't "dark," but still is behaving in unexpected ways is explained by Erik Asphaug. Asteroids, those little worlds cohabiting the solar system with us, are revealing their secret lives.

Other lives are revealed here, as well. Mandrills, a primate of bizarre appearance, also turn out to have a bizarre lifestyle. Just as we were all growing accustomed to the image of "alpha" males in the baboon and ape worlds, mandrills have evolved a unique feminist society. In Central Africa, Natalie Angier encountered huge troops of mandrills, all female. Males are relegated to a mostly "monastic" life - a pattern seen in only one other of the 225 primate species. Life at a more fundamental level is examined by Stephen Hall's account of stem cell research.

Life's condition today and its prospects for tomorrow are the topic of other essays. Greg Critser presents a grim picture of American eating habits; the "obesity epidemic" sweeping society. Which Americans are overweight and why? Critser's analysis offers some unexpected answers. Health is a concern for any people, and those who seek to restore health are too often unknown and unheralded. Helen Epstein examines the history of combating AIDS in South Africa where questions of health become interspersed with international economics and local politics. Health issues at local levels are examined in the most powerful
essay in the collection. Tracy Kidder follows "The Good Doctor" on his rounds. Paul Farmer's patients, however, are not restricted to a local hospital or clinic. He travels from Boston to Haiti, Cuba to Peru, even to Siberia as he intently seeks to restore the afflicted to health. And, incidentally, to petition the affluent for support in his work. When entreaty fails, he calls on a talent for deviousness a spy would envy. He's still out there working and he still needs your support. Find out who he is from this essay and why you should favour his requests.

There are too many issues and ideas in this collection to impart them all here. The quote acting as the title of this review comes from the person in charge of water conservation for the fastest growing metropolis in America - Las Vegas. Turn to Jacques Leslie's article to learn why that city may well lack water within the next five years. Your throat may turn dry as you read, but you will hesitate to run to the kitchen for a brimming glassful of water. Instead, you may find yourself prowling the house to stop any dripping taps. You can close the taps, but if you read this magnificent collection of essays, you will be opening your mind. If you're not afraid of reality and are willing to confront it, buy and enjoy this book. It's a treasure.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Polio, testosterone, and the French Disease, August 27, 2002

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E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2001 (Best American Science Writing) (Paperback)

Even though astronomer Timothy Ferris edited this collection of 2001 science articles, the emphasis is on biological rather than physical sciences. Some of the essays describe the way science is done, and the ways that ignorance or politics can interfere with its results.

I wish this book could have chronicled the progressive triumph of science over superstition and bureaucratic weirdness. Instead, Helen Epstein's, "The Mystery of AIDS in South Africa" shows what happens when a government backs an unproven theory on the cause of HIV infection. Another essay by Robert L. Park offers a scientific (or at least, sane) solution to a fantasy beloved of Americans: "Welcome to Planet Earth" tells the true story of what happened at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 (there actually was a secret government project).

A couple of essays struck me as inspired silliness. Stephen Jay Gould's "Syphilis and the Shepherd of Atlantis" illuminates Fracastoro's Virgilian ode to "Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus," also known as the Spanish Disease, English Disease, Neapolitan Disease, and 'Treponema pallidum.' Andrew Sullivan's "The He Hormone" was not written to be silly--the author was taking testosterone to combat the fatigue of an HIV infection--but it did very much remind me of the crowing scene in "Peter Pan."

In "Running Dry," Jacques Leslie chronicles the unassailable fact that we are running out of fresh water. Although this essay was written in 2000, it seems particularly relevant to this summer of ferocious drought and wildfire. The author develops a somber case against our current dam-building and irrigation processes.

However, "Running Dry" wasn't the book's most shocking essay--at least for me, since I was already aware of the fresh water crisis. The shocker was "The Virus and the Vaccine" by Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher. Anyone who is over the age of forty might want to read this article, which was originally published in "The Atlantic Monthly." Here is why it is so interesting:

"A breakthrough in the war against polio had come in the early 1950s, when Jonas Salk took advantage of a new discovery: monkey kidneys could be used to culture the abundant quantities of polio virus necessary to mass-produce a vaccine. In 1960 Bernice Eddy, a government researcher, discovered that when she injected hamsters with the kidney mixture on which the vaccine was cultured, they developed tumors...The cancer-causing virus was soon isolated by other scientists and dubbed SV40..."

(Incidentally, Bernice Eddy's superiors tried to suppress her discovery. She was eventually demoted and lost her laboratory. But by 1963, laboratories stopped using monkey kidneys to produce polio vaccine.)

The SV40 virus was presumed harmless to humans, and no further investigations were done until 1993 when Michele Carbone, an Italian pathologist, decided to research the origins of mesothelioma, a rare and deadly cancer of the mesothelial cells in the lining of the chest and lung.

Asbestos exposure was linked to mesothelioma, which takes twenty to forty years to develop-- but Dr. Carbone also wondered if the cancer might also be caused by SV40.

Read "The Virus and the Vaccine" to learn the results of Dr. Carbone's research--especially if you were vaccinated for polio between 1955 and 1963. In fact, read all of the articles in this collection. They were written to hold the attention of lay readers like me, and most of them chronicle darn interesting science.