After his 19-year-old son Roman became paralyzed in a 1994 college football game, Don Reed immersed himself in learning about and advocating for stem cell research. His book, Stem Cell Battles: Proposition 71 and Beyond, chronicles efforts to educate the public and convince legislators to support stem cell research, first in California in 2004, and later in other states, and nationally. Reed humanizes the research, telling stories of individuals affected by disorders for which stem cell research holds promise, and of scientists working to advance treatment.
Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members
“That’s not fair!” “He started it!” When children behave like — well, children — parents often have to settle disputes. In The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting, NASW member Paul Raeburn and Kevin Zollman assert that game theory — the science of strategic thinking — offers parents a wealth of practical and non-punitive ways to reduce squabbling and improve sibling relationships. Use of bargaining, incentives, and other evidence-based tactics, they say, fosters family harmony, and helps children grow into fair-minded adults.
In 1882, Russian zoologist Elie Metchnikoff recognized that white blood cells form the first line of defense against invading bacteria. Initially greeted with skepticism, his insights into the nature of immunity brought him the Nobel Prize in 1908. His belief that sour milk might delay aging sparked a global craze for yogurt. In researching Immunity, her biography of Metchnikkoff, Luba Vikhansky tracked down a secret stash of Metchnikoff’s letters in Paris, and obtained permission to break into safe deposit boxes to gain access to this material.
Want to write a science blog? Learn how to set up your blog, build an audience for it, and cover controversial topics, while dealing with deniers, cynics, and trolls in Science Blogging: The Essential Guide. Editors Christie Wilcox, Bethany Brookshire, and Jason Goldman, along with two dozen other seasoned bloggers, also tell how to blog for science education, use your blog as a springboard for a book, and, yes!, get paid for your work. A NASW Idea grant helped support the book’s production.
In Green Transport: Exploring Eco-friendly Travel for a Better Tomorrow, Rani Iyer, writing for young adults, reviews effects of various modes of transportation on the environment. She describes more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation, such as biodiesel-fueled buses and cars and solar-powered boats, and stresses benefits to the environment and health of biking or walking. She also discusses efforts around the world to boost use of these alternatives.
An assignment to write about an imaginary river in the American Southwest, sought for decades by 18th and 19th century explorers, fur trappers, and pioneers, sparked Melissa Sevigny’s interest in modern-day efforts to bring more water to the Colorado River Basin. In Mythical River: Chasing the Mirage of New Water in the American Southwest, Sevigny tells those stories, and explores the challenges of making an ethical home in a desert.
Known for its innovative research in cancer, neuroscience, plant science and genomics, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory recently marked its 125th anniversary. In The Road to Discovery: A Short History of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Jan A. Witkowski strives to make that history come alive by portraying the work of individual scientists and their contributions to the development of biomedical science and biotechnology. The book includes more than 300 illustrations, plus resources for further reading.
In Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens, Steve Olson focuses on the 57 people killed in the volcano’s eruption, the morning of Sunday, May 18, 1980. Those who lost their lives included volcanologists, loggers, conservationists, and other area residents, some as far as 13 miles from the summit. Had it been a weekday, Olson notes, far more people would have died, as hundreds of loggers would have been working in the area.
Melissa Sevigny interviewed more than 50 scientists engaged in solar system exploration, asking each of them to describe the first moment they saw a new world revealed. Their first sights ranged from the Moon to Mars, from asteroids to the moons of asteroids, and more. In Under Desert Skies: How Tucson Mapped the Way to the Moon and Planets, Sevigny shares their “inexhaustible sense of wonder.” Minor Planet (15624) Lamberton is named for Sevigny, who earned the honor as Melissa Lamberton in 2001, when she was a finalist in the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge, a middle school science competition.
Good essays have much in common with good science, in that both start with a question, Michelle Nijhuis asserts in The Science Writers’ Essay Handbook. Narrated in a personal voice, essays involve one or more journeys, and are relevant to both writer and reader, she says, telling how to organize, write, and self-edit essays, and where to find outlets for publication or broadcast. Nijhuis was a co-author of The Science Writers’ Handbook, published in 2013. NASW Idea Grants helped support development of both books.