The Best American Science Writing 2004 (Best American Science Writing)

Rating:
Summary: Going down the rabbit hole
Review: An enjoyable collection of essays, read them on vacation curled up next to the fireplace, a highly enjoyable time! Here are some thoughts on the individual elements:

Jennifer Kahn - "Stripped for Parts" A somewhat creepy look at the brief afterlives of organ donors. Certainly a compelling start to the collection!

Atul Gawande - "Desperate Measures" Developing new medical procedures comes at a very high cost... a cost paid out in human life and suffering. A starting look at the origins of many of the procedures that we now take for granted

John Updike - "Mars Bright as Venus" A poem... *shrug* didn't do too much for me

K. C. Cole - "Fun with Physics" One of my favorite pieces of the collection! Yes I love physics, but even more than that I love the unexpected people that so often turn up in the field.

Oliver Morton - "Strange Nuggets" Our eyes only pick up so much, so it is fitting to include an essay about all the unseen dark matter out there.

Keay Davidson - "Mapping of Cosmos Backs Big" Everyone loves baby pictures... even baby pictures of out universe. Get ready to say `ahhhhhh'

Neil DeGrasse Tyson - "Gravity in Reverse" Short little piece also about dark matter, didn't really do anything for me.

Dennis Overbye - "One Cosmic Question, Too Many Answers" String theory! This stuff always blows my mind but after reading Brian Green's books this piece doesn't really satisfy, just comes off as a pale imitation.

Sherwin B. Nuland - "How to Grow Old". The best piece of the whole book! Revaluates our ideas of aging shifting the focus from quantity of years to quality of years.

Aaron E. Hirsh - "Signs of Life" Extends the field of mathematics to areas we traditionally exclude them, is evolution as easy as 1 + 1?

Ian Parker - "Reading Minds" Gave me something new to worry about, being `fully locked in' where you are fully paralyzed but yet your mind is active. Can these people still be reached?

Tom Siegfried - "The Science of Strategy" Blah, another snoozer for me... but maybe this is just because I didn't like the movie A Beautiful Mind

Kaja Perina - "Cracking the Harward X-Files" Ever had the pleasure of getting probed by aliens during a night time abduction?

Tom Bissell - "A Comet's Tale: On the Science of Apocalypse" Kind of like those Left Behind books... but not all made up. Is the world going to go out with a bang or a whimper? Read to find out...

Elizabeth Royte - "Transsexual Frogs" No, not the name of a late night cable program- the traumatic effects of pesticides on the environment.

Susan Milius - "Leashing the Rattlesnake" An endearing article on the practicalities of performing experiments.

Michael Benson - "What Galileo Saw" No, not the old guy, the space probe...

Barbara J. Becker - "Celestial Spectroscopy: Making Reality Fit the Myth" Had to look this one up again, as it seems to have been instantly forgettable... well, that about sums it up

Kevin Patterson - "The Patient Predator". It is crazy to think that organisms as complex as us can be brought down by simple one celled organisms such as tuberculosis... watch out!

Michael Pollan - "Cruising on the Ark of Taste" People actually seeing something wrong with the world and doing something about it. Proves the point that the best way to make positive change in the world is to come up with a creative way to make it be in there self interest to do so.

William Langewiesche - "Columbia's Last Flight" I feel bad, I really wanted to like this one since I can still remember hearing the Columbia's explosion but was never really engaged by this writing.

Diane Ackerman - "We Are All a Part of Nature" People are always trying to turn there backs on there fellow animals from which and with which they evolved- but as the title says we are all part of nature!

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Almanac of American Science Writing
Review: The 2004 volume of "The Best of American Science Writing" edited by Dava Sobel is a first-rate, in my opinion, collection of pieces by well-selected spectra of contributing authors.

These are not dry scientific articles, but well written science short stories, and accounts. This book is a pleasure to read and a great source of information.

Without further ado, I would like to continue by giving short descriptions to each of the works in the book. If you prefer to find out for yourself what those are about, you may wish to stop reading this review now.

1. Jennifer Kahn - "Stripped for Parts". A dead man's body is the best place to store organs. Read about the current state of organ transplantation, challenges and advancement. A baboon heart in a human body? Find out how well it works.
2. Atul Gawande - "Desperate Measures". Experimental techniques in medicine. How a test tube of radioactive deuterium from a nuclear reactor helped to measure human body water content. Moral aspects of versus medical progress.
3. John Updike - "Mars Bright as Venus". A little poem.
4. K. C. Cole - "Fun with Physics". Neutrinos, and MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab.
5. Oliver Morton - "Strange Nuggets". Very heavy and strange dark matter. Read about an extraordinary probe into using seismic stations around the world to detect possible strange matter clusters passing through the Earth.
6. Keay Davidson - "Mapping of Cosmos Backs Big". How recent measurements of cosmic background radiation prove the Big Bang Theory.
7. Neil DeGrasse Tyson - "Gravity in Reverse". Find out what Einstein's "greatest blunder" was. Understand "Dark Energy" that causes the universe to expand at a different rate than previously thought.
8. Dennis Overbye - "One Cosmic Question, Too Many Answers". String theory and 10-dimetional universe.
9. Sherwin B. Nuland - "How to Grow Old". We need better quality of aging. What were some different and unsuccessful ways to prolong the youth in history, and why immortality is a bad idea.
10. Aaron E. Hirsh - "Signs of Life". Applying mathematics to protein evolution. Is Biology an exact science with strict rules?
11. Ian Parker - "Reading Minds". Harnessing brain waves to communicate with fully paralyzed persons.
12. Tom Siegfried - "The Science of Strategy". Discover the amazing Mathematical Game Theory and its applications.
13. Kaja Perina - "Cracking the Harward X-Files". Psychology of alien abductions and other traumatic memories.
14. John Noble Wilford - "A Tense Border's More Peaceful Past". Archeological study of Wadi Arabah by the Dead Sea. A bridge or a barrier?
15. Tom Bissell - "A Comet's Tale: On the Science of Apocalypse". Immerse yourself in the study of sociological and religious aspects of the "end of the world", and most likely scenarios of an asteroid or comet collision with our planet.
16. Elizabeth Royte - "Transsexual Frogs". Atrazine contamination in the environment, and its effects on frogs.
17. Susan Milius - "Leashing the Rattlesnake". Ingenious ways to solve experimental challenges in biological science.
18. Michael Benson - "What Galileo Saw". Staggering spacecraft journey to Jupiter.
19. Barbara J. Becker - "Celestial Spectroscopy: Making Reality Fit the Myth". Short story about an English astronomer William Huggins.
20. Kevin Patterson - "The Patient Predator". Increasing danger of tuberculosis, and new Multi-Drug-Resistant strains.
21. Michael Pollan - "Cruising on the Ark of Taste". Read about an innovative organization that helps preserving the biological and cultural diversity through selecting what to eat.
22. William Langewiesche - "Columbia's Last Flight". Get the insight on political and some of the technical details of the investigation that followed the loss of the space shuttle Columbia.
23. Diane Ackerman - "We Are All a Part of Nature". A perspective on life and nature.

The articles in this book are not merely technical chronicles; they evolve around real people, scientists. They are captivating and fresh.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone.


Rating:
Summary: my 12 year old and I are reading them aloud
Review: Wonderful collection of science stories. They are as exciting as detective stories and not so long as to be wearying. Try them. Buy, borrow or ? a copy!