The Best American Science Writing 2003 [Paperback]

Oliver Sacks (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best American Science Writing | Publication Date: September 2, 2003

In his introduction to The Best American Science Writing 2003, Dr. Oliver Sacks, "the poet laureate of medicine" New York Times writes that "the best science writing . . . cannot be completely 'objective' -- how can it be when science itself is so human an activity? -- but it is never self-indulgently subjective either. It is, at best, a wonderful fusion, as factual as a news report, as imaginative as a novel." Following this definition of "good" science writing, Dr. Sacks has selected the twenty-five extraordinary pieces in the latest installment of this acclaimed annual.

This year, Peter Canby travels into the heart of remote Africa to track a remarkable population of elephants; with candor and tenderness, Floyd Skloot observes the toll Alzheimer's disease is taking on his ninety-one-year-old mother, and is fascinated by the memories she retains. Gunjan Sinha explores the mating behavior of the common prairie vole and what it reveals about the human pattern of monogamy. Michael Klesius attempts to solve what Darwin called "an abominable mystery": How did flowers originate? Lawrence Osborne tours a farm where a genetically modified goat produces the silk of spiders in its milk. Joseph D'Agnese visits a home for retired medical research chimps. And in the collection's final piece, Richard C. Lewontin and Richard Levins reflect on how the work of Stephen Jay Gould demonstrated the value of taking a radical approach to science.

As Dr. Sacks writes of Stephen Jay Gould -- to whose memory this year's anthology is dedicated -- an article of his "was never predictable, never dry, could not be imitated or mistaken for anybody else's." The same can be said of all of the good writing contained in this diverse collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Award winning author and neurobiologist Sacks (Uncle Tungsten, etc.) has done a fabulous job of selecting 25 diverse pieces for this thoroughly enjoyable collection. Sacks's choices represent most of the sciences, from botany to physics, cognition to evolutionary biology, and originally appeared in large-circulation outlets (Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times Magazine) and small ones (Southwest Review, Wings, Monthly Review). What they all have in common is their uncanny ability to engage the reader from the very first sentence and present complex material in an accessible form. Sacks claims that the best science writing "has a swiftness and naturalness, a transparency and clarity, not clogged with pretentiousness or literary artifice." All of his selections meet this high standard. In the book's longest essay, Peter Canby writes of joining an English zoologist on his trek across the Congo studying elephants, and the reader is there with them for every step. Brendan Koerner discusses how drug companies market new diseases-like compulsive shopping-as a way of creating niches for their older drugs. And Lawrence Osborne describes a start-up biotech company's desire to create silk by inserting the silk-producing gene from a golden orb-weaving spider into a goat and harvesting the silk from the milk produced. Additional highlights include reports on fraud in physics, the problems associated with chimpanzees "retired" from serving as medical research subjects, and the possibility and problems of long-term space travel. The book is perfect for browsing and is almost impossible to put down.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Receiving the editorial baton from predecessors Matt Ridley and Timothy Ferris, Sacks looked for good science writers without instant name recognition. That he found so many is an encouraging sign of science's pull on journalists and the public's interest in their articles. Health and astronomy are always the most popular domains and are well represented among the two dozen selections here. Two doctors provide inside glimpses of their dilemmas with medical ethics; while among the articles on the cosmos is an amusing one by Jennifer Kahn, in which she writes about cranks and how one physics department deflects them. The environment and biology also receive several articles, two on the whimsical side answering the questions Why do leaves turn red? and Where do chimpanzees go when they retire from science? Sacks' choices all embody curiosity, clarity, and a strong personal voice that reminds us that the conduct of science is wonderfully entangled with human nature. The late Stephen Jay Gould exemplified the scientist-as-humanist, and an encomium to his precepts in writing caps Sacks' rich collection. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 2003 edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060936517
• ISBN-13: 978-0060936518
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,262,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay, but you can do better., September 29, 2003

By 

Godfrey T. Degamo - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2003 (Paperback)

To give you the viewpoint from which I'm coming from, I read Scientiic American, Discover, American Scientist, New Scientist and two journals of mathematics, and still enjoy reading a Springer Verlag book. I am a science junky, and so I am always delighted to see a book like `The Best American Science Writing'. Every year I read it, and every year I have mixed feelings about it.

Let me get to the bottom line first:

If you read any of the magazines I've listed and you are looking for the same sort of articles in this book you'll be disappointed. If you however, you read these magazines, but like lighter articles on science, a change of pace, or a different perspective, this book is a decent buy. If you are on a tight budget, I recommend skipping this book, and going for the other `brand': The Best American Science And Nature Writings XXXX' by Houghton Mifflin Publications. If you are literary minded or have but a small interest in science, and want to know a bit more about it. This book is a better value for you.

That is it. But for those wanting a bit more detail, continue reading, at least skip to the section where I list some articles that should have made publication. The general characteristic of most of these articles is not so much science, but how science fits into the larger context of society. So the pattern goes, introduce a small bit of science. Next show how that science impacts a particular individual or group. Then see the economic and social impact that science or the group has. Then talk about relevant worldly demographics. And finally, muse over some vague connections with other parts of science.

You'll notice that any `factual' science comprises maybe a fifth of any article. This may or may not be a good thing. It's up for you to decide. Most of these articles I gave 3 stars, and the average of the whole lot, I would give 2-3 stars. There are some fives, and there are some articles which I am shocked to have made it into publication of a magazine, and then published twice in a book!

I have a few complaints of every generation of this book. One is there is too many articles from literary magazines. The first few publications contain no articles from American Scientist. There are no pictures or graphs which came with the original publication of the article. Mathematics is not represented at all. Too many headline science articles makes the book `feel' the same every year: like a literary version of the five minute science segments found on your local 30 minute news.

