Synopses & Reviews
In his introduction to
The Best American Science Writing 2003, Dr. Oliver Sacks, "the poet laureate of medicine"
New York Times writes that "the best science writing . . . cannot be completely 'objective' -- how can it be when science itself is so human an activity? -- but it is never self-indulgently subjective either. It is, at best, a wonderful fusion, as factual as a news report, as imaginative as a novel." Following this definition of "good" science writing, Dr. Sacks has selected the twenty-five extraordinary pieces in the latest installment of this acclaimed annual.
This year, Peter Canby travels into the heart of remote Africa to track a remarkable population of elephants; with candor and tenderness, Floyd Skloot observes the toll Alzheimer's disease is taking on his ninety-one-year-old mother, and is fascinated by the memories she retains. Gunjan Sinha explores the mating behavior of the common prairie vole and what it reveals about the human pattern of monogamy. Michael Klesius attempts to solve what Darwin called "an abominable mystery": How did flowers originate? Lawrence Osborne tours a farm where a genetically modified goat produces the silk of spiders in its milk. Joseph D'Agnese visits a home for retired medical research chimps. And in the collection's final piece, Richard C. Lewontin and Richard Levins reflect on how the work of Stephen Jay Gould demonstrated the value of taking a radical approach to science.
As Dr. Sacks writes of Stephen Jay Gould -- to whose memory this year's anthology is dedicated -- an article of his "was never predictable, never dry, could not be imitated or mistaken for anybody else's." The same can be said of all of the good writing contained in this diverse collection.
Synopsis
The articles in this anthology represent the finest works of science journalism from 2003, culled from periodicals like Harper's, The New Yorker, Esquire, Scientific American, Wired, and the New York Times.
Synopsis
Introduction by Oliver Sacks
Peter Canby
"The Forest Primeval
Charles C. Mann
"1491
Atul Gawande
"The Learning Curve
Liza Mundy
"A World of Their Own
Floyd Skloot
"The Melody Lingers On
Frank Wilczek
"The World's Numerical Recipe
Marcel Gleiser
"Emergent Realities in the Cosmos
Natalie Angier
"Scientists Reach Out to Distant Worlds
Margaret Wertheim
"Here There Be Dragons
Jennifer Kahn
"Notes from a Parallel Universe
Michelle Nijhuis
"Shadow Creatures
Gunjan Sinha
"You Dirty Vole
Trevor Corson
"Stalking the American Lobster
Siddhartha Mukherjee
"Fighting Chance
Michael Klesius
"The Big Bloom
Susan Milius
"Why Turn Red?
Thomas Eisner
"The Mosquito's Buzz
Lawrence Osborne
"Got Silk
Brendan I. Koerner
"Disorders Made to Order
Joseph D'Agnese
"An Embarrassment of Chimpanzees
Danielle Ofri
"Common Ground
Roald Hoffmann
"Why Buy That Theory?
Leonard Cassuto
"Big Trouble in the World of "Big Physics"
Dennis Overbye
"Hawking's Breakthrough Is Still an Enigma
Richard C. Lewontin and Richard Levins
"Stephen Jay Gould: What Does It Mean to Be a Radical?
About the Author
Oliver Sacks is the author of nine books, including the acclaimed bestsellers The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, An Anthropolgist on Mars, and Awakenings, which inspired the Oscar-winning movie of the same name. He is clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, as well as a regular contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and numerous medical and scientific journals.