The Best American Science Writing 2002 (Best American Science Writing) (Paperback)

~ Matt Ridley (Author), Alan Lightman (Author) "Joe Rosen, plastic surgeon at the renowned Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and by any account an odd man, has a cold..." (more)
Key Phrases: sporelike cells, pirate utopia, cooperative breeders, Code Red, Cooper Island, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 21 articles in this anthology represent the finest works of science journalism from the last year, culled from periodicals like Harper's, the New Yorker, Esquire, Scientific American, Wired and the New York Times. September 11 is a recurring theme here, which may be why editor and Genome author Ridley's picks for this third annual edition are so charged with pessimism, ambivalence and uncertainty. In "The Thirty Years' War," Jerome Groopman announces that the battle against cancer has been lost. Nicholas Wade relates the story of a controversial debunker of environmentalists' most cherished beliefs, and Sally Satel's "Medicine's Race Problem" challenges melting-pot platitudes, arguing that ignoring the genetics of race can be bad for some patients' health. Christopher Dickey delivers a dose of absurd humor in "I Love My Glow Bunny," in which art and science collide in genetically modified lab rabbit number 5256, and Joseph D'Agnese inspires in "Brothers With Heart," about four brother-doctors who envision a revolutionary way to save lives with donor organs. Soul-searching isn't all that this collection is about, however. There are old-fashioned wonders here as well, such as Oliver Morton's "Shadow Science," in which he acquaints readers with an astronomer who has observed distant Earth-like planets. Provocative and informative, engrossing, this sparkling anthology is a treat for all science enthusiasts, armchair and otherwise.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Scientific American

The two editors, both science writers, set out with the same objective: culling good science writing from U.S. magazines and newspapers published in 2002. Intriguingly, their collections have only one article in common--Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's "Mothers and Others," from Natural History. Good science writing is evidently plentiful. The 47 articles reproduced in the two books cover a broad range of subjects and make for edifying, even entertaining, reading.

Editors of Scientific American --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060936509
• ISBN-13: 978-0060936501
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #671,074 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More! More!, October 27, 2002

By	L. Dann "adhdmom" (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

These essays are phenomenal- all intriguing and all lingering in our minds well after reading. Science writing is an art I particularly relish. The math is gone- and that's good- indeed all of the qualifiers for a scientific career or training are reduced to one- fascination- and there's plenty of that in this collection. My favorite author, in this category is Jerome Groopman, M.D. a feature writer for the New Yorker and a practicing oncologist. His topic is cell-speak, the astounding discovery that cells communicate between distances. The scientific term is `signal transduction.' Groopman's prose evokes molecular music receiving and answering and generating movement. Skeleton like structures are woven by these messages and the whole stunning revelation becomes political, economic and religious in its challenges and possibilities. The least of which is nothing less than universal design and grand scale unity of all matter. Microscopic matters, as equally valuable to the private sector laboratories as to the religious nature of being and infinity.
Athol Gwande, another New Yorker writer, writes about the painful ramifications of excessive blushing. The embarrassment is so defeating that people undergo surgery- and not minor surgery- just to control it. Post surgery, people report a quality of life surge that makes the risks and costs well worth it. Perhaps the most allegorical piece is a study of the plastic surgeon who dreams of giving people wings and other improvements as implanting rods and cones to make our vision more spectacular. These dreams are oddly absent when the same physician attends to remodeling a face eaten away by cancer. At odds most dramatically by the callow bedside manner and the narcisistic ego of this Leonardo of the dream. Condemned by colleagues and despised by the residents we try to ascertain if he is a visionary, Icarus or would he create another Frankenstein.
The strange and the miraculous are in turn celebrated and given to dark reservations and caution. All of the entries are nothing less than Magnificent!

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

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

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

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling collection of fascinating reading, January 8, 2003

By A Customer

These are exactly the type of articles I love to read on airplanes trips or in doctors' offices. Real science written for non-scientists.