Customer Reviews

The Best American Science Writing 2009

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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".

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.

I picked up the 2009 Best American Science Writing after reading the 2002. While the 2002 was a hefty book printed on good paper, the 2009 is slightly larger than a trade paperback and printed on cheap paper. Also, while the 2002 had an article by Gary Taubes that consituted a real anti-consensus opinion and was based on a lot of investigative research, the 2009 has nothing of the sort and includes some rather puff pieces, including a humor piece from The Onion. And a couple of the articles are arguably misplaced in a natural sciences collection. This isn't to say there is nothing of interest. An article on doctors that diagnose torture from wound scars addressed a topic I hadn't given consideration to before, while an article on the threat of an asteroid strike addresses a topic most people laugh at that would probably be a much better use of NASA resources. An article on "contagious cancer" about transmittable tumors in Tasmanian devils covers ground that was addressed years ago on Quirks and Quarks and in other places. Two articles by Registered Nurses covered medical topics from a subjective, non-science perspective and were ultimately disappointing. This is the biggest draw-back to the entire Best American Science Writing series. The articles selected are too journalistic and not enough hard science. There is a middle ground between peer review and pop magazines, and a book made of such middle ground articles would be much more interesting and educational to read, although much harder to compile and edit, I suspect. Likely, I won't continue to read this series in the future, although the book was a quick read and, since these are mostly magazine articles, as easy to read waiting in line as a magazine.

I look forward to each years new edition of Great science essays. I have the entire series, and very much enjoy them.

Someone recommend it to me and I really love this book. I'm also doing some scientific writing in chinses and I believe this book will be very helpful for my writing career.

This was a Christmas present for my 14 year old daughter. She loved it, began reading right away, and didn't put it down. She loves science. Amazon ships fast, and the price was right.