I've decided to list some articles that haven't made any of these books but should have (I base it on the same criteria they use, fashionable, and accessible):

-Statistics of Deadly Quarrels by Brian Hayes (American Scientist Vol 90, No 1)
-Health and Human Society by Clyde Hertzman (American Scientist Vol 89, No 6)
-Influenza by Robert G. Webster, and Elizabeth Jane Walker (American Scientist Vol 91, No 2)

The first two articles provide much to think about, and are very informative. In addition, they are freely available on the internet. The last article came out this year and is an excellent summary of the flu, where it comes from, and how it mutates.

Because of the amazon word limitation, I could not place my entire review here, but I deem it wise to at least mention that the first two articles. These articles were by far the best in the book, and some of the facts contained in the book -I believe- deserve a much wider and expert audience! Particularly striking to me is how an Arfican tribe can hunt like child's play using their vocal chords. The implications for human evolution and linguistics can be enormous. Also, the mentioning of terra preta which can have profound impact on agriculture across the world, if is indeed true.

The rest of articles after the first two are so-so. And some abysmally bad.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite blue ribbon, January 7, 2004

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2003 (Paperback)

It would have been interesting to follow Oliver Sacks' selection process in assembling this collection. Today's "science writing" covers a multitude of topics and a spectrum of writing styles. This book provides a mixed bag of both, with some vivid winners and less captivating also-rans. While that can only be expected in such a diverse collection, it would have been enlightening to know what was set aside in the selection process.

The twenty-five essays collected here cover most fields of science. With Sacks' background, medicine is given slots, but the articles reflect more personal considerations than either research breakthroughs or even public health issues. It's evident that doctors must train, but reading confessions of ineptness in the apprenticeship don't inspire confidence. One essay, which must have caused an uproar when published, describes the life of two deaf women who decide to bear children - preferably deaf children. It's a vivid description of a sub-culture that must be recognised and understood.

Another essay about relationships centres on the prairie vole. This intriguing little animal provides some interesting insights on the concept of "love". Voles select mates, build a nest and settle down. The relationship, seemingly monogamous, may undergo some interesting twists under various conditions. Those conditions produce severe chemical changes in the voles, changes driving unexpected behaviour. Two chemicals, which are present and active in humans, drive voles to violent confrontation or endearing attraction. While little furry creatures may seem to have little to do with human behaviour, further studies indicated just how similar human chemistry is with the rest of the animal kingdom.

On a more practical note, the ongoing disputes over the condition of American fisheries have brought together the fishers and the government rule-maker. Lobsters, unlike cod and other foods harvested from the sea, appear to withstand the growing demand for their meat. When administrators sought to control the take, lobstermen objected. A new programme of lobster "census-taking" brought surprises. Using the latest technology, researchers wandered the ocean bottom in submarines or remote probes to better understand the lobster life cycle. Their studies may help save the fishery and perhaps point to new studies of other commercial fish resulting in fewer idle fishermen.

As a conclusion, a paean to the late paleontologist and science writer Stephen J. Gould is provided by his colleagues. Whatever one may think of Gould's theories, he made an immense mark in educating the American public to science. The heroes and pariahs alike of science came under his scrutiny and were illuminated by his prose. It is a fitting end to this collection. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Range of Essays on Current Topics, September 8, 2004

By 

Andrew Czernek (Mukilteo, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2003 (Paperback)

This is a great collection of issues and debates in science that those of us out of the field -- or even involved in other research fields -- will find interesting. They're as clearly written as editor Oliver Sacks' works and each has at least one topical issue to catch the reader's interest. Some have several.

Each story has something fascinating about it:
* "The Forest Primeval" tells about an area of the Congo which humans hadn't penetrated -- and the impact of the wildlife on the ecology. There are some surprising elements to it, including that it might once have been populated by humans.
* Mann's article from Atlantic Monthly goes through what the New World might have been like prior to Columbus -- and highlights a debate between new historians and traditionalists over whether the continent was empty -- or whether Old World diseases killed up to 90% of the population before colonists began arriving.
* "The Learning Curve" deals with the practical skills of learning to be a doctor. Don't let me in the hospital any time soon . . .
* "Notes from a Parallel Universe" deals with the people who try to convince scientists of bizarre theories. At Berkeley they even keep the crackpots papers.
* Learn about Seattle's Yuckies in "Shadow Creatures."
* Gunjan Sinha's article on voles indicates that what you might be experiencing isn't love but a hormone called oxytocin.
* The article from New Republic titled "Fighting Chance" is a great story of research -- and how a scientist's career decision got made.
* "Why Turn Red?" unravels part of a mystery for why leaves turn red, an energy-consuming activity that often occurs when the leaves are at the end of the photosynthetic life.
* If you want a GREAT theme for a scary kids story for a fiction class, the stuff in "Got Silk" has the raw material for good science fiction.
* The essay on Hawking is interesting, if only because the bet that it refers to from 1997 was just settled about a month ago -- with Hawking admitting that he was wrong.
* Cassuto's essay from "Salon" portrays the impact of a scandal on the science world, where the collateral damage can be as broad as in the financial world.
* And finally, the last essay does justice to the career of Stephen Jay Gould, as a biologist, essayist and ardent enemy of creationist influence on public policy.
* Plus, you can even learn which TV show retired lab chimpanzees prefer.

I'm a sucker for the "Best American Short Stories" collections issued each year, but this collection of science essays exceeded my expectations. So much so that I sent it to my daughter at college.