The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2001

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E-Book Overview

Both the misery and the majesty of modern publishing, it seems to me, are equal justifications for anthologies like this one. Simply put, there is more good writing out there than ever before, and it is harder and harder to find it. And if that's true for journalism of all kinds, it's doubly true for science and nature writing. The premier journals and magazines in the field — Nature, Science, Cell, and so forth — have never been great sources for literary journalism, nor are they meant to be. Instead, the best essays and articles are scattered among a bewildering array of literary and general interest magazines. Edward Wilson and I had a few strict criteria in assembling this volume: no fiction, poetry, prose poems, book chapters (unless published as stand-alone articles) , or plays; only nonfiction published in the last calendar year. But that still left thousands of issues and articles to sift and sort. [...] As you might expect — or even hope — from a book guest edited by Edward Wilson, this year's selections lean somewhat toward the natural sciences. Geology, physics, mathematics, and chemistry are all represented, but they are surrounded on all sides by crocodiles, harpy eagles, great apes, and a host of other creatures microand macroscopic. The result, I think, is a vindication of an oft-maligned field and a hopeful glimpse of its future. [From the Preface by BURKHARD BlLGER]

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E-Book Information

• Series: The Best American Series

• Year: 2,001

• Pages: xxii + 272

• Pages In File: 308

• Language: English

• Topic: 178

• Identifier: 0618153594, 9780618153596

• Ddc: 500

• Lcc: N/A

• Dpi: 400

• Color: 1

• Paginated: 1

• Org File Size: 38,972,984

• Extension: pdf

• Toc: Foreword ix Edward O. Wilson Introduction: Life Is a Narrative xiii David Berlinski Iterations of Immortality 1 Mark Cherrington To Save a Watering Hole 8 Edwin Dobb New Life in a Death Trap 15 Gregg Easterbrook Abortion and Brain Waves 23 Malcolm Gladwell Baby Steps 34 Jane Goodall In the Forests of Gombe 47 Jerome Groopman The Doubting Disease 54 Stephen S. Hall The Recycled Generation 63 Bernd Heinrich Endurance Predator 82 Edward Hoagland Harpy Eagles 90 Bill Joy Why the Future Doesn 't Need Us 96 Ted Kerasote A Killing at Dawn 127 Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp Seeing Scarlet 132 Verlyn Klinkenborg The Best Clock in the World 139 Jon R. Luoma The Wild World 's Scotland Yard 147 Cynthia Mills Breeding Discontent 155 Oliver Morton Ice Station Vostok 165 Val Plumwood Being Prey 186 Sandra Postel Troubled Waters 196 Richard Preston The Genome Warrior 207 David Quammen Megatransect 238 Donovan Webster Inside the Volcano 253 Contributors' Notes 263 Other Notable Science and Nature Writing of 2000 267