Book Description

The goal of this book is not to dispense with science kits, rather to encourage teachers and their students to see kits as just a beginning to real scientific inquiry. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Avid science readers know the value of good judgment. There's just too much out there to go through it all in one lifetime, so we learn to appreciate the recommendations of those we trust. Editors James Gleick and Jesse Cohen took it upon themselves to select 19 eclectic pieces for The Best American Science Writing 2000, resulting in a delicious, engrossing volume with something for nearly every reader. Whether relying on well-known authors like Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks or surprising us with a selection from humor publication The Onion ("Revolutionary New Insoles Combine Five Forms of Pseudoscience"), they choose works that combine the best of exposition and aesthetic delight. The scope of topics is broad: physician Atul Gawande reports on medical mistakes, Douglas R. Hofstadter ruminates on natural and artificial intelligence, and Deborah Gordon gives an inside look at southwestern American ant life. Though the editors cheerfully admit that they can't define science writing with any precision, they still please the reader with this important and enjoyable volume. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Misnamed or Misedited...be warned!
I liked many of the pieces in this collection and detested just a few. But overall I was very disappointed since I expected essays about SCIENCE, not essays about science history, about preferring music to science, about doctors making mistakes. I'm not saying those types of essays are not interesting reading, but I am saying they're definitely not about real science. Very few of the essays would actually enhance a university science course, for instance.

Furthermore, there would seem to be a weird bias present in the selection of the essays. A lot of them are from the New Yorker or the New York Times, hardly the places to go for good science (even though I do acknowledge that when it comes to newspapers the New York Times does better than most...which are terrible in general). There are some from the Sciences, Nature, but not many from places where real science essays are published. I suspect the net was not cast far in a search. How about Science News, Discover, Analog, Scientific American? I am also sure there were more overlooked great science essays in books that were not read (a few such are included and tend to be among the best in the collection). There is even a farcical "essay" from The Onion here!

Gleick explains/justifies this in his introduction claiming to take a "big tent" approach. After reading the volume I think he failed. The tent wasn't big enough to retain enough science to validate the title.

The essays I like in particular included Lord of the Flies by Jonathan Weiner, Antarctic Dreams by Francis Halzen, Interstellar Spaceflight by Timothy Ferris, Einstein's Clocks by Peter Galison, and A Desinger Universe by Steven Weinberg.

Two stood out in my mind as particular poor examples of science writing mainly because they embrace "anti-science" in order to be "witty." Natalie Angier's New York Times article "Furs for Evening, but Cloth Was the Stone Age Standby" examines the recent realization that 20-30k year old fertility figures are shown wearing complex textiles. She may just be reporting the shoddy methodology of some current archeological practices, but she proudly announces that the old assumption that men created these statuettes is wrong based on the detailed textile carving that requires detailed knowledge of such and the cross-cultural studies of the present population of earth that indicates women create cloth, not men. I think the announcement is quite premature and just as big of an assumption. It feels like one of those essays that projects present-day sensibilities on past times, a form of political correctness that has no place in science.

Worse is "Must Dog Eat Dog" by Susan McCarthy from salon.com. McCarthy attacks sociobiological thought but displays an astounding level of ignorance about the details of the theories involved. She attacks a straw man of her own invention in which men must be homeless, starving, lecherous slobs in order to validate sociobiology. She simply cannot have read some of the thinkers she attacks and have written the piece she did. She argues from a political motivation, not from a scientific one, and I was quite shocked to see this essay included. "Witty" it may be, but science it ain't!

This is an interesting collection, but be aware of what is actually included here. Good science is going on in the world today, and people are writing about it, just usually not in the New Yorker.

Interesting, but not "The Best"
Although I enjoyed most of the articles, this was not exactly what I was expecting. It appears as though many of the articles came out of popular non-scientific publications (many from the N.Y. Times) and were written for a mainstream audience. Too many of them were articles of the "I'm a scientist and here's my story . . ." genre. One story was about an author's "nervous breakdown" and his decision to pursue a career in music rather than chemistry. A few were about the practice of medicine or medical research. They were interesting articles but didn't contain as much scientific information as I expected - I didn't really learn that much. I don't want to sound overly negative. I did enjoy many of the selections. However, calling this "The Best" science writing of the year is a real stretch.

