EDITOR: MARY ROACH
THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2011, edited by Mary Roach (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), contains five articles by women science journalists. These represent one fifth of the authors in this particular edition of the series. The articles cover topics ranging from a historical consideration of chemistry and governmental policy, to the environment and energy, to land use, to the intersection of science and religion and, finally, our changing oceans.
Deborah Blum is the author of THE CHEMIST’S WAR, which was originally published in SLATE magazine. The article addresses the government sanctioned poisoning of industrial alcohol during the prohibition era. When the eighteenth amendment passed, congress passed laws to make sure that alcohol needed for industrial purposes could not be repurposed for whiskey and other spirits via the addition of chemicals that sickened and killed many people before the end of prohibition. Blum learned of this practice while researching her book THE POISONER’S HANDBOOK: MURDER AND THE BIRTH OF FORENSIC MEDICINE IN JAZZ AGE NEW YORK (Penguin, 2010).
SPECTRAL LIGHT by Amy Irvine was originally published in ORION magazine. Irvine’s article shares the story of the author’s family’s experience with a bear in their frontier home. She considers the traditional hunter’s perspective and values as well as those of contemporary environmentalists in an attempt to appreciate both viewpoints simultaneously. Ultimately, Spectral Light examines issues around land use. Irvine explores this topic further in her book, TRESPASS: LIVING AT THE EDGE OF THE PROMISED LAND(North Point Press, 2008).
Deborah Blum is the author of THE CHEMIST’S WAR, which was originally published in SLATE magazine. The article addresses the government sanctioned poisoning of industrial alcohol during the prohibition era. When the eighteenth amendment passed, congress passed laws to make sure that alcohol needed for industrial purposes could not be repurposed for whiskey and other spirits via the addition of chemicals that sickened and killed many people before the end of prohibition. Blum learned of this practice while researching her book THE POISONER’S HANDBOOK: MURDER AND THE BIRTH OF FORENSIC MEDICINE IN JAZZ AGE NEW YORK (Penguin, 2010).
SPECTRAL LIGHT by Amy Irvine was originally published in ORION magazine. Irvine’s article shares the story of the author’s family’s experience with a bear in their frontier home. She considers the traditional hunter’s perspective and values as well as those of contemporary environmentalists in an attempt to appreciate both viewpoints simultaneously. Ultimately, Spectral Light examines issues around land use. Irvine explores this topic further in her book, TRESPASS: LIVING AT THE EDGE OF THE PROMISED LAND(North Point Press, 2008).
PHOTO CREDIT: HTTP://OPENCAGE.INFO/PICS.E/LARGE_4976.ASP
Originally published in ECOTONE, Jill Sisson Quinncontributes SIGN HERE IF YOU EXIST. Quinn uses the life cycle of the ichneumon wasp to come to terms with the divide between science and religion. She struggles not with belief in a deity, but rather our human desire to somehow outlast or survive death. This article is unique in how it traverses between biological and philosophical discussion. Online reviewers of this series cite SIGN HERE IF YOU EXIST as a favorite in the text.
Fracking is the drilling of natural gas from shale.Sandra Steingraber, originally writing for ORION, is the author of THE WHOLE FRACKING ENCHILADA. The author explains fracking to readers, and discusses the environmental impact of this process. Admittedly, I do not know a lot about fracking, other than hearing news stories or headlines. However, the implications of this article beg me to research the topic further and to get active talking with representatives who control industrial ability to perform this procedure to access otherwise trapped natural gas deposits.
Fracking is the drilling of natural gas from shale.Sandra Steingraber, originally writing for ORION, is the author of THE WHOLE FRACKING ENCHILADA. The author explains fracking to readers, and discusses the environmental impact of this process. Admittedly, I do not know a lot about fracking, other than hearing news stories or headlines. However, the implications of this article beg me to research the topic further and to get active talking with representatives who control industrial ability to perform this procedure to access otherwise trapped natural gas deposits.
PHOTO: JAMES WILLIAMS
Abigail Tucker is the author of THE NEW KING OF THE SEA from SMITHSONIAN. Tucker writes about jellyfish blooms and examines research about these organisms. Scientists realize that proliferation of particular species can be cyclical in nature. However, it seems that the present increase in blooms may be related to human influence in the oceans. Tucker provides information not only on the phenomena of jellyfish, but also the different types and describes how these organisms thrive in environments that can kill other ocean creatures.
While analyzing the 2011 BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING series for inContext, I examined the contributor’s notes section of the book. I wondered how each author presented him or her self, and read these entries with interest. Some of the female authors did not include personal information, such as listing family or pets in addition to their place of residence and writing, research, publishing or academic credits, and many of the male authors included this information. That said, of the five articles contributed by female authors, two write about family and from a personal or memoirist viewpoint. Two of the twenty male-authored contributions specifically mention and include family as major elements of the articles. (Links to author’s websites are included where available to promote and encourage reading of women science writers.)
While analyzing the 2011 BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING series for inContext, I examined the contributor’s notes section of the book. I wondered how each author presented him or her self, and read these entries with interest. Some of the female authors did not include personal information, such as listing family or pets in addition to their place of residence and writing, research, publishing or academic credits, and many of the male authors included this information. That said, of the five articles contributed by female authors, two write about family and from a personal or memoirist viewpoint. Two of the twenty male-authored contributions specifically mention and include family as major elements of the articles. (Links to author’s websites are included where available to promote and encourage reading of women science writers.)
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