THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2011

A diverse collection of 20 articles reprinted from the popular press that tackle a wide range of scientific issues of the day, from health and aging to computer viruses and terrorism.

The list of impressive guest editors over the years—including Oliver Sacks, James Gleick, Atul Gawande and Jerome Groopman—is joined this year by a father and daughter. Popular Science contributing editor Rebecca Skloot (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, 2010, etc.) teams with her father Floyd, a past contributor to the series (The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writers Life, 2008, etc.). In “Mother Courage,” New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto chronicles the inspiring 20-year battle by Pat Furlong—first to get a medical diagnosis and treatment for her two sons, both stricken with Duchenne, a rare, fatal form of muscular dystrophy, and then to advocate for the funding of research to find a cure. She eventually succeeded in winning passage of the Muscular Dystrophy CARE Act in 2001. In another piece, Charles Homans looks at the disturbing phenomenon of a majority of TV weatherman—trained in meteorology but not in climate science—who have assumed the mantle of experts on climate change and dispute the truth of global warming. Mother Jones environmental correspondent Julia Whitty examines the potential ecological consequences of the 2010 Gulf oil spill, and Cynthia Gorney provides a highly personal account of the options facing women suffering severe menopausal symptoms who weigh the benefits of using an estrogen patch against the heightened risks of cancers and stroke. Other contributors include John Brenkus, Burkhard Bilger, Charles Siebert and Mark Bowden. Literate, nontechnical popular science.