An anthology of "science and nature" (defined very loosely, which didn't really bother me) writing from magazines and journals. Like all anthologies, this one was of mixed quality, but overall I enjoyed it.

The articles I found most engaging were:

--a linguistics controversy regarding the nature of an Amazonian language called Piraha, which appears unrelated to any other human language and contains just 8 consonants and 3 vowels but possesses a huge number of tones, stresses, and syllable lengths.

--a rather disturbing article about biotechnology which seemed to basically ignore the ethical and ecological implications of genetic engineering and focused more on the "isn't it cool?" factor, suggesting that one day biotech will have advanced to a point where "Designing genomes will be a personal thing, a new art form as creative as painting or sculpture" and will be used to entertain bored housewives or children.

--an interesting but rather short-sighted article about robotics in the military. The author predicted that one day all important military forces will rely on robotic land forces (in addition to current air-based systems, like automated Predator drones). Basically he says that war will one day be fought only between robots & will essentially be meaningless because robots will decimate other robots & no human lives will be lost. Still, this article made me want to learn more about military robotics, which is not generally a reading area of mine. :)

--Islam and science - I don't remember why anymore, but I remember being irritated by this article.

--an article about viral outbreaks and how viruses spread across species

--And finally, an article about people who devote significant time & energy toward scamming people who run Internet scams and whether these people are racist, given that many internet scammers tend to be from African countries. This was a really weird article about a topic I'd never even heard of. The most outrageous story provides the background for the title, "How To Trick an Online Scammer into Carving a Computer out of Wood". A version of this article originally ran in the Atlantic Monthly & might be available online, if anyone is interested in really bizarre scams. ( )

I read this collection over a period of time, between other books. This collection stresses evolution, biology, viruses, epidemiology, linguistics and archeology over astrophysics. There are strong pieces by David Quammen on viral zoonosis and Olivia Judson on the genetics of altruism. There is a forceful piece by Michael Finkel on malaria. Ian Parker's article "Swingers" casts a skeptical and humorous eye on what we know about bonobos, and how the bonobo has become a cultural icon for self-satisfied and romantic humans. At the heart of the collection, Edward Hoagland's "Children are Diamonds" tours the Africa of starvation, illness, war and international aid. ( )

A collection of recent publications that vary widely in quality, from some thought-provoking stunners to run-of-the-mill articles about primates. "Science and Nature" should be interpreted loosely here: among the writings about cosmology and biology, you'll also find entries that more comfortably categorize into geography, linguistics, sociology. In fact, it is some of these border stories in the "softer" sciences that provide some of the stand-out material in this compendium.

Two of the stronger pieces are about linguistics: The baffling language (and culture) of the Pirahã tribe in the Amazon, communication via knotted tassels among the Incas. In contrast, the writings on biotech and nanotechnology seem like they're there because they're hot topics, not as much because the quality warrants inclusion.

Overall the collection leaves me somewhat lukewarm: Is this really the best we can do? ( )