A Very Mixed Bag
The best essays were actually on the history of science. There were memoirs of very little scientific interest, some pop-observations of the field of science, some decent philosophy, some medical adventure stories. Not bad, but certainly not a general survey of good science writing spread over all the sciences, so not what I was hoping for at all. I would have to browse the 2001 edition before buying; certainly not an automatic purchase based on this edition.

amusing, but very patchy writing skills
There were well written articles by generalists, and good pices by the people who do the research they write about. It's also hard not to enjoy Douglas Hofstadter, even if this was a somewhat weak piece of his.

Mixed in are pieces like Susan McCarthy (from Salon) that use poor argumentative style (numerous ad hominem attacks, the use of Capital Letter sarcasm), poorly researched and develop no thesis of her own. Just scattershot bon mots and drive-by name dropping.

some good with the bad. worth an afternoon, the articles are light on actual content. pop-science.

Terrific collection
In general, the BEST collections are the best of the best. First, the essays or books have been chosen for publication and then a few are picked for the collection. These are well written and interesting, covering several areas of science. I especially liked Stephen S. Hall's "Journey to the Center of My Mind" where he describes his experience of an M.R.I. of his brain while being assigned specific mental tasks. Fascinating stuff. And I loved "Lord of the Flies," excerpted from Jonathan Weiner's terrific book, TIME, LOVE, MEMORY, on Seymour Benzer's mapping the genes of the fruit fly.

Each essay in this collection takes you into the world of a specific science and the scientists who are patient enough to stay with their explorations and articulate enough to describe them to others. Some of my favorite authors are in this collection: Stephen J. Gould, Susan McCarthy, and Oliver Sachs. A treat for the mind.

~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY? and 3 books in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest Books. ... Read more

Book Description

This book profiles the instructional use of technology in the science classroom from 1900 to the present day. Drawn from a variety of sources -- from teacher accounts of classroom practice, and contemporary research accounts of the best teaching practices with technology -- it examines patterns of implementation with respect to the classroom use of technology. The organizing principle of scientific literacy is examined in terms of the changes it incurred over the course of the twentieth century, and how the use of technology provided a means of achieving the goals of scientific literacy in the classroom. ... Read more

Book Description

"Prokaryotic what? Musculoskeletal who? Meiosis? Are you talkin' to me? Are you a confused, hopeless biology student? Well despair no more, because help has arrived! You hold in your hands the key to a symbiotic relationship between your brain and the swirling mass of concepts and terms called biology: Biology Smart-Science Made Easy.

Biology Smart takes you through the basics, like:
-- cellular structure
-- general and organic chemistry
-- ecology
-- human physiology
-- chromosomes, mitosis, and meiosis

And best of all, Biology Smart is written an easy-to-digest format, with:
-- review questions
-- diagrams
-- a glossary at the end of each chapter, and
-- helpful tips

Biology Smart is brought to you by the people at The Princeton Review. Famous for helping over 2 million students prepare for every exam in the biosphere, we're uniquely qualified to whip you and that mess of biology work in front of you into shape. We're not promising that you'll be gazing longingly at pictures of DNA when you're through, but we're pretty sure that the word gameotogenesis will never make you quake with fear again. In fact, Biology Smart is so attuned to biology, that it's printed on bio-degradable, recycled paper. Cool, huh? ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Pretty good help for a struggling bio student!
I purchased this book last year on my friend's advice. For certain areas of study, I found it helpful in explaining terms and processes, but at other times I found in undetailed and in lack of substantial information. Before all my tests, I cross-referenced my textbook and this book, and it was usually helpful in these situations. Don't buy this book and think that it's gonna substitute your textbook, though! It just makes Bio a little more student-friendly by using cute terms, puns, and cartoons. It was very helpful with the digestive system and the complicated process or photosynthesis. Overall, it's a somewhat usefull book--but not the best.

