Libro The Best American Science Writing De Oliver Sacks

portada The Best American Science Writing

Formato

Libro Físico

Editorial

Harper Perennial

Autor

Oliver Sacks

Año

2003

Idioma

Inglés

N° páginas

272

Encuadernación

Tapa Blanda

ISBN

0060936517

ISBN13

9780060936518

N° edición

2003

The Best American Science Writing

Oliver Sacks (Autor) · Harper Perennial · Tapa Blanda

Sin Stock

Reseña del libro "The Best American Science Writing"

In his introduction to "The Best American Science Writing 2003," Dr. Oliver Sacks, "the poet laureate of medicine" "New York Times" writes that "the best science writing . . . cannot be completely 'objective' -- how can it be when science itself is so human an activity? -- but it is never self-indulgently subjective either. It is, at best, a wonderful fusion, as factual as a news report, as imaginative as a novel." Following this definition of "good" science writing, Dr. Sacks has selected the twenty-five extraordinary pieces in the latest installment of this acclaimed annual. This year, Peter Canby travels into the heart of remote Africa to track a remarkable population of elephants; with candor and tenderness, Floyd Skloot observes the toll Alzheimer's disease is taking on his ninety-one-year-old mother, and is fascinated by the memories she retains. Gunjan Sinha explores the mating behavior of the common prairie vole and what it reveals about the human pattern of monogamy. Michael Klesius attempts to solve what Darwin called "an abominable mystery": How did flowers originate? Lawrence Osborne tours a farm where a genetically modified goat produces the silk of spiders in its milk. Joseph D'Agnese visits a home for retired medical research chimps. And in the collection's final piece, Richard C. Lewontin and Richard Levins reflect on how the work of Stephen Jay Gould demonstrated the value of taking a radical approach to science. As Dr. Sacks writes of Stephen Jay Gould -- to whose memory this year's anthology is dedicated -- an article of his "was never predictable, never dry, could not be imitated or mistaken for anybody else's." The same can be said of all of the goodwriting contained in this diverse collection.