Comments on: Everything I Learned from the Best American Science and Nature Writing This Year

By: Naomi

Naomi — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 13:25:00 +0000

Science can be so interesting or completely depressing, can’t it?
Funny there should be an article about nail salons – I’ve never been to one, but my daughter went with one of her friends… and it got me wondering about the health of the people working there. When my kids put nail polish on, I have to go around opening all the windows!
I had no idea about astronaut’s immune system. Are they trying to keep it as some kind of secret?
I read a book called The Biology of Desire by Marc Lewis, and it was about addictions and how the brain works – very interesting!

By: Katie @ Doing Dewey

Katie @ Doing Dewey — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 05:11:00 +0000

I read the Best Science and Nature writing 2014 and I loved it, so I don’t know why I’ve not gotten to any of the other books in the series. My only excuse is that it’s physically impossible for me to read all of the things I want to read 🙂 Thanks for the awesome highlights from this one!

By: Alley

Alley — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 00:19:00 +0000

Well now I want to read ALL OF THESE so thank you for the links.

By: Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness)

Kim (Sophisticated Dorkiness) — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 15:05:00 +0000

I love the Best American series, but I ALWAYS forget about this particular entry. Which is ridiculous, because iI love good science writing. These all sound amazing, must buy immediately.

By: Christy

Christy — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 20:38:00 +0000

I think I don’t want to know why microwave popcorn is bad. I like it so much.
The article about alcoholism and AA was really interesting – it’s amazing how much we can cling to methods and solutions that have no scientific basis.
Regarding earthquakes, years ago I went to a cartography conference and someone had a presentation that mapped the impact of an earthquake-triggered tsunami on a peninsula in Oregon. The cartography depicted how many minutes it would take for people at different parts of the peninsula to run to high ground. For some parts it was too many minutes – the tsunami would already be there. The cartographers’ job was not to solve this problem but to depict the reality for state government, but they still discussed some possible solutions in the presentation. One solution would be to build artificial high grounds in the places furthest from current high ground. Another recommendation was to encourage fitness among residents on the peninsula **so they could run faster**. It was a very sobering presentation.

By: JeanPing

JeanPing — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 15:27:00 +0000

Come to think of it, that’s true about earthquakes. The little ones don’t last any amount of time at all. I’m a weird anomaly — having lived in California for pretty much my entire life, I’ve only ever actually felt one very minor earthquake. Always been at the other end of the state for the big earthquakes. And we aren’t really prepared for any of the Big Ones. The Hayward fault (which runs all along the densely populated East Bay) will go big one of these days, and they won’t have any water, and that will be very interesting, but do we do anything about that? Nah.

By: RR Gilmore

RR Gilmore — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 13:32:00 +0000

BRB gotta go buy this

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 12:16:00 +0000

Bed rest is definitely hard on the back–and I’m encouraged to get up and shuffle around with the walker every hour!