Books : The Best American Science Writing 2007 (Best American Science Writing)
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
EAN: 9780061345777
ISBN: 0061345776
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 01, 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: September 18, 2007
Sales Rank: 102716
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Provocative and engaging, this collection brings together the premiere science writing of the year. Featuring the imprimatur of bestselling author and New York Times reporter Gina Kolata, one of the nation's foremost voices in science and medicine, and with contributions from Atul Gawande, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Oliver Sacks, among others, The Best American Science Writing 2007 is a compelling anthology of our most advanced, and most relevant, scientific inquiries.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
. . . advances in medical knowledge and therapies, then this is the book for you. Not surprisingly, the Internet is increasing knowledge of the conditions that beset us. One of these, once thought to be only another unfortunate result of strokes, is now known to be more widespread. Joshua David's article on prosopagnosia - "face blindness" - reveals how people who cannot recognise faces, any faces, need not be victims of strokes. Face blindness can be congenital, and one estimate puts its prevalence up to six million people in the US alone. Another condition, Alzheimer's, is also undergoing expanded study, as Stacey Burling's essay follows. Post-mortem brain examination has been the only way to develop diagnostic tools. Recent work is providing new ways of learning if the disease has become established, allowing earlier treatment. Depression victims are also being relieved of symptoms through a method related to heart pacemakers as described by David Dobbs in "Depression Switch".
. . . progress in basic physics or mathematics, there are articles on the latest thinking and experiments. Tyler Cabot's "Theory of Everything" relates the "fool's errand" by those on that seemingly hopeless quest. Another apparently fruitless task was the solution of the famous Poncaire's conjecture - a century-old proposition with implications for both mathematics and cosmology. In an article about a bizarre mathematician, David Gruber and Sylvia Nasar relate the story of Field ... Read More
Rating:  -
BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2007 EDITED BY GINA KOLATA: Since this is the "best American science writing" of the year, you know it's going to be good. What's amazing is the variety of subject matter that just the term "science" covers. The result is a collection of incredible articles covering the latest discoveries and breakthroughs in the many different fields of science.
While this collection may not be for the average person who has little-to-no knowledge of science - some background is necessary - the beauty of a collection of articles, like a collection of short stories, is if you don't like the particular article or find it too complicated, you can simply skip to the next. The first article, "The Theory of Everything" by Tyler Cabot covers the completion next year of a vastly superior particle accelerator in Switzerland. With the results from this giant machine, physics and science may be advanced greatly, with astonishing discoveries made. Cabot talks about this new device, as well as providing a summary of the important theories in science right now proposing possible answers to the famous Unification Theory: the theory linking relativity and quantum mechanics, or in Douglas Adams's words: "Life, the Universe, and Everything."
Robin Marantz Henig provides the latest ideas and technology on telling whether someone is lying or not in "Looking for the Lie." Joshua Davis discusses the unique condition of prosopagnosia, or "face blindness." A ... Read More
Rating: -
I thought this year's volume was quite a bit better than usual - hence the fourth star. The selection is distinctly skewed in favor of various neurological topics, with relatively fewer environmental and ecological pieces, but the high quality of the results vindicates the chosen emphasis, in my view. Among the topics covered:
* neurological research pertaining to:
- lie detection
- face recognition
- stereoscopic vision
- Alzheimer's disease
- depression
- financial decision-making
* new surgical methods for the treatment of brain aneurysms
* medical ethics (3 articles by Jerome Groopman, Atul Gawande, and Lawrence Altman)
* climate change (2 articles by Elizabeth Kolbert and William Broad)
* the fallout from the falsification of data
* the Dover, Pa 'intelligent design' trial
* string theory
* genetic computing algorithms
* molecular gastronomy
* Hollywood's 'science guru'
* the unseemly squabbling for credit that lay behind the recent resolution of one of mathematics' deepest questions, the Poincare conjecture.
My top three choices: Robin Marantz Henig's excellent piece "Looking for the Lie", Matthew Chapman's "God or Gorilla", and the fascinating piece by Sylvia Nasar and David Gruber on the solution of the Poincare conjecture ("Manifold Destiny").
One might wish that the editor of this year's collection, Gina Kolata, had cast a wider net in soliciting ... Read More
Rating:  -
I was not so impressed with this book, for two reasons: (1) the science itself was not explained very well. Some of the essays had a "gee whiz" tone. (2) Many of the essays were more about the personal lives and politics of the university or field of study, than about the science itself. Finally, some of the essays were from picture-filled magazines, such as Discover, but this compilation had no pictures to wonder and marvel at.
I believe this book is drawn from Houghton-Mifflin's successful experience with The Best Short Stories... and The Best Essays. I found it lacking in specificity.
Rating: -
From the Theory of Everything to the perfect "boiled" egg and the pursuit of the infallible lie detector, this year's compilation of science essays carries, as usual, a high Wow factor.
Showcasing cutting-edge science for the curious reader, the pieces come mostly from general publications and cover the gamut of human innovation and discovery. What all these pieces have in common is fabulous, enthusiastic writing and a focus on the people driving the work.
Neurological science is heavily represented, as new brain imaging technologies allow greater insight into how the brain fires, misfires, and does what it does. Experiments testing what portions of the brain react during various emotions and activities allow scientists to develop new methods of treatment, directed at particular areas of the brain.
In "A Depression Switch?" David Dobbs ("New York Times Magazine") profiles a woman whose profound, resistant depression left her feeling disconnected from what mattered most in her life - her family. This feeling of loss was instantly lifted during brain surgery (yes, while awake!) involving electrical stimulation of a section of the brain. But don't throw away your Prozac just yet - the operation costs $40,000 and some doctors remain skeptical of its longterm benefits.
"Looking for the Lie," Robin Marantz Henig's ("New York Times Magazine") survey of state-of-the-art lie detection, explores the latest brain mapping techniques - which can actually ... Read More
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