The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 by Tim Folger

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009 Reviews

• 
  Annie

  I know 'green' is the new hot thing, but this collection seriously suffered from a huge overemphasis on articles about the environment. I'm happy to read them, but I also want to read about physics and neurology and mathematics and biochemistry and other fields I don't even know about! The articles in the book were quality, as usual, but I sorely missed the variety of previous years in this series. If this pattern is going to continue, they might want to consider spinning off a new "Best American Environmental Writing" or something so that we general-science nerds can still get our fix too.
• 
  Art

  This annual included a couple dozen examples of the best science and nature writing published in 2008. Arthur C Clarke (
  2001: A Space Odyssey) died that year. The foreword to this volume remembered Clarke, who regarded science as a discipline that requires the questioning of received wisdom.
  
  The science in this book goes back just seven years. But since then, scientists learned that Sapiens who migrated out of Africa thousands of years ago carry about three percent of Neanderthal DNA, thanks to what researchers call intermingling. And that comes as an update to the interesting article here, The Last of the Neanderthals.
  
  Is Google Making Us Stupid? Nicholas Carr's now-famous essay first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly of July 2008. The editors of this collection chose the piece as one of the best of the year. Three years later, that article grew into his most famous book,
  The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, a general nonfiction finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Carr's column in this anthology, meanwhile, turned me onto an intriguing book,
  Technics and Civilization.
  
  "We await the longterm neurological and psychological experiments that will reveal how Internet use affects cognition," wrote Carr in 2008. This status check pairs well with the thoughts of Maryanne Wolf in
  Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain.
  
  Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer at The New Yorker, edited this edition, and her name drew me to it. Her terrific book,
  The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, published last year. The paperback edition released this year.
  
  In her introduction to this collection, Kolbert mentions the effort to rename our current epoch the Anthropocene, a term used by a Dutch chemist who received a Nobel prize for his work on ozone depletion. Kolbert's new book expands on the Anthropocene and why it should replace the current term, Holocene. Anthropocene would rename the era of the past twelve thousand years to reflect the impact of human activity. Scientists will vote next year on the name change.
• 
  Andres

  Another interesting collection! This edition contains 26 articles from 15 different publications. The top contributors are a tie at three each from Harper's Magazine, National Geographic and The New Yorker. Here I'll just point out the articles that piqued my interest.
  
  Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr
  A look at how the internet may be literally reprogramming our brains. (Though the author's fear that his internet use has caused him to lose his ability to concentrate on reading long passages is a bit too alarmist---he could just be getting older...) [This article has become a
  book.]
  
  Intel Inside by Andrew Curry
  The incredible work being done to reconstruct the shredded files of the East German stasi.
  
  The Itch Atul Gawande
  A woman's itch is bad enough that she ends up scratching into her brain.
  
  The Mushroom Cloud's Silver Lining by David Grimm
  How above ground nuclear testing pumped lots of carbon-14 into the atmosphere, and how science is finding this quite useful.
  
  Last of the Neanderthals by Stephen S. Hall
  Explores the mystery of Neanderthal's fate.
  
  Chain Reaction by Walter Isaacson
  The story behind the letter Albert Einstein sent FDR that started work on the atomic bomb---and why Einstein himself never worked on the project.
  
  Wasteland by Frederick Kaufman
  What happens to what we flush, and how it might be worth more than we think.
  
  Darwin and the Meaning of Flowers by Oliver Sacks
  Darwin is of course famous for one particular book, but learn here how much of a botanist he was and how he figured out that plants rely on insects for pollination---a fact not known before he proved it.
  
  Animalcules and Other Little Subjects by Mark A. Smith
  I liked this one because it reminded me of a high school science project I enjoyed: keeping alive and observing a fishbowl of pond-water creatures.
  
  Big Foot by Michael Specter
  How carbon footprints can be amazingly difficult to figure out, and how putting a monetary value to carbon output helped (or rather, encouraged) companies to reduce their own outputs.
  
  This edition includes two articles that were also included in this
  anthology:
  Virtual Iraq by Sue Halpern
  Contagious Cancer by David Quammen
• 
  Billie Pritchett

  This 2009 volume, edited by Elizabeth Kolbert, of The Best American Science and Nature Writing contains several essays worth reading. I'll detail all of them if I can.
  
  Wendell Berry's "Faustian Economics" (pp. 1-10) argues that in addition to being immoral, the pursuit to exhaust natural resources and the avoidance of environmental protection is not economical in the broad sense of the term. That is, to treat natural resources as being limitless is to make a false assumption and does not allow for a realistic allocation of such resources.
  
