The Best American Science Writing 2009 [Paperback]

Natalie Angier (Author), Jesse Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best American Science Writing | Publication Date: September 15, 2009

Edited by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and bestselling author Natalie Angier, The Best American Science Writing 2009 collects into one volume the premier science writing of the year. Distinguished by new and impressive voices as well as some of the foremost names in science writing—Oliver Sacks and Atul Gawande among them—this anthology provides a comprehensive overview of where science has taken us—and where it is headed.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Natalie Angier is a bestselling author and a Pulitzer Prize-winning science columnist for the New York Times. She is the author of four books: Natural Obsessions; The Beauty of the Beastly; Woman: An Intimate Geography; and, most recently, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with her husband, Rick Weiss, a science reporter for the Washington Post, and her daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; First Edition edition (September 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061431664
• ISBN-13: 978-0061431661
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get Your Science Fix Here, October 31, 2009

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The Spinozanator "Spinozanator" (Harlingen, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2009 (Paperback)

Natalie Angier is the guest editor this year for "Best American Science Writing 2009." In her words, "whatever the slumps and surges of the economy, whatever the upheavals and subductions in the media, science marches on. " For those who want to keep up with advances in science, reading this book is not a bad place to start. Algier has chosen 24 articles as her favorites, taken from 17 different magazines - the best represented magazines being The New Yorker and New York Times Magazine with 5 each.

Those of us who love science get to double down because there are two yearly books - this excellent publication and "Best of Science and Nature Writing 2009." Three articles were chosen by both guest editors this year:

"The Itch" by Atul Gawande from "The New Yorker:" Only 20% of the images we perceive come from the retina. The remaining 80% come from other parts of the brain controlling things like memory. In other words, what we see is a virtual reality - as given to us by our brains. Our sensations of pain, itch, nausea, and fatigue are usually protective but sometimes go awry. Millions of people have chronic pain of all sorts, phantom limb syndrome, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, tinnitus, pathological itching, or fibromyalgia - in which treatments of surgery and medication are notoriously marginal. Mirror image therapy has helped phantom limb pain. Perhaps this whole group of patients can benefit from mirror image or other virtual reality therapies - to treat problems made worse by glitches in our neurocircuitry.

"Back to the Future" by J. Madeline Nash from "High Country News:" A big red band snakes through the rocks in Wyoming for 25 miles. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum - paleontologists call it the PETM - happened 55 million years ago and the resulting climate change accelerated evolution. Above it there are horses; below it there aren't. Scientists believe that then, as now, the earth warmed in response to a precipitous release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. Kick up your feet and learn how geologists read the evidence left in rocks as though they were doing forensic science at a crime scene. The author closes with a quote from Mark Twain: "History does not repeat itself but it sure does rhyme."

"Contagious Cancer" by David Quammen from "Harper's:" Cancer is not an infectious disease - or is it? Cancers can apparently evolve much like species. A certain cancer of the Tasmanian devil has evolved a way to be spread through bites from one devil to another, and threatens this species' very existence. This beautifully written story pauses throughout with excerpts that revisit evolutionary concepts you may recall if you had a good college biology class - and introduces more recent developments in evolution you didn't learn about.

Other outstanding articles in this year's book include:

"A Journey Inside the Brain" by Oliver Sacks from "The New York Review of Books:" Remarkable true story about a renown author who underwent brain surgery under local anesthesia in the 30's. After his recovery, he wrote a memoir on the course of his disease and surgery. Dr. Sacks read the memoir when he was a 13 year old boy age and resurrects it for us in this beautifully written piece.

"The Truth About Autism" by David Wolman from "Wired:" People with autism spectrum disorder tend to have certain strengths: "higher prevalence of perfect pitch, enhanced ability with 3-D drawing and pattern recognition, more accurate graphic recall, and various superior memory skills." Unfortunately, they are so hard to deal with....and to test....that they are frequently considered mentally deficient. It may be that the autistic brain is not defective but simply different....computerized tools are becoming available that may make for better testing and better communication between us and them....remarkable essay.

