The Science Writers Roundtable public events series is brought to you by the NASW Board of Directors.
Brain abnormalities make some dogs act in such unsafe ways distraught owners may be forced to end their pet’s life. In The Most Painful Choice: A Dog Owner’s Story of Behavioral Euthanasia, Beth Miller describes her futile 6-year struggle to help her beloved but aggressive and anxious rescue dog Champ. She also addresses treatment of canine behavioral disorders and offers advice on managing grief.
Jean-Henri Fabre likened a glowworm to “a spark fallen from the full moon.” He is one of 25 scientists from around the world who advanced knowledge of how living organisms interact with each other and their physical environments. In Ecology for Kids, Liz Heinecke introduces young readers to these pioneers and provides step-by-step photo-illustrated guides to home experiments based on their work.
A nun, Sister Fidelia, opened a 12-bed hospital in Tucson in 1880. Botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon identified and painted 100s of Southwest plants. In 1912, educator Louise Boehringer became the first woman elected to public office in Arizona; she also edited and published Arizona Teacher. They are among 17 pioneering women born before 1900 whom Wynne Brown portrays in Remarkable Arizona Women.
Links to 2023 editions of the NASW Desk Notes Newsletter.
Yes, some chickens can fly! Some sing after laying eggs. Some purr when happy. Chickens make and keep friends, too, and grieve when pals die, Tove Danovich reports in Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them. While industrial farms prompt concerns about animal welfare, 3500 years of chicken history, she asserts, offer much to crow about.
“All matter—everything around and within us—has an ultimate birthday: the day the universe was born,” Dan Levitt writes in What's Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner. In reporting how we became who we are, Levitt illuminates the lives and struggles of the scientists who discovered how the past remains alive in the present.