  John Broome's "Ethics of Climate Change" (pp. 11-18) analyzes various ethical debates surrounding climate change, including whether or not the costs of controlling climate change are more beneficial than not controlling it, whether the poor or rich (present or future) should bear most of the costs, and whether the generations that seek to benefit should play a factor in the decision, and how these ethical considerations will affect economic decisions regarding climate change.
  
  Nicholas Carr's "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" (pp. 19-29) poses the question and provides an affirmative answer related to the issue of whether the ability to Google information and have complex interactions with technology will negatively affect human knowledge.
  
  Chris Carroll's "High-Tech Trash" (pp. 30-38) is about American exportation of technology trash (for example, old TVs and computers) to African countries and China so that American companies and independent deals can get cash and so that African and Chinese people can salvage this technology for resources (for example, copper). This trash is burned, sometimes by children, producing damaging toxins into the air, which also adversely affect the people that burn it. And, moreover, this harvesting of technology for resources allows other countries to place the resources such as copper into American-imported products, like copper jewelry for example, but which often is harmful to one's body.
  
  You know, actually I wanted to review the rest of the articles, but now I just feel tired and lazy, so I'm going to stop here. You should read this volume.
• 
  Myra Scholze

  I read half of this one and then had to leave it behind on my travels. I didn't love it nearly as much as the 2016 edition. The essays selected are more complex and less accessible. Still a great compilation, but definitely takes more brain power to digest.
• 
  Numidica

  I love Elizabeth Kolbert, so I couldn't resist. There are always some essays in a collection like this that are keepers.
• 
  Dan

  Collections like this are hard to review, because I typically read them in bits and pieces -- a story here, a story there -- in between other books. (Case in point, it took me around 15 months to read this book.) I've been a fan of the Best American series for a while, and buy a few of them every year. The Best American Science and Nature Writing is reliably fascinating, and the 2009 volume is no exception. There are bound to be a few duds in any book like this, but on the whole the articles chosen were well written and interesting. A couple of them I even went back and reread.
  
  As I recall, the first few stories in the book were hit and miss, and the book also disappointingly ends on a story about Ray Kurzweil, which is something I just find tiring at this point. But the bulk of the book is fascinating, and you're unlikely to come across more than one or two stories in a row that aren't enjoyable.
• 
  Therese Broderick

  Twenty-six engrossing essays on fascinating topics related to human beings, animals, plants, Earth, the universe, and inventions. As a lay science fan, I appreciate the clear, precise prose which explains complex ideas and systems. Some essays are spirited and even funny; others are grim, not for the faint-hearted (ex., "Contagious Cancer"). An excellent collection full of surprises, whether woeful or wondrous.
  
• 
  Richard Williams

  i don't read many anthologies, i find them uninteresting and usually pretty basic, this is different. different enough that i gathered the rest of the series to read.
  
  variety, with a common theme, good science, well written, interesting, for the common reader, nice idea, broadens my reading, perfect for short periods of time or when you dont want to be carrying around a big book.. . thanks.
  
  read the itch first. ugh.
  
• 
  Ron

  Once again another fantastic book from the "Best American" series. A must read for anyone interested in science/nature or anyone who just enjoys learning new things. The only bad thing I have to say about the book is that it shares several of the same stories with the Best American Science Writing of 2009 book. Other than that it was a great read.
• 
  Rift Vegan

  This is the first book I've read in this series and I very much enjoyed most of the essays! The ones that really made an impression:
  -- "Did Life Begin in Ice?" by Douglas Fox
  -- "Contagious Cancer" by David Quammen (about the mouth tumors in Tasmanian Devils)
  (oh and "The Itch" by Atul Gawande, made an impression, but I do wish I could get that image out of my head!) ;)
• 
  Kerry

  so much great information and writing in one place--I don't usually like non-fiction and won't read short stories but I find myself just loving in this book--if you are interesting in all the exciting new stuff that science is finding out, you need to pick up this book.
• 
  Taffnerd

  So far it's not as amazing as the 2008 collection but there is someting for everyone here: evolution, outer space, compulsive itching and pahntom limbs. Science is awesome!!!
• 
  Judd

  Damn fine collection of thought-provoking science essays that challenge and inform, and not a one inspired boredom.
• 
  Erin

  Some pieces were more interesting than others, but I definitely learned some new things.
• 
  Annie

  this book is going to be something i dip into from time to time. love what i've read so far!
• 
  Wendy Mosher

  A little more boring than usual - too many archeology papers.
• 
  Meghan

  The Wendell Berry "Faustian Economics" essay is excellent.
• 
  Alice

  I recommend the story: minds of their own. about the intelligence of animals.
• 
  Cole

  There's an article about a woman who SCRATCHED THROUGH HER SKULL.
  AWESOME.
• 
  Melissa

  I <3 science. If I had it to do over again, I'd at least minor in biology.
• 
  Hayley Dunning

  Some inspirational, some unworthy, most enjoyable.