"Blocking the Transmission of Violence" by Alex Kotlowitz from "The New York Times Magazine:" Early selective intervention is a proven way to halt the spread of a viral outbreak. Can the same approach work to stop violence? An epidemiologist who used to fight epidemics in Africa hires ex-cons to act as "interrupters" when violence threatens the streets of Chicago.

My Favorite: "Want to Remember Everything You'll ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm" by Gary Wolf from "Wired:" I read a lot and it bugs me that I can't reproduce what I've "learned." Isolated studies have been done (starting as far back as 1880), nailing down methods that improve recall - with surprisingly consistent findings. Why have these methods not caught on? Why do universities and cognition science departments ignore the findings? Because the methodology is not socially user-friendly. A few snippets of the findings: Long-term memory can be divided into 2 segments - retrieval strength and storage strength - and the two are strengthened by different maneuvers....the best time to re-study something is at the very moment you are about to forget it - a hard to identify point in time....it's possible to dramatically improve learning by custom-spaced practice sessions. A portion of the way Piotr Wozniak applies his proven technique is embodied in his software program called SuperMemo, which has enthusiastic users around the world. Wozniak is conducting a long-running experiment on himself, exploring what it's like to live in strict obedience to his computer and its learning algorithm.

Overall, Algiers selections are a little fluffy - I prefer my science a little harder. For that reason I downgraded this year's issue to a 4 - but that's just my bias. Her remaining articles include 3 that evaluate mans' and other hominids' tendencies to war and aggression - can we figure out how to control it?....a memoir about nitrous oxide at the dentist's office....whether fetuses feel pain....evaluating the physical scars of torture victims....a 9/11 cop dies from granulomatous disease in his lungs. Was it caused by breathing in debris associated with that disaster or was the material embedded in his lungs pharmaceutical junk produced by injecting solutions of crushed prescription pills? The 2 pathologists' opinions differ...is genetically modified rice that could save millions of childrens' lives dead because of opposition from Greenpeace?....we will soon be drinking recycled sewage - the stumbling block is psychological, not real....an endangered giraffe species in Nigeria....cognitive abilities in non-human life - starring, among others, Alex, the grey parrot....talking computers - will they ever pass the Turing test....today, corporations, governments, or hackers can peer at will into your life. The author tries to live a week without leaving a trace....NASA should give up landing on Mars and concentrate on thwarting that meteor that could destroy humanity....multiverses and free-floating brains that occur when cosmologists discuss the untestable theories spawned by string theory....the private renovation of the McDonald Observatory telescope....a newly-graduated nurse chronicles the CPR and eventual death of a patient....and finally, "The Onion" puts the creationist/intelligent design versus Darwin's evolution debate in perspective.

I suggest you don't let this reading feast get away.

DB

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of essays. Some far-out stuff included., December 3, 2009

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Josef "JJG" (Northern New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2009 (Paperback)

Another entry in the "Best American Science Writing" series. Agree with the previous reviewer that some articles (e.g. Dennis Overbye's piece on cosmology, Jennifer Margulis' piece on Giraffes) are a bit on the fluffy and speculative side. Still a good collection and great reading if you need to relax after a busy day at work.
There is some overlap with stories that also appear in "Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009" and in "Best American Medical Writing 2009".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre, at best, March 12, 2010

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algo41 "algo41" (philadelphia, pa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best American Science Writing 2009 (Paperback)

There are some very interesting articles in this collection, but overall the collection is mediocre at best. Angier was clearly aiming for an audience without a very good science background, and she takes a pretty broad view of what constitutes science writing: e.g., Tisdale's article on her fears of even benign dental procedures because of bad childhood experiences. Actually, Gawande (first author) has a much better article than Tisdale's on the same general subject in one of his books; he cites the aversion to chemotherapy that patients can develop, so that symptoms begin on the way to the doctor.

I especially enjoyed the article on Alex the parrot and his owner. There is a really good book out on the impressive cognitive ability of ravens: Bernd Heinrich, "Mind of the Raven". For medical writing, either of Atul Gawande's first two book have many great articles that are still relevant.