The Best Science Writing Online 2012

by Zivkovic, Bora; Ouellette, Jennifer

• ISBN13: 9780374533342
• ISBN10: 0374533342
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-18
• Publisher: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012will change the way we think about science from fluids to fungi, poisons to pirates. Featuring noted authors and journalists as well as the brightest up-and-comers writing today, this collection provides a comprehensive look at the fascinating, innovative, and trailblazing scientific achievements and breakthroughs of 2011, along with elegant and thoughtprovoking new takes on favorite topics. This is the sixth anthology of online essays edited by Bora Zivkovic, the blogs editor at Scientific American, and with each new edition, Zivkovic expands his fan base and creates a surge of excitement about upcoming compilations. Now everyone's favorite collection will reach new horizons and even more readers. Guest-edited and with an introduction by the renowned science author and blogger Jennifer Ouellette, The Best Science Writing Online 2012marries cutting-edge science with dynamic writing that will inspire us all.

Author Biography

Bora Zivkovic is the editor of the blog network at Scientific American and organizes the globally renowned Science Online conference. He is a visiting scholar at the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and a professor of biology in the adult and professional studies program at North Carolina Wesleyan College. He lives in Pittsboro, North Carolina. Jennifer Ouellette is the author of The Calculus Diaries and The Physics of the Buffyverse and maintains the Cocktail Party Physics blog. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Table of Contents

Praise for previous editions:

“[C]onsistently picks the best of the best blogs. Read it.” —Ivan Oransky, MD, Executive Editor, Reuters Health and Blogger, Embargo Watch and Retraction Watch 

“This is the best of the science blogosphere 2010, selected by experts, and features something for anyone and everyone curious about the natural world.” —Sheril Kirshenbaum, author of The Science of Kissing and Discover’s The Intersection blog 

“Some of the smartest, best informed, and—yes—most entertaining writing about science today can be found in the vibrant community of science bloggers. Each year [the] series performs an invaluable service by pulling together some of the highlights—proof that the best blog posts can and should be savored long after they’ve scrolled off the bottom of the screen.” —Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything and Dreaming in Code, and co-founder of Salon.com

“In each post I found honesty, passion, imagination, curiosity and creativity shining through in a way that the disinterested ‘article mill’ of traditional journalism is rarely able to match.” —Al Dove, scientist and blogger

“A fun, enlightening read that’s bound to have a little something for everybody who loves science.” —Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing.net 

“If you are overwhelmed by the surge in science-related blogging and don’t know where to start, then this compilation may help you steer a course through the sea of perspectives on offer—or inspire you to start a blog yourself.” —Nature 
 

Excerpts

1
SOMATA
AUBREY J. SANDERS
 

I was born a body of worlds
a carnal web of cosmic pearl
billions of stars that hold me to my bones,
and when one day their cores collapse
I will shed my skin in ash
and sleep among the mosses and the stone.
I’ll grow into the vine that licks the ruin
writhe beneath the savage moon
my scattered cinders eaten at the roots,
and when the ravaged willow moans again
she will take me in her veins
and shake me from her hair an astral fruit.
For we forgot a fact that we once knew,
the only ancient truth,
the knowledge of our primal origin:
That from the feral night we came as dust
born from stellar wanderlust
and unto the stars we will return again.
AUBREY SANDERS will graduate from the George Washington University in May 2012 with a B.A. in English and creative writing. She currently interns at the Grosvenor Literary Agency in Bethesda, Maryland, and is working on her first novel. She believes in the poetry of the cosmos and will be an astronomer in her next life.

 
Copyright © 2012 by Bora Zivkovic