Name: The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018
ISBN: 9781328987808

Sam Kean

Tim Folger

Best-selling author Sam Kean edits this year's volume of the finest science and nature writing.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018

Elizabeth Kolbert

Collects nature- and science-based essays by such authors as Anne Fadiman, Brian Hayes, Cullen Murphy, and Gary Taubes.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009

Andrew John Kinney

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

As usual with collections of essays, some are strong or interesting, others not so much. A few that caught my attention:

An article about de-extinction of mammoths and other long-dead beasts. What I'd like back is the Carolina Parakeet, but unfortunately that was not dealt with in the article.

A couple of good essays about progress being made in fighting cancer. Maybe in another 50 years.....

One about how the establishment of civilization was driven by the need to find a way to levy taxes, and was in general really bad for its participants until quite recently, as compared to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle which has always appealed to my inner Neanderthal. The essay is an economic theory of the rise of agriculture so to speak; very believable and logical, and with a nice tie-in to another book I've read, Abundance Without Affluence, about the Bushmen in Namibia.

A fact-filled article by Barack Obama about the unstoppable rise of wind and solar power. Thanks Mr. President, it's nice to listen to a chief executive who understands actual facts, versus the alternative sort. And the news on alternative energy is good!

I did not read the one about Scott Pruitt's EPA, because current events are depressing enough.

"A Science of the Soul" surprised me by engaging me; normally I am bored stiff by philosophy. First off, Daniel Dennett is an interesting man, and secondly, I've been contemplating how the continuity of consciousness is important to any scheme (a la the TV show DEVS) to continue life in digital form.

Kenneth Brower's treatment of the Dysons, pere et fils, is interesting in a number of ways, not least in describing the nuclear-powered concept for interstellar travel that was actually taken seriously and funded in the conceptual stage by the US DoD in the 1960's. Nuclear-bomb-powered travel, to be clear. Yeah, I know.

"When Your Child is a Psychopath" was fascinating, in a horrible way. So, I guess "Dexter" was not that far-fetched after all. I read every word.

Deborah Blum

Presents a collection of nature and science essays published in American periodicals in 2013, including works by such authors as Katherine Bagley, Barbara Kingsolver, Fred Pearce, and Carl Zimmer.