From Publishers Weekly
Science buffs will find a smorgasbord of lively pieces in this anthology selected by renowned Harvard psychologist Pinker (The Blank Slate; etc.). Many readers will jump straight to Ron Rosenbaum's "Sex Week at Yale," an entertaining exposé of how academics can give their audience a headache when they yammer on about sex. Even the most science-wary readers will enjoy Peggy Orenstein's "Where Have All the Lisas Gone?" about trends in naming babies. Bird lovers (and cat haters) will laugh out loud at the Letters to the Bird Brain collected in Michael O'Connor's "Bird Watcher's General Store." And ailurophiles will be stunned by Robert Sapolsky's report ("Bugs in the Brain") on how the pathogen that causes toxoplasmosis alters its carriers' (rodents) brains so they no longer fear their number one predator (cats). Medical buffs will look for Atul Gawande's extended profile of the amazing Francis Moore, a pioneer in treatment of burns, nuclear medicine, hormone replacement therapies and organ transplants. Both Pinker's choice of subjects (linguistics, psychology) as well as sources (The American Conservative, The Cape Codder) range happily beyond the usual suspects; everyone will find something they haven't already read. The collection is recommended for intellectually omnivorous readers in this and all other universes. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
On the publishing heels of its rival anthology, The Best American Science Writing, 2004 [BKL S 15 04], comes this selection of two dozen articles giving general readers both a range of subject matter, from zoology to astrophysics, and of authorial voices, from expository to satirical. Guest editor Pinker, the prominent neuroscience researcher and author (How the Mind Works, 1997), has made some idiosyncratic choices, such as an advice feature for birdwatchers taken from The Cape Codder, unrenowned as a science periodical. What is the relation to science, one must wonder, of two articles plucked from the New York Times, one concerning fads in naming babies; another, the politics of grammar? Whatever their connection to hard science, such offbeat pieces balance out the more serious-minded declamations of philosopher Daniel Dennett (disputing the late Stephen Jay Gould on genetic determinism) or cosmologist Max Tegmark (describing postulations of many, infinite, or higher-dimensional universes). All of Pinker's picks carry a cogent main idea eloquently expressed, testifying to the healthy condition of contemporary popular science writing. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected - and most popular - of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly