The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 (Best American Series) by Elizabeth Kolbert, Tim Folger (Editor)

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Synopsis

Elizabeth Kolbert, one of today's leading environmental journalists, edits this year's volume of the finest science and nature writing. Bringing together promising new voices and prize-winning favorites, this collection is "a delight for any fan of popular science" (Publishers Weekly).

Publishers Weekly

With 26 essays collected from 15 publications, New Yorker contributor Kolbert (Field Notes from a Catastrophe) has pulled together a magnificent display of writing. There's not a weak piece in the bunch. Kolbert's choices provide a sense of major themes in science today, with five pieces focused on evolution and seven on environmental topics. As Kolbert notes, “Darwin's ideas seem ever more central to our culture, even as their implications continue to challenge us.” As Benjamin Phelan shows, there's controversy even among biologists about some aspects of evolution, such as whether humans are still evolving today; Phelan presents the evidence that we are. John Broome discusses the ethics of climate change while Michael Specter is insightful on the difficulties of measuring one's carbon footprint; he concludes counterintuitively that, in many cases, it may make more environmental sense to purchase imported food than to buy locally. Other entries show what might have been prior to the Big Bang, the use of virtual reality games to quell post-traumatic stress disorder in Iraqi War veterans and much more. The collection is a joy to read and one to savor. (Oct. 8)

Biography

Elizabeth Kolbert was a political reporter for the New York Times for fourteen years before joining the New Yorker in 1999. Her series on global warming, "The Climate of Man," was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science's magazine writing award. Her stories have also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and Mother Jones. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe.  Tim Folger is a contributing editor at Discover and writes about science for several magazines.