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A review by josh_caporale
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2017 by Tim Folger, Hope Jahren
4.0
I really enjoy reading these essays that are featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, as I did during 2016, and while I saw more standouts then, there were still some standouts in this collection that caught my attention and made me think.
Some of the standouts included:
"How Factory Farms Play Chicken with Antibiotics" by Tom Philpott- In this essay, Philpott explores the detrimental impact of the meat industry and the use of antibiotics. There is some hope, though, as companies are making efforts to do away with using antibiotics in chicken that is being bred and made into food. It will take time for chicken to be completely antibiotic-free, though, and if the same efforts were made with pork and beef, it would take even more time.
"The Case for Leaving City Rats Alone" by Becca Cudmore- Cudmore makes an effort to debunk the idea that city rats are burdens and carry a great deal of diseases in the general human population.
"The Woman Who Might Find Us Another Earth" by Chris Jones- This essay is about Sara Seager and her research and discoveries in finding an Earthlike planet that can provide for and house living species. A great deal of detail is placed on Seager as well.
"The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort of) Rattled the Scientific Community" by Jon Mooallem- In this essay, we learn about Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who put together a magazine that he saw as a second thought and was "a magazine about nothing," but a fascination with clouds led to further research that would make him a serious figure in the world of science.
"The DIY Scientist, the Olympian, and the Mutated Gene" by David Epstein- The most fascinating article in the 2017 collection of The Best American Science and Nature Writing was a piece about Jill Viles, who spent her life with muscular dystrophy and how she saw symptoms of hers and a particular gene of hers in an Olympic sprinter by the name of Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. While Lopes-Schliep seemed like a complete opposite, the results to Viles research turn out to be mindblowing. The same can be said about DIY research Viles engaged in which she learned about a heart condition her father happened to have, but know nothing about.
This collection as explores the impact of sexual harassment in the field of science and nature, in particular the articles "He Fell in Love with His Grad Student- Then Fired Her for It" by Azeen Ghorayshi and "Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream" by Kathryn Joyce. Both of these essays show heinous accounts of sexual desire getting into the way of forward progress or the ability to examine what science and nature has to offer. Works on this topic are also examined in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018.
I feel as if I get a great sense of everything going on when it comes to science and nature when reading these essays and the works in here provide a great sense of substance and backing to them, especially the works I highlighted as standouts. I would like to see some more standouts in the 2018 issue and perhaps the 2019 issue if I get to it this year, but if the editors are able to collect the best articles from a great deal of American publications throughout the year, there is certainly going to be someone that responds with wonder and is filled with contemporary knowledge.
Some of the standouts included:
"How Factory Farms Play Chicken with Antibiotics" by Tom Philpott- In this essay, Philpott explores the detrimental impact of the meat industry and the use of antibiotics. There is some hope, though, as companies are making efforts to do away with using antibiotics in chicken that is being bred and made into food. It will take time for chicken to be completely antibiotic-free, though, and if the same efforts were made with pork and beef, it would take even more time.
"The Case for Leaving City Rats Alone" by Becca Cudmore- Cudmore makes an effort to debunk the idea that city rats are burdens and carry a great deal of diseases in the general human population.
"The Woman Who Might Find Us Another Earth" by Chris Jones- This essay is about Sara Seager and her research and discoveries in finding an Earthlike planet that can provide for and house living species. A great deal of detail is placed on Seager as well.
"The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort of) Rattled the Scientific Community" by Jon Mooallem- In this essay, we learn about Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who put together a magazine that he saw as a second thought and was "a magazine about nothing," but a fascination with clouds led to further research that would make him a serious figure in the world of science.
"The DIY Scientist, the Olympian, and the Mutated Gene" by David Epstein- The most fascinating article in the 2017 collection of The Best American Science and Nature Writing was a piece about Jill Viles, who spent her life with muscular dystrophy and how she saw symptoms of hers and a particular gene of hers in an Olympic sprinter by the name of Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. While Lopes-Schliep seemed like a complete opposite, the results to Viles research turn out to be mindblowing. The same can be said about DIY research Viles engaged in which she learned about a heart condition her father happened to have, but know nothing about.
This collection as explores the impact of sexual harassment in the field of science and nature, in particular the articles "He Fell in Love with His Grad Student- Then Fired Her for It" by Azeen Ghorayshi and "Out Here, No One Can Hear You Scream" by Kathryn Joyce. Both of these essays show heinous accounts of sexual desire getting into the way of forward progress or the ability to examine what science and nature has to offer. Works on this topic are also examined in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018.
I feel as if I get a great sense of everything going on when it comes to science and nature when reading these essays and the works in here provide a great sense of substance and backing to them, especially the works I highlighted as standouts. I would like to see some more standouts in the 2018 issue and perhaps the 2019 issue if I get to it this year, but if the editors are able to collect the best articles from a great deal of American publications throughout the year, there is certainly going to be someone that responds with wonder and is filled with contemporary knowledge.