The Best American Science Writing 2001

by Ferris, Timothy; Cohen, Jesse

• ISBN13: 9780060936488
• ISBN10: 0060936487
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-27
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

<p>Gathered from the nation's leading publications by award-winning author Timothy Ferris, <i>The Best American Science Writing 2001</i> is a dynamic, up-to-date collection of essays and articles by America's most prominent thinkers and writers, addressing the most controversial, socially relevant topics that recent developments in science pose.</p><p>Among the contributors: Richard Preston examines the contentious business of decoding the human genome. Malcolm Gladwell follows investigators who aim to revolutionize birth control. Tracy Kidder profiles a modern Dr. Schweitzer. Alan Lightman laments what was lost in his transformation from astrophysicist to fiction writer. Natalie Angier makes some surprising discoveries about gender in mandrill society. Stephen Jay Gould investigates the strange contrast between the 1530 poem by a physician that gave us the name for syphilis and the poetry that can be found in the map of the pathogen's genome. Legendary physicist John Archibald Wheeler celebrates the mysteries of quantum mechanics, which still perplex a century after its discovery. And John Updike contributes a witty verse musing on a biological theme.</p><p>For anyone who wants to journey to science's frontiers, understand more fully its ever-expanding role in our lives, or simply enjoy the thrill of powerful writing on fascinating topics,<i>The Best American Science Writing 2001</i> is indispensable.</p>

Author Biography

Timothy Ferris, a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee, is the author of nine books, including The Whole Shebang, Coming of Age in the Milky Way, and The Mind's Sky. A former editor of Rolling Stone, a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and a columnist for Scientific American, he has published hundreds of articles, essays, and reviews in such periodicals as Esquire, Harper's, Nature, The New Republic, and The Nation. He is currently professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley Jesse Cohen is a senior editor at Lipper Publications

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Timothy Ferris
Transparent Stratagems	1	(2)
John Updike
More Than Meets the Eye	3	(10)
Michael S. Turner
In Mandrill Society, Life Is a Girl Thing	13	(6)
Natalie Angier
Life Beyond Earth	19	(13)
Joel Achenbach
The Small Planets	32	(9)
Erik Asphaug
How Come the Quantum?	41	(3)
John Archibald Wheeler
The Recycled Generation	44	(17)
Stephen S. Hall
The Genome Warrior	61	(29)
Richard Preston
DNA on Trial	90	(22)
Peter J. Boyer
In the Company of Humans	112	(8)
John Terborgh
Death of an Altruist	120	(14)
James Schwartz
Darwin's Influence on Modern Thought	134	(9)
Ernst Mayr
Let Them Eat Fat	143	(11)
Greg Critser
The He Hormone	154	(17)
Andrew Sullivan
John Rock's Error	171	(16)
Malcolm Gladwell
The Mystery of AIDS in South Africa	187	(25)
Helen Epstein
The Virus and the Vaccine	212	(20)
Debbie Bookchin
Jim Schumacher
Syphilis and the Shepherd of Atlantis	232	(15)
Stephen Jay Gould
The Good Doctor	247	(28)
Tracy Kidder
Running Dry	275	(27)
Jacques Leslie
Welcome to Planet Earth	302	(8)
Robert L. Park
A Portrait of the Novelist as a Young Scientist	310	(3)
Alan Lightman
Science, Guided by Ethics, Can Lift Up the Poor	313	(4)
Freeman J. Dyson
About the Contributors	317