In a Patch of Fireweed: A Biologist's Life in the Field / Edition 1

by Bernd Heinrich

Overview

Why would a grown man chase hornets with a thermometer, paint whirligig beetles bright red, or track elephants through the night to fill trash bags with their prodigious droppings? Some might say—to advance science. Bernd Heinrich says—because it’s fun.

Heinrich, author of the much acclaimed Bumblebee Economics, has been playing in the wilds of one continent or another all his life. In the process, he has become one of the world’s foremost physiological ecologists. With In a Patch of Fireweed, he will undoubtedly become one of our foremost writers of popular science.

Part autobiography, part case study in the ways of field biology, In a Patch of Fireweed is an endlessly fascinating account of a scientist’s life and work. For the author, it is an opportunity to report not just his results but the curiosity, humor, error, passion, and competitiveness that feed into the process of discovery. For the reader, it is simply a delight, a rare chance to share the perceptions of an unusual mind fully in tune with the inner workings of nature. Before his years of research in the woodlands and deserts of North America, the New Guinea highlands, and the plains of East Africa, Heinrich had a sense of the wild that few people in this century can know. He tells the whole story, from his refugee childhood hidden in a German forest, eating mice fried in boar fat, to his ongoing research in the woods surrounding his cabin in Maine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674445512
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/01/1991
Series:	Biologist's Life in the Field
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	904,453
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1260L (what's this?)

About the Author

Bernd Heinrich is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont. He has written several memoirs of his life in science and nature, including One Man’s Owl, Ravens in Winter, and A Year in the Maine Woods, which won the 1995 Rutstrum Authors’ Award for Literary Excellence.

Table of Contents

Flight into the Forest

Maine

Tanganyika Bird Hunt

The Thesis Hunt

In a Patch of Fireweed

Capitalist Bees

Honeybee Swarms

Africa Dung Beetles

Whirligigs

Caterpillar Diners

Pit Trappers

Bald-Faced Hunters

Counting Yellowjackets

Hunting Winter Moths

Life on My Hill

Editorial Reviews

[Heinrich’s] memoir explains, with great charm, how he came to devote his life to such projects as measuring the temperature of wasps and swindling gullible beetles with phony dungballs… [He is] delightful company.

The Atlantic

In this autobiographical reflection…[Heinrich] is intent on explaining why he became an insect physiologist and ecologist. In the process, he gives us a winning portrait of a fine scientific mind at work… There is a fine balance here between intellection and practical experience, speculation and discovery. This is a book that sends you right outdoors.

Barry Lopez

Heinrich’s stated purpose is to ‘tell about the natural links forged between one’s life and a life in science.’ He succeeds magnificently. His prose reflects Thoreau’s empathy with nature and the contemporary naturalist’s technical knowledge… This meticulously observed book will please scientists, but it will also delight non-scientist readers who wonder what, in this increasingly polymerized world, is truly human and truly natural.

San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle - John Wilkes

In this autobiographical reflection...[Heinrich] is intent on explaining why he became an insect physiologist and ecologist. In the process, he gives us a winning portrait of a fine scientific mind at work...There is a fine balance here between intellection and practical experience, speculation and discovery. This is a book that sends you right outdoors.

New York Times Book Review - Barry Lopez

Heinrich's stated purpose is to 'tell about the natural links forged between one's life and a life in science.' He succeeds magnificently. His prose reflects Thoreau's empathy with nature and the contemporary naturalist's technical knowledge...This meticulously observed book will please scientists, but it will also delight non-scientist readers who wonder what, in this increasingly polymerized world, is truly human and truly natural.
— John Wilkes

San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

In this autobiographical reflection...[Heinrich] is intent on explaining why he became an insect physiologist and ecologist. In the process, he gives us a winning portrait of a fine scientific mind at work...There is a fine balance here between intellection and practical experience, speculation and discovery. This is a book that sends you right outdoors.
— Barry Lopez

New York Times Book Review

Part autobiography, part case study in the ways of field biology, this is a fascinating account of Heinrich's (zoology, U. of Vermont, Burlington) life and work, as he reports not just his results but the curiosity, humor, error, passion, and competitiveness that feed the process of discovery. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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