The Best American Science Writing 2004 [Paperback]

Dava Sobel (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best American Science Writing | Publication Date: September 14, 2004

Jennifer Kahn's "Stripped for Parts" was selected as the lead story of this year's Best American Science Writing because, as Dava Sobel, best-selling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, reveals, "it begins with one of the most arresting openings I have ever read." In "Columbia's Last Flight," William Langewiesche recounts the February 1, 2003, space shuttle tragedy, along with the investigation into the nationwide complacency that brought the ship down. K. C. Cole's "Fun with Physics" is a profile of astrophysicist Janet Conrad that blends her personal life with professional activity. In "Desperate Measures," the doctor and writer Atul Gawande profiles the surgeon Francis Daniels Moore, whose experiments in the 1940s and '50s pushed medicine harder and farther than almost anyone had contemplated. Also included is a poem by the legendary John Updike, "Mars as Bright as Venus." The collection ends with Diane Ackerman's "ebullient" essay "We Are All a Part of Nature."

Together these twenty-three articles on a wide range of today's most current topics in science -- from biology, physics, biotechnology, and astronomy, to anthropology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and cognition‚ represent the full spectrum of scientific writing from America's most prominent science authors, proving once again that "good science writing is evidently plentiful" (Scientific American).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of 22 essays and one poem (by John Updike), accomplished essayists writing on subjects across the spectrum of science inform readers without talking down to them or falling into scientific jargon. Sobel (Longitude, Galileo's Daughter) canvassed periodicals as far afield as Mother Jones and Parade, deftly juggling the length, subject and tone of her choices, which include long, serious pieces, like William Langewiesche's account of the disastrous breakdown in decision making within NASA that led to the Columbia tragedy and Susan Milius's short, light-handed description of "the unsung triumphs of creativity" in scientific experiments, such as figuring out how to leash a rattlesnake or frustrate lovelorn dragonflies. Kevin Patterson describes the spread of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis resulting from complacency within the medical profession. K.C. Cole tells of physicist Janet Conrad's search for the elusive "sterile neutrino" using a giant vat of baby oil, and Michael Pollan recounts food scientists' efforts to save vanishing species of turkeys, oysters and corn to preserve genetic diversity as well as flavors that were common in meals long ago. One might argue that space and cosmology are overrepresented. But fans of good science writing, and of good writing of any kind, will find much enjoyment in this collection.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Notable science author Sobel (Galileo's Daughter, 1999) selected these popular science articles, all published in 2003. Spread across the disciplines, many of Sobel's choices first appeared in popular sci-tech periodicals, and an encouraging number of these superbly written pieces also came from literary-minded magazines such as the Atlantic, Harper's, and the New Yorker. The last ran a fascinating profile by Atul Gawande of the late surgeon Francis Moore; a Harper's writer took readers to one of the sentinels-- the Goldstone Tracking Station--for threatening asteroids and comets; and William Langewiesche gave atlantic subscribers a dissection of the dismaying bureaucratic facts about the space shuttle columbia disaster. Sobel selected humorous articles as well. An arch Psychology Today article considers a Harvard professor who takes alien abduction stories seriously, and a Science News piece describes the low-tech apparatus (fishing line and duct tape) used by a researcher of snake behavior. Readers can also find cutting-edge science amid the pleasures of this volume's well-crafted expositions. 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; First Edition edition (September 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060726407
• ISBN-13: 978-0060726409
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,367,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Almanac of American Science Writing, November 14, 2004

By 

John Woods "TObject" (San Diego, CA, United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Paperback)

The 2004 volume of "The Best of American Science Writing" edited by Dava Sobel is a first-rate, in my opinion, collection of pieces by well-selected spectra of contributing authors.

These are not dry scientific articles, but well written science short stories, and accounts. This book is a pleasure to read and a great source of information.

Without further ado, I would like to continue by giving short descriptions to each of the works in the book. If you prefer to find out for yourself what those are about, you may wish to stop reading this review now.

1. Jennifer Kahn - "Stripped for Parts". A dead man's body is the best place to store organs. Read about the current state of organ transplantation, challenges and advancement. A baboon heart in a human body? Find out how well it works.
2. Atul Gawande - "Desperate Measures". Experimental techniques in medicine. How a test tube of radioactive deuterium from a nuclear reactor helped to measure human body water content. Moral aspects of versus medical progress.
3. John Updike - "Mars Bright as Venus". A little poem.
4. K. C. Cole - "Fun with Physics". Neutrinos, and MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab.
5. Oliver Morton - "Strange Nuggets". Very heavy and strange dark matter. Read about an extraordinary probe into using seismic stations around the world to detect possible strange matter clusters passing through the Earth.
6. Keay Davidson - "Mapping of Cosmos Backs Big". How recent measurements of cosmic background radiation prove the Big Bang Theory.
7. Neil DeGrasse Tyson - "Gravity in Reverse". Find out what Einstein's "greatest blunder" was. Understand "Dark Energy" that causes the universe to expand at a different rate than previously thought.
8. Dennis Overbye - "One Cosmic Question, Too Many Answers". String theory and 10-dimetional universe.
9. Sherwin B. Nuland - "How to Grow Old". We need better quality of aging. What were some different and unsuccessful ways to prolong the youth in history, and why immortality is a bad idea.
10. Aaron E. Hirsh - "Signs of Life". Applying mathematics to protein evolution. Is Biology an exact science with strict rules?
11. Ian Parker - "Reading Minds". Harnessing brain waves to communicate with fully paralyzed persons.
12. Tom Siegfried - "The Science of Strategy". Discover the amazing Mathematical Game Theory and its applications.
13. Kaja Perina - "Cracking the Harward X-Files". Psychology of alien abductions and other traumatic memories.
14. John Noble Wilford - "A Tense Border's More Peaceful Past". Archeological study of Wadi Arabah by the Dead Sea. A bridge or a barrier?
15. Tom Bissell - "A Comet's Tale: On the Science of Apocalypse". Immerse yourself in the study of sociological and religious aspects of the "end of the world", and most likely scenarios of an asteroid or comet collision with our planet.
16. Elizabeth Royte - "Transsexual Frogs". Atrazine contamination in the environment, and its effects on frogs.
17. Susan Milius - "Leashing the Rattlesnake". Ingenious ways to solve experimental challenges in biological science.
18. Michael Benson - "What Galileo Saw". Staggering spacecraft journey to Jupiter.
19. Barbara J. Becker - "Celestial Spectroscopy: Making Reality Fit the Myth". Short story about an English astronomer William Huggins.
20. Kevin Patterson - "The Patient Predator". Increasing danger of tuberculosis, and new Multi-Drug-Resistant strains.
21. Michael Pollan - "Cruising on the Ark of Taste". Read about an innovative organization that helps preserving the biological and cultural diversity through selecting what to eat.
22. William Langewiesche - "Columbia's Last Flight". Get the insight on political and some of the technical details of the investigation that followed the loss of the space shuttle Columbia.
23. Diane Ackerman - "We Are All a Part of Nature". A perspective on life and nature.

The articles in this book are not merely technical chronicles; they evolve around real people, scientists. They are captivating and fresh.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone.

4.0 out of 5 stars science book, November 17, 2007

By 

Craig A. Coppock "c coppock" (Spokane, Washington USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Paperback)

This is a great series. Don't miss any of it. Back order old issues... it's worth it.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but . . ., March 2, 2006

By 

LauraGee "LauraGee" (Euclid, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Paperback)

I've read quite a few of these compilations. While there are some really great pieces included--my favorite is the one on TB--it doesn't have the same spark as some of the other books of this type. Nevertheless, it's well worth reading.