Pulse en una miniatura para ir a Google Books.
Cargando... The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 (The Best American Series) (2004 original; edición 2004)por Tim Folger (Editor)
Información de la obraThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 por Steven Pinker (Editor) (2004)
Ninguno Cargando...
Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Includes a chapter by Steve Sailor and the high percentage of Iraqis and other middle easterners who marry their first cousins. ( ) Another wonderful edition to the series. Pinker in his introduction says the best science articles "delight by instructing" and goes on to explain the lessons of each of the articles. Thus the Introduction adds a new dimension that some others in this series are missing, a master teacher explaining why some ideas are so important. After reading the Introduction last, I realized that the articles I didn't give much thought too were some of the most important, while the ones I thought were best were more lightweight. Such is the case when crossing minds with Steven Pinker. Although written in 2003, most of the articles have aged well, Pinker largely stayed away from topical hot button newsy articles. My favorite articles include "The Bittersweet Science" in which Austin Bunn transports us back to the early 20th century and re-creates the period just before the discovery of the cause of diabetes and its cure insulin, a reminder of how lucky we are today. In "Desperate Measures" Atul Gawande takes us another trip into the history of medicine, profiling Francis Moore one of the most important surgeons of the 20th century whose seemingly reckless experimentation killed thousands and ultimately saved millions. In "Caring for your Introvert" Jonathan Rauch describes and explains the 25% of the population who would rather just be left alone most of the time, thank you very much, but does so lovingly and without judgment. In "Sex Week at Yale" Ron Rosenbaum attends a sex conference at Yale where he humorously observes academia off the deep end. In "The Cousin Marriage Conundrum" Steve Sailer explains that over 40% of marriages in Iraq are between first cousins, creating a social dynamic completely different from our own experience. This was the best article of the book as it has totally changed my perspective on the Middle East and Arab culture, very important and fascinating. Iraq is like the worst Appalachia county of inbred family fighting Hatfield and McCoys. Finally the most challenging article but also most mind expanding is "Parallel Universes" by Max Tegmark in `Scientific American`. He describes 4 theories on universes outside of the observable one. Somewhere out there in infinite space there is another person just like you. --Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
In his introduction to The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, Steven Pinker writes that the best science writing "gives readers the blissful click, the satisfying aha!, of seeing a puzzling phenomenon explained." Here to deliver the blissful click are many of the most "eclectic, provocative" (Entertainment Weekly) science and nature essays written in 2003. Geoffrey Nunberg turns to linguistics to expose the grammar police, Scott Antran questions received wisdom regarding the root causes of terrorism, and Peggy Orenstein shows that trends in baby names are not inspired by . . . just about any external cause. Straight from the Cape Codder comes Mike O'Connor's "Ask the Bird Folks," from a weekly column that strikes a tone far from, as Steven Pinker puts it, "the worshipful sonorities found in much nature writing." Also on the creature front, Meredith Small shares with readers the pleasures of primatology (while for the first time explaining satisfactorily why primates groom), and Eric Scigliano gives us the eerie, and eerily intelligent, world of octopuses. (Read Steven Pinker if you aren't convinced that the plural of octopus is octopuses.) Atul Gawande profiles the great innovative surgeon Francis Moore, a man who essentially remade modern surgery -- and then could not live with the consequences -- and Jennet Conant captures the engaging, irreverent, and ever-provocative James Watson. Chet Raymo's musing on the modern universe story gives elegant insight into the cosmic place of physics, chemistry, and biology -- but not before first harking back to the days when "boys took physics (and went on to become engineers and automobile mechanics), girls took biology (and became nurses and homemakers), and nobody took chemistry if they could help it (except a few nerds who wanted to make stink bombs)." No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
Debates activosNingunoCubiertas populares
Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)808.80356Literature By Topic Rhetoric and anthologies Anthologies & Collections > By Theme Humanity General anthologies about science and medicineClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
¿Eres tú?Conviértete en un Autor de LibraryThing. |