The Best Science Writing Online 2012

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way we think about science— from fluids to fungi, poisons to pirates. Featuring noted authors and journalists as well as the brightest up-and-comers writing today, this collection provides a comprehensive look at the fascinating, innovative, and trailblazing scientific achievements and breakthroughs of 2011, along with elegant and thoughtprovoking new takes on favorite topics. This is the sixth anthology of online essays edited by Bora Zivkovic, the blogs editor at Scientific American, and with each new edition, Zivkovic expands his fan base and creates a surge of excitement about upcoming compilations. Now everyone's favorite collection will reach new horizons and even more readers. Guest-edited and with an introduction by the renowned science author and blogger Jennifer Ouellette, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 marries cutting-edge science with dynamic writing that will inspire us all.

Here is the essential how-to guide for communicating scientific research and discoveries online, ideal for journalists, researchers, and public information officers looking to reach a wide lay audience. Drawing on the cumulative experience of twenty-seven of the greatest minds in scientific communication, this invaluable handbook targets the specific questions and concerns of the scientific community, offering help in a wide range of digital areas, including blogging, creating podcasts, tweeting, and more. With step-by-step guidance and one-stop expertise, this is the book every scientist, science writer, and practitioner needs to approach the Wild West of the Web with knowledge and confidence.

En route to their honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands, Paul and Carol Wilson lose their way in an unseasonable blizzard and are forced to take shelter in remote Ardvreck House. But this sprawling, dilapidated Victorian mansion, with its reputation as the scene of violent unsolved mysteries, is also playing host to an eclectic and mysterious group of people who are engaged in a bizarre experiment. It soon becomes clear that even more threatening than the worsening storm outside are the dangers within: The Wilsons and the rest of the assembled company may not survive their stay, as Ardvreck House, home to a century-old evil, refuses to give up its long-buried secret - the devil in the darkness. Renowned professor of astronomy Archie Roy was also a prominent researcher in the field of the paranormal. Drawing heavily on his own experience and investigations, Devil in the Darkness (1978) is a chilling haunted house story in the tradition of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Richard Matheson's Hell House. This new edition makes Roy's sixth novel available in America for the first time and includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur.

Scientists often argue among themselves about the best description of nature. Science journalists, primarily reporters of scientists’ work, and facilitators of their arguments, sometimes go beyond reportage and actually join such arguments, or even initiate them. This book presents the story of such a case. In 1985, the first reports of the discovery of the spherical molecule C60 Buckminsterfullerene, a new third form of carbon beyond diamond and graphite appeared and excited the world, especially the science media. At about the same time, but with much less fanfare, a new description of the formation of the small carbon particles called soot emerged. As this book shows, Nobel laureates-to-be Rick Smalley, Harry Kroto, and Bob Curl sought acknowledgement as discoverers of C60 using the media skillfully. Rudy Baum, a correspondent and eventual editor for premier chemistry newsmagazine Chemical and Engineering News, helped promote and establish the validity of their claim not only by reporting it, but by linking it with the soot science world, evidently contriving an argument between physical chemists and combustion scientists. The soot formation modeler Michael Frenklach tried in vain to quash the notion of such an argument and Chemical and Engineering News never retracted Baum’s spectacular story of conflict.

This single-volume work covers many traditions, customs, and activities Westerners may find unusual or shocking, covering everything from the Ashanti people's funeral celebrations to wife-carrying competitions in Finland. In Maharashtra, India, a tradition exists to throw newborn babies off the tops of buildings. At the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket, Thailand, some people ritualistically pierce their cheeks and faces with swords and knives. How did these surprising customs come to be? From camel wrestling to cheese-rolling competitions to a tomato-throwing festival, this fascinating single-volume encyclopedia examines more than 100 customs, traditions, and rituals that may be considered strange and exotic to U.S. readers. This work provides high school and undergraduate students with a compelling and fascinating exploration of world customs and traditions. Comprising entries by anthropologists, religious leaders, scholars, dancers, musicians, historians, and artists from almost every continent in the world, this encyclopedia provides readers a truly global and multidisciplinary perspective. The entries explore the origins of the custom, explain how it was established as a tradition, and describe how and where it is practiced. A thematic guide enables readers to look up entries by the type of tradition or custom, such as birth, coming of age, courtship and wedding, funeral, daily customs, holidays, and festivals.