Good for a reveiw or intro
This book can be used as an introduction to biology, or serve as a review. It is written in an easy to understand way that is suitable for all ages. It is a great companion to your Biology textbook. My only compliant is that it doesn't go into detail about many subjects it covers(e.g. endocrine system, nervous system). You just get the basics from this book. ... Read more

Book Description

This companion is designed to use with Genes VI by Benjamin Lewin. It helps students to make the best use of their study-time as they progress through the main text. The companion follows the organization of that book closely. For each Part there is a summary of the basic themes, and for each chapter there are six basic sections: (1) Multiple-choice questions; (2) Suggested additional reading; (3) A checklist of key terms; (4) Concept questions; (5) Problems; (6) Summary worksheets (presented as a fill-in-the-blank exercise). Full answers are provided for all these at the end of the book, The book will be an invaluable resource for students using the main text as part of an undergraduate course in genetics. use of their study-time. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Cranial Nerves: Anatomy and Clinical Comments
This books was very helpful in my study of the Cranial Nerves. Not ony did it show the nerves in 3-D, but it also gave clincal applications of each cranial nerve. It was tremendously helpful because it gives the nerve components which makes clinical applications relevant. The detail of this book is sufficient and meets the needs of a medical school student. It is a "must-have" for medical school and the boards. ... Read more

Book Description

Technology, a product of science, is pushing against the linear boundaries of traditional storytelling. Moving in the direction of multiform stories and digital formats takes literacy well beyond the 3Rs. Students increasingly need to be critical and creative users of the new media. As the Internet becomes faster, more visually powerful, and easier to manipulate there will be an explosion of virtual environments, with literacy taking on a whole new meaning. While the word literacy has become almost synonymous with the word competence, the authors prefer the definitions found in the new language arts and science standards. For example, the National Science Education Standards suggests that "scientific literacy implies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed." ... Read more

Book Description

"Why do bubbles pop? Why do some objects float, while others sink? Does water have skin?" The fun and educational activities found in Fun with Water and Bubbles are designed to help children answer these and get excited about learning while they explore the world's mysteries through experimentation. ... Read more

Book Description

Meier and Rishel explore the hows and whys of writing in mathematics. How to get started? How to grade assignments? How to introduce good writing into a maths course, and why you should care to do this? And most importantly, why is it so important to get students speaking and writing about mathematics anyway? This book should provide anybody involved in the teaching of mathematics with useful and constructive tools to examine the assignments they are using and the goals they hope to accomplish with them. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

How to teach math by having them write
Incorporating writing assignments into mathematics courses is a complex endeavor. In general, writing is a difficult task. I have been a participant in many lunchroom conversations with English faculty where the topic was the difficulty of teaching writing. Furthermore, students struggle with mathematics and nothing is more difficult than writing about something when you are lacking in confidence. Finally, choosing appropriate assignments is not easy and reasonably objective scoring is more complex than grading a test composed of problems. Despite these difficulties, there are substantial rewards when you incorporate writing assignments into mathematics classes. The writing of a paper requires a focus of thought that is unlike anything else.
For the past two years, I have taught credit classes at a small college where research papers are a course requirement. In developing new assignments from term to term I have found the advice in this book to be very helpful. The authors have clearly walked in the footwear of those they are encouraging to take the nontrivial plunge of giving significant writing assignments in their math classes. Furthermore, the slippers are not of the magic ruby kind, but a modification of a trench slogging boot. They describe many of their experiences and what they did to get out of problems such as poorly written assignments.
Writing well is a skill we all admire, independent of the topic. Learning to write is one skill that will stay with you all your life and writing about mathematics will impart a perspective that nothing else can. I have found research papers to be a good indicator of true scholarly ability in students and this book has helped me prepare the assignments. If you are interested in this challenging way to teach mathematics, then you should read this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Genetics is one of the most controversial and fast-changing areas of science today, which is what makes this book especially fascinating to read.It takes an easy, illustrated approach and covers every aspect from inheritance to the ethics of genetic engineering, eugenics, and the Human Genome Project.

Reviews (2)

Teach yourself Genetics
This is a great way to read and understand Genetics at a more understandable level. Thanks
Chris

Excellent intorduction to genetics
I knew almost nothing about genetics prior to reading this book. Now I can talk about things like genotypes and phenotypes with confidence. One of the best parts about this book is that the author takes the time to discuss the history and people behind this fascinating topic.

I recommend this book for anybody wanting to learn about genetics. ... Read more