The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002 (Best American Science & Nature Writing)

This year's Best American Science and Nature Writing is another "ecclectic, provocative collection" (Entertainment Weekly), full of writing that makes us feel, as Natalie Angier says, that we "have learned something and fallen in love all at once." Read on for the year's best writing on nature and science, work that originally appeared in Scientific American and Outside, The New Yorker and Harper's Magazine, Smithsonian and the New York Times, and many others. Here is Malcolm Gladwell on the subversive nonscience involved in standardized testing, Gordon Grice on the recent incursion of mountain lions into our suburbs, and Blaine Harden on how a gritty, superheavy mud from the Congo called coltan helps power the new economy. Barbara Ehrenreich gives a stinging indictment of the cancer establishment's endorsement of pink ribbons over the medical realities of being a cancer patient, and Gary Greenberg teases out the confounding -- and ethically and emotionally fraught -- science behind what we call brain death. Burkhard Bilger wonders why westerners happily eat catfish and frog's legs but continue to balk at braised possum and fried mink, and Eric Schlosser uncovers the dark side of the science involved in making McDonald's French fries taste so good. In two especially timely pieces, Dennis Overbye explores the rise and fall of Islamic science, and Anne Matthews, in an essay on the ecology of Manhattan, paints a haunting picture of still-warm bodies of songbirds littering the streets of Wall Street before dawn. These writers and many more give us the very best, very newest science and nature writing. As Natalie Angier writes, "The universe is expanding. May our minds follow suit." [This] collection, full of writing that makes us feel, as Natalie Angier says, that we "have learned something and fallen in love all at once." Here is Malcolm Gladwell on the subversive nonscience involved in standardized testing, Gordon Grice on the recent incursion of mountain lions into our suburbs, and Blaine Harden on how a gritty, superheavy mud from the Congo called coltan helps power the new economy. Barbara Ehrenreich gives a stinging indictment of the cancer establishment's endorsement of pink ribbons over the medical realities of being a cancer patient, and Gary Greenberg teases out the confounding - and ethically and emotionally fraught - science behind what we call brain death. Burkhard Bilger wonders why westerners happily eat catfish and frog's legs but continue to balk at braised possum and fried mink, and Eric Schlosser uncovers the dark side of the science involved in making McDonald's French fries taste so good. In two especially timely pieces, Dennis Overbye explores the rise and fall of Islamic science, and Anne Matthews, in an essay on the ecology of Manhattan, paints a haunting picture of still-warm bodies of songbirds littering the streets of Wall Street before dawn. These writers and many more give us the very best, very newest science and nature writing. As Natalie Angier writes, "The universe is expanding. May our minds follow suit."--Jacket Violent pride -- Roy F. Baumeister Braised shank of free-range possum? -- Burkhard Bilger Mind over matter -- K.C. Cole In the realm of virtual reality -- Richard Conniff and Harry Marshall Saving us from Darwin -- Frederick C. Crews Welcome to cancerland -- Barbara Ehrenreich The most important fish in the sea -- H. Bruce Franklin Examined life -- Malcolm Gladwell As good as dead -- Gary Greenberg Is that a mountain lion in your backyard? -- Gordon Grice The dirt in the new machine -- Blaine Harden Life's rocky start -- Robert M. Hazen Mothers and others -- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Sound and fury -- Garret Keizer The pursuit of innocence in the golden state -- Verlyn Klinkenborg Ripe for controversy -- Robert Kunzig Wall Street losses, Wall Street gains -- Anne Matthews Dumb, dumb duh dumb -- Steve Mirsky "I have seen cancers disappear" -- Judith Newman How Islam won, and lost, the lead in science -- Dennis Overbye A little reminder of reality's scale -- Chet Raymo Why McDonald's fries taste so good -- Eric Schlosser Shock and disbelief -- Daniel Smith The sting of the assassin -- Peter Stark The know-it-all machine -- Clive Thompson One acre -- Joy Williams Very dark energy -- Karen Wright. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 1.pdf......Page 1 The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2......Page 102 The Best American Science and Nature Writing 3......Page 180 The Best American Science and Nature Writing 4......Page 273 "A collection of nature and science based essays by such authors as Malcolm Gladwell, Joy Williams, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Dennis Overbye." Collects Nature- And Science-based Essays By Such Authors As Anne Fadiman, Brian Hayes, Cullen Murphy, And Gary Taubes.