Featured news

Bookshelf photo adapted from original photo by Rebecca Heisman

Rebecca Heisman—Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration

Where do birds go when seasons change? A 17th-century theory posited they flew to the moon. Researchers today use radar, satellites, light-level geolocation, DNA, data from community bird-watchers, and more to track and understand migration patterns, as Rebecca Heisman details in Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration.

Photo of a bookshelf containing some of the books Amy Marcus read to understand the history of patient-led activism, the ethics of collaboration between patients and scientists, and the history of science in the modern era. Photo by Amy Marcus

Amy Dockser Marcus—We the Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forged a New Path for Medicine

Parents of children with rare, potentially fatal, disorders, building on activism by people with breast cancer and HIV, have spurred the burgeoning citizen-science movement. Their efforts, Amy Dockser Marcus reports in We the Scientists: How a Daring Team of Parents and Doctors Forged a New Path for Medicine, have improved both national health policy and social and political equality.

Horizontal photo of a shelf of books used by Diana P. Parsell for research on forthcoming book, "Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Woman Behind Washington's Cherry Trees" Photo by Diana Parsell

Diana Parsell—Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees

From the 1890s to the 1920s, reporter/photographer Eliza Scidmore covered Alaska’s Klondike gold rush, Japan’s emergence as a modern world power, and other world events for National Geographic and other publications. She also orchestrated Japan’s 1912 gift of 3000 cherry trees to Washington, DC, Diana Parsell recounts in Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees.

Horizontal photo of a bookshelf with four compartments visible, each filled with books

Dennis Meredith—The Climate Pandemic: How Climate Disruption Threatens Human Survival

Climate disruption occurs almost too slowly to fear, Dennis Meredith asserts in The Climate Pandemic: How Climate Disruption Threatens Human Survival. The innate human “optimism bias” thwarts efforts to halt rising global temperatures, acidifying oceans, disappearing forests, and increasing wildfires. With 1700 references, “this book is not a wake-up call,” he insists. “It may well be taps.”

ScienceWriters2023 in Boulder

The 2023 annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing (CASW) will take place in Boulder, Colo., with additional virtual sessions.

Horizontal photo of a bookshelf with various book spines visible, many with library catalog stickers, and a few authored by Oliver Sacks. Photo by Marc Dingman

Marc Dingman—Bizarre: The Most Peculiar Cases of Human Behavior and What They Tell Us about How the Brain Works

What could prompt a person to act like a cat, view family members as imposters, eat cigarette ashes, or hear sounds others don’t notice? What allows others to memorize dozens of books or rapidly calculate math problems? Neuroscientist and science writer Marc Dingman explores such queries in Bizarre: The Most Peculiar Cases of Human Behavior and What They Tell Us about How the Brain Works.

View All News