The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000

by David Quammen (Editor), Burkhard Bilger (Series Editor)

With The Best American Science and Nature Writing, Houghton Mifflin expands its stellar Best American series with a volume that honors our long and distinguished history of publishing the best writers in these fields.
David Quammen, together with series editor Burkhard Bilger, has assembled a remarkable group of writers whose selections appeared in periodicals from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SCIENCE, and THE NEW YORKER to PUERTO DEL SOL and DOUBLETAKE. Among the acclaimed writers represented in this volume are Richard Preston on “The Demon in the Freezer,” John McPhee bidding “Farewell to the Nineteeth Century,” Oliver Sacks remembering the “Brilliant Light” of his boyhood, and Wendell Berry going “Back to the Land.” Also including such literary lights as Anne Fadiman, David Guterson, Edward Hoagland, Natalie Angier, and Peter Matthiessen, this new collection presents selections bound together by their timelessness.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Essays, Anthologies, Reference

265 pages, Paperback

First published October 26, 2000

About the author

David Quammen (born February 1948) is an award-winning science, nature and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Outside, Harper's, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Book Review; he has also written fiction. He wrote a column called "Natural Acts" for Outside magazine for fifteen years. Quammen lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is its first year for this collection & Burkhard Bilger was the overall editor for the first two. After that Tim Folger was the overall editor & the few I've read were fantastic, no matter the guest editor. This one had some real ups & downs. While there were some good science articles, there were also a bunch of poor ones. I'm expecting science, so facts delivered by experts in their fields not dewy-eyed idiots or child molesters.

Overall, I'd say to skip this volume as such. There are some great articles, though. Since this is so old, many of the articles are available for free online & I linked some. I'd suggest googling any you think might be of interest.

I found the table of contents at this wonderful site which as links to the articles for the entire series, so if you see one you're interested in, check it out.

* Natalie Angier - "Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin" from The New York Times Magazine - writes a great article on evolutionary psychology’s ideas about what men & women look for in each other & their relationships pointing out the standard male dominated narrative. She's even handed about it, too. Very well done. She's also written a great article about atheism & the issues that scientists are facing in the US climate of fundamentalism.
https://www.edge.org/conversation/nat...
5 stars

* Wendell Berry - "Back to the Land" from The Amicus Journal - wishful thinking about an agrarian movement that doesn't make much sense physically or economically. I agree with his basic premise. We live in an economy driven by conspicuous consumption & have no feelings for the products we consume since we have no hand in making them. I know & I've gone back to the land myself, but on my own terms. I grew up on a small farm & know how much work it is. I prefer my gentleman's farm which produces little & costs a fair amount. As for large numbers of people 'going back to the land', growing their own food, & basically becoming villages? Where is all that arable land going to come from? Does he realize just how much we rely on high tech manufacturing & the economies that support it? How much work it is or time it takes? How much our long, complex supply chains protect us from the vagaries of weather & disease? No, he doesn't. I'm disappointed to see this included in this volume.
1 star

* Richard Conniff - "Africa's Wild Dogs" from National Geographic - an interesting look at them. I never knew they existed & they were nice to read about. Something like the wolves here in the US. Conniff seems to have taken a fairly stupid chance with them, but it made for good story. Not Farley Mowatt, but pretty good.
3 stars

* Paul De Palma - "http://www.when_is_enough_enough?.com" from The American Scholar - De Palma is the sort of professor that made my son & I decide college was a waste of time. He's an idiot. He should have stuck with literature. For a tenured Computer Science professor to have such out of date equipment & not understand security concerns (or how to circumvent them) is incredible. As for his thoughts on why people should or shouldn't have a computer, they're even worse - an inarticulate jumble. How he & the editors had the audacity to include this in this collection is beyond me.
-1 star

* Helen Epstein - "Something Happened" ($) from The New York Review of Books - an article about AIDs. It was interesting for all the different theories on how it emerged. The lack of definition (not her fault) & the way she ended it (all her fault) pulled it down considerably.
2 stars

* Anne Fadiman - "Under Water" ($) from The New Yorker - A kid drowned on a canoe trip & the author writes her traumatizing experience. OK, but not what I expected from this collection, although 'nature' is in the title. At least it was short.
2 stars

* Atul Gawande - "The Cancer-Cluster Myth" ($) from The New Yorker - an excellent look at a complex problem with understandable explanations. Not only do we have a predilection for seeing patterns where none exist but 'cancer' isn't a thing - there are multiple forms. I was quite surprised by how few (almost none) environmental cancer clusters exist.
5 stars

* Brian Hayes - "Clock of Ages" from The Sciences - tells of the Strasbourg Astronomical Clock a mechanical clock of extreme precision. It's truly incredible & he does a great job describing it (5 stars). His thoughts on human time aren't so good & the ones about computers are ridiculous.
3 stars

* Edward Hoagland - "That Sense of Falling" from Preservation - a mood piece about being overwhelmed by the modern world. Doesn't belong in this collection nor do I have any sympathy for the author. This is the best of times, so far, in so many ways. Our ancestors would love to have our issues.
1 star

* Judith Hooper - "A New Germ Theory" from The Atlantic Monthly - Long, but interesting. Some is old news, such as a bug causing ulcers, but much is new to me & the totality is great. Really interesting ideas on evolution, too.
4 stars

* Wendy Johnson - "Heavy Grace" ($) from Tricycle - her parents died. It happens. Why is it in this book?
-1 stars

* Ken Lamberton - "The Wisdom of Toads" from Puerto del Sol - The way he got his kids interested & using the scientific method was good. I found both his crime & jail time/release very distracting from the point of fostering a love of learning in his own kids. News flash: It helps if you don't screw & take off with your 14 year old student, Ken. SMH
2 stars

* Peter Matthiessen - "The Island at the End of the Earth" from Audubon - a great tour around South Georgia island off the southern tip of South America & near Antarctica. Not just wild life, but wild history.
4 stars

* Cullen Murphy - "Lulu, Queen of the Camels" from The Atlantic Monthly - is about Dubai & racing camels. They're not restricted to natural mating & there are a lot of other differences that made this a real eye-opener, especially since I'm into Thoroughbred race horses.
5 stars

* Richard Preston - "The Demon in the Freezer" from The New Yorker - SCARY!!! About Small Pox, biological warfare, & more. Is it really gone? We have no more vaccine & no facilities for making more quickly, so let's hope. Excellent.
5 stars

* Oliver Sacks - "Brilliant Light" ($) from The New Yorker - growing up in England during WWII, bombings, boarding away from home for safety, abuse, & a love of chemistry - mostly the latter. Quite a few thumbnail sketches of experiments.
4 stars

* Hampton Sides - "This is Not the Place" from DoubleTake - Some Mormons actually believe there really is such a place as described in their book & a lot of good science has come out of it. Some have lost their faith. Quite long for what I got out of it. Some people will believe anything.
3 stars

* Craig B - Stanford - "Gorilla Warfare" from The Sciences - not only makes a case for eco-tourism, but shows it in around gorillas. Interesting discussion of what makes a species, too. I used to think that was clear cut, but lately have been stumbling over articles about how little agreement there really is. Here's a good article about it:
https://thelogicofscience.com/2017/08...
4 stars

* Gary Taubes - "String Theorists Find a Rosetta Stone" from Science - I pretty much skipped this since I have zero interest.

[Andres · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m trying to catch up on all past volumes of this series, and this inaugural collection was great through and through. My only regret is that I didn’t start reading this series when it started, so some of these 10 year old stories beg for an update that each reader will have to investigate on their own. As always, I’ll list the articles I found the most interesting from the bunch.

Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin by Natalie Angier
Examines the arguments made by evolutionary scientists about what men and women desire.

Back to the Land by Wendell Berry
Argues that the loss of connection between people and nature has resulted in ignorance about where the products we buy come from and the negative effects it has on the environment.

http://www.when_is_enough_enough?.com by Paul De Palma
I didn’t think this was a very good article (he never defines what computer science is exactly) but I had to include it in my list because it’s interesting in light of the differences in technology from when he wrote it to when I read it ten years later (since most of his arguments seem strange in today’s computer culture).

Something Happened by Helen Epstein
Looks at the debate about how the virus that causes AIDS first infected humans.

The Cancer-Cluster Myth by Atul Gawande
A high concentration of cancer cases doesn’t always mean there’s a common cause.

Clock of Ages by Brian Hayes
Incredibly intricate and complicated astronomical clock that was built hundreds of years ago will be correct for hundreds, if not thousands, of years yet. And it tells time, too.

A New Germ Theory by Judith Hooper
Some evolutionary biologists think that diseases not normally associated with germs may very well be caused by them---such as heart disease and mental illness.

The Island at the End of the Earth by Peter Matthiessen
A visit to South Georgia Island (near Antarctica), with plenty of history and nature watching.

Lulu, Queen of the Camels
Find out here what multi-million dollar industry financed the beginning (and continued development) of hardcore camel science.

The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston
Chilling account of how a disease thought to be completely eradicated from Earth really isn’t, and the counterintuitive dangers that come from eradicating diseases. Later developed into this book.


Brilliant Light by Oliver Sacks
Always an interesting writer of interesting subjects, here Sacks combines personal memoir with some history of the elements and their discoverers. Later developed into this book.

This Is Not the Place by Hampton Sides
What happens when your faith isn’t backed up by the archaeological evidence?

[David Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelves for 23 years and had never read it. A mixed bag (as is the case with most any anthology/compilation). The best of the selections are very, very good ("Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin," "Something Happened," "A New Germ Theory," "The Island at the End of the Earth," "The Demon in the Freezer," "Brilliant Light," and "This is Not the Place."). Some pieces should not have been included at all ("Back to the Land" and "String Theorists Find a Rosetta Stone"). The remaining ten selections vary in quality. In the end, I wish that I had updates on several of the selections; it's frustrating not to know the current status of some of the subjects included in the book.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great articles in here, but a few snoozers as well. The one about smallpox just about gave me nightmares.

[Shari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Filled with interesting essays on different subjects and scientific issues. Skipped a few essays but all in all the collection is recommendable and educational.

[Justin Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Uneven, like any anthology, but a couple of entries really popped out to me -- an essay on smallpox bioweapons, one on not saving someone from drowning, Oliver Sacks' boyhood exploration of the elements, and the crown jewel -- a prisoner's wonderful reckoning with an invasion of spadefoot toads as his daughters come to visit him in "The Wisdom of Toads".

[Father · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although some articles are a little dated, a pretty good read. I was going to return it after reading "This Is Not the Place" by Hampton Sides but started reading some of the other articles. A great compilation that spans many different schools of science.

[John Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few interesting articles, like Cancer Clusters, but also some tedious reads as well.

[Annie]

Oliver Sacks' essay was a highlight.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

They don't have 2002 in Sonoma here ~