The Best American Science Writing 2004

by Dava Sobel (Editor)

Jennifer Kahn's "Stripped for Parts" was selected as the lead story of this year's Best American Science Writing because, as Dava Sobel, best-selling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter , reveals, "it begins with one of the most arresting openings I have ever read." In "Columbia's Last Flight," William Langewiesche recounts the February 1, 2003, space shuttle tragedy, along with the investigation into the nationwide complacency that brought the ship down. K. C. Cole's "Fun with Physics" is a profile of astrophysicist Janet Conrad that blends her personal life with professional activity. In "Desperate Measures," the doctor and writer Atul Gawande profiles the surgeon Francis Daniels Moore, whose experiments in the 1940s and '50s pushed medicine harder and farther than almost anyone had contemplated. Also included is a poem by the legendary John Updike, "Mars as Bright as Venus." The collection ends with Diane Ackerman's "ebullient" essay "We Are All a Part of Nature." Together these twenty-three articles on a wide range of today's most current topics in science -- from biology, physics, biotechnology, and astronomy, to anthropology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and cognition‚ represent the full spectrum of scientific writing from America's most prominent science authors, proving once again that "good science writing is evidently plentiful" ( Scientific American ).

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

About the author

Dava Sobel is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include Longitude, about English clockmaker John Harrison; Galileo's Daughter, about Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste; and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars about the Harvard Computers.

Reviews

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty-three science-related articles published in the year 2003, nearly half of which I found extremely enjoyable. All were well-written, but the real gems either provided information of high interest, or provoked intriguing insights.

My favorites were: “Stripped for Parts” by Jennifer Kahn; “Desperate Measures” by Atul Gawande; “Fun with Physics” by K. C. Cole; “How to Grow Old” by Sherwin B. Nuland; “Cracking the Harvard X-Files” by Kaja Perina; “A Comet’s Tale: On the Science of Apocalypse” by Tom Bissell; “What Galileo Saw” by Michael Benson; “The Patient Predator” by Kevin Patterson; “Cruising on the Ark of Taste” by Michael Pollan; and “Columbia’s Last Flight” by William Langewiesche.

[Ray Savarda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several really good articles, in spite of the age of this book. Recommended.

[Zenpvnk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this one yesterday, so now I'm on to the current one...2007... that I just got in the mail... good timing!

I like this series so much I also just ordered the 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005 editions, used, for 3 bucks each. So, if any of my friends want to try this series, I'm your man, just ask. This one, the 2004 one, is excellent... the story about the Columbia space shuttle disaster was fascinating. It's a shame, it really shouldn't have happened.. it seems it's just that NASA is actually run like your average large corporation, which is to say, it's fucked up, with upper managers with their heads in their asses.

Anyway, yeah... the Best American Science Writing series is for people who like science writing that is actually written well... very little numbers or formulas here, just good writing about interesting topics. I can't wait to start the 2007 ed. on the subway tomorrow morning. :)

[Lindee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this for my 400 level philosophy capstone seminar because the topic for the class was philosophy of science. It did not explicitly deal with the philosophy of science, but it does shed light on how the non-science folk look at science. It is organized in short essay format and I found all of the essays extremely interesting and fun to read. It's like the reader's digest of Nature!

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, I know it's almost 10 years old...great collection of writing, though. Most impressed with a few articles, one on near-Earth asteroids and extinction, and the following, from Mother Jones, about the Space Shuttle Columbia's Last flight. Outstanding reporting and writing:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/a...

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK anthology. The two long pieces on astronomy (Tom Bissell on asteroid impacts and William Langewiesche on the Columbia disaster) are by far the best in this collection; everything else is merely good.