A collection of the best science and nature writing published in North America in 2019, guest edited by New York Times best-selling author and ground-breaking physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. "Scientists and science writers have a monumental task: making science exciting and relevant to the average person, so that they care," writes renowned American physicist Michio Kaku. "If we fail in this endeavor, then we must face dire consequences." From the startlingly human abilities of AI, to the devastating accounts of California's forest fires, to the impending traffic jam on the moon, the selections in this year's Best American Science and Nature Writing explore the latest mysteries and marvels occurring in our labs and in nature. These gripping narratives masterfully translate the work of today's brightest scientists, offering a clearer view of our world and making us care. THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2020 INCLUDES RIVKA GALCHEN - ADAM GOPNIK - FERRIS JABR - JOSHUA SOKOL - MELINDA WENNER MOYER - SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE - NATALIE WOLCHOVER and others

A fantastic collection of recent nonfiction essays – live, wild, true stories from contemporary New Zealand. On the web and the wireless, in magazines and journals, at prizegivings and powhiri, New Zealanders are talking and writing about the world right now. We’ve been producing essays and articles, speeches and submissions, tweets and travelogues – nonfiction, in other words. This book collects some of New Zealand’s best true stories from the past year or so together into an anthology. And tell you what: we are swimming in this great nonfiction. This anthology takes us to new places, introduces us to new people, asks new questions and brings us a little closer to the true and the real. We’ve got mountain climbing and family secrets, cannibal snails and dangerous swims. We’ve got births. Deaths. Marriages. House auctions. Steve Braunias and Lara Strongman, Eleanor Catton and Tina Makereti.

Whether you know it or not, you become a chemist any time you step into a kitchen. As you cook, you oversee intricate chemical transformations that would test even the most hardened of professional chemists. Focussing on how and why we cook different dishes the way we do, this book introduces basic chemistry through everyday foods and meal preparations. Through its unique meal-by-meal organisation, the book playfully explores the chemistry that turns our food into meals. Topics covered range from roasting coffee beans to scrambling eggs and gluten development in breads. The book features many experiments that you can try in your own kitchen, such as exploring the melting properties of cheese, retaining flavour when cooking and pairing wines with foods. Through molecular chemistry, biology, neuroscience, physics and agriculture, the author discusses various aspects of cooking and food preparation. This is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the science behind cooking.

New York Times best-selling author and renowned science journalist Ed Yong compiles the best science and nature writing published in 2020. "The stories I have chosen reflect where I feel the field of science and nature writing has landed, and where it could go," Ed Yong writes in his introduction. "They are often full of tragedy, sometimes laced with wonder, but always deeply aware that science does not exist in a social vacuum. They are beautiful, whether in their clarity of ideas, the elegance of their prose, or often both." The essays in this year's Best American Science and Nature Writing brought clarity to the complexity and bewilderment of 2020 and delivered us necessary information during a global pandemic. From an in-depth look at the moment of the virus's outbreak, to a harrowing personal account of lingering Covid symptoms, to a thoughtful analysis on how the pandemic will impact the environment, these essays, as Yong says, "synthesize, evaluate, dig, unveil, and challenge," imbuing a pivotal moment in history with lucidity and elegance. THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2021 INCLUDES - SUSAN ORLEAN - EMILY RABOTEAU - ZEYNEP TUFEKCI - HELEN OUYANG - HEATHER HOGAN BROOKE JARVIS - SARAH ZHANG and others