The Best American Science Writing 2010

by Jerome Groopman, Jesse Cohen

Overview

The eleventh edition of the popular annual series that Kirkus Reviews hails as “superb brain candy,” The Best American Science Writing 2010 is a sterling collection of the most crucial, thought-provoking, and engaging science writing of the year. Edited by New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker staff writer Jerome Groopman and series editor Jesse Cohen, The Best American Science Writing 2010 offers provocative looks at the latest scientific developments—from the fields of genetics, environmentalism, astronomy, biochemistry, and more—and is an absolute must read for any fan of popular science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061852510
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/14/2010
Series:	Best American Science Writing Series
Pages:	346
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jerome Groopman, editor, has been a staff writer in medicine and biology for The New Yorker since 1998. He is also the Dina and Raphael Recanati Chair of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Experimental Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and author of four books, most recently, Anatomy of Hope and How Doctors Think, which was a New York Times bestseller.

Jesse Cohen is a writer and freelance editor. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction Jerome Groopman vii

The Kindest Cut Larissa MacFarquhar 1

The Placebo Problem Steve Silberman 31

Surgery for Mental Ills Offers Both Hope and Risk Benedict Carey 45

The Truth About Grit Jonah Lehrer 52

How to Think, Say, or Do Precisely the Worst Thing for Any Occasion Daniel M. Wegner 59

Friendship as a Health Factor Jennifer Couzin-Frankel 71

A life of Its Own Michael Specter 80

The Orchid Children David Dobbs 102

My Genome, My Self Steven Pinker 124

Test Subjects Who Call the Scientist Mom or Dad Pam Belluck 147

The Famine Fighter's Last Battle Erik Stokstad 153

Pesticides Indicted in Bee Deaths Julia Scott 161

Disaster Aversion Rivka Galchen 167

The Sixth Extinction? Elizabeth Kolbert 190

Are We Still Evolving? Kathleen McAuliffe 218

A Most Private Evolution Susan Milius 232

Unpopular Science Chris Mooney Sheril Kirshenbaum 243

An Epidemic of Fear Amy Wallace 252

The Missions of Astronomy Steven Weinberg 272

Decoding an Ancient Computer Tony Freeth 282

The Deadly Choices at Memorial Sheri Fink 293

So Much to Learn About the Oceans from Sand Cornelia Dean 330

About the Contributors 335