by Tim Folger
Dawn Stover is a freelance science and environmental writer based in the Pacific Northwest. She is an editor at large for Popular Science, where she was a staff editor for nineteen years. Previously she worked at Harper's Magazine and Science Digest. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, New Scientist, Science Illustrated, Conservation, Outside, and Backpacker. She is a charter member of the Society of Environmental Jour nalists and a longtime member of the National Association of Science Writers.
Steven Weinberg is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas. His honors include the Nobel Prize in Physics and the National Medal of Science, election to numerous academies, and sixteen honorary doctoral degrees. He has written more than three hundred articles on elementary particle theory, cosmolology, and other scientific topics, and twelve books; the latest, Lake Views: This World and the Universe, is a collection of his essays from the New York Review of Books and other periodicals. Educated at Cornell, Copenhagen, and Princeton, he taught at Columbia, Berkeley, MIT, and Harvard, where he was the Higgins Professor of Physics, before coming to Texas in 1982.
Tom Wolfe has established himself as our prime fictional chronicler of America at its most outrageous and alive. He lives in New York City with his wife, Sheila; his daughter, Alexandra; and his son, Tommy.
Other Notable Science and Nature Writing of 2009
Selected by Tim Folger
MARCIA ANGELL
Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption. New York Review of Books, January 15.
NATALIE ANGIER
The Art of Deception. National Geographic, August.
JOEL ACHENBACH
Will Yellowstone Blow Again? National Geographic, August.
ANTHONY AVENI
Apocalypse Soon? Archaeology, November/December.
CHARLES BOWDEN
Unseen Sahara. National Geographic, October.
Contested Ground. Orion, November/December.
OLIVER BROUDY
Dead Man Driving. Men's Health, December.
What If the Sun Could Kill You? Men's Health, July/August.
ALAN BURDICK
The New Web of Life. OnEarth, Fall.
LESTER R. BROWN
Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization? Scientific American, May.
ANDREW CURRY
Rituals of the Nasca Lines. Archaeology, May/June.
FRANS DE WAAL
The Empathy Instinct. Discover, October.
MARK DOWIE
Nuclear Caribou. Orion, January/February.
DOUGLAS FOX
California's Sinking Delta. Christian Science Monitor, December 2.
MC KENZIE FUNK
Arctic Landgrab. National Geographic, May.
DAVID GARGILL
The General Electric Superfraud. Harper's Magazine, December.
DANIEL GOLEMAN
How Green Is Green? Tricycle, Summer.
TARAS GRESCOE
The Trouble with Salmon. Best Life, May.
JEROME GROOPMAN
Robots That Care. The New Yorker, November 2.
MICHAEL J. HECKENBERGER
Lost Cities of the Amazon. Scientific American, October.
JOHN HORGAN
We Are Not Destined to Fight. San Francisco Panorama, December 8.
COURTNEY HUMPHRIES
The Body Politic. Seedmagazine.com, April 14.
VERLYN KLINKENBORG
Countdown to Extinction. National Geographic, January.
ELIZABETH KOLBERT
Changing Rains. National Geographic, April.
ADAM LEVEY
The Vanishing Youth Nutrient. Prevention, September.
RICHARD LEWONTIN
Why Darwin? New York Review of Books, May 28.
DANIEL LIBIT
The Bear Necessities. Washington Post Magazine, April 5.
SETH LLOYD
Privacy and the Quantum Internet. Scientific American, October.
BARRY LOPEZ
Notes from the Earth. The American Scholar, Autumn.
ERIN MC CARTHY
Welcome to the Food Chain. Popular Mechanics, July.
TOM MC GRATH
What If You Didn't Have to Grow Old? Men's Health, January/February.
BUCKY MC MAHON
Relocation! Relocation! Relocation! GQ, December.
CHRIS MOONEY
Vaccination Nation. Discover, June.
VIRGINIA MORRELL
Going to the Dogs. Science, August 28.
LIZA MUNDY
Deer Heaven. Washington Post Magazine, April 26.
DAVID NOