Friday, February 1, 2008

Book Review (2/34) The Best American Science Writing 2006

As I was pondering what to read next I decided that I would scour the Internet and find someone who had the same taste in books that I did and see if they had any suggestions. I decided to type in the author of the first book I reviewed (Gawande) and the name of one of my favorite fiction authors, Ken Grimwood, (whose novel Replay is the best book you've never read) into Google. From there I discovered a blog called The Reading Diary of John Dupuis. I read through some of John's posts and I enjoyed many of his thoughts and ideas. In fact, the concept of keeping a list of what books one reads in a given year was so cool I've started doing it. After perusing John's posts for a bit I came across a review of The Best American Science Writing 2006. As the book was edited by Atul Gawande and some of the articles in it seemed interesting, it seemed there was a good chance it would lead me to some interesting new books. This made it a no brainer to read for my next book.

The book did not disappoint. Every single one of the articles was entertaining and thought-provoking. "Your Move" by Tom Mueller was about a computer program that plays chess, that often uses strategies that surprise even its programmers. Alan Weisman's article entitled "Earth Without People" reminds one of how fleeting human existence is in the grand scheme of things, and how quickly it could be erased. W. Wyatt Gibbs provides a much needed counter-point to the obesity epidemic that many claim is sweeping the nation with his article "Obesity: An Epic Overblown". Neil Swidey examines the nature versus nurture argument in regards to homosexuality in his article, "What Makes People Gay". Though it seems natural for me to assume that homosexuality is genetic, I also felt that if it was a genetic trait then it wouldn't be beneficial to survival (because homosexuals could not reproduce). Swidley examines this question in depth.

In "The Coming Death Shortage" Charles C. Mann discuss the potential problems that lengthening the average life of a human being will cause. H. Allen Orr provides a scientific critique of Intelligent Design that is sorely needed in today's society. Unfortunately, he does make the point that as 80% of Americans believe that God guided our creation and progression that having come this far on faith alone does Creationism really need ID? Paul Bloom provides us with a window into why we assume a designer with his article "Is God an Accident?". Bloom posits that our belief in God is related to the belief that our mind is separate from our body, which he feels is innate within children. Robert Provine's article on Yawning was fun and definitely yawn invoking (not from boredom but from yawn contagion!) and I also really enjoyed Richard Preston's description of the little world contained in the canopies of Redwood Trees.

Remarkably enough, I left quite a few articles out of the above review. The rest of the articles were also good, however the ones mentioned above were ones that really got me thinking. I have several good leads on what books I will read next and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in some good science reading. This book provides a nice breadth that I think includes something for everyone. I believe that The Best American Science Writing is a series I will have to make sure to read each year.

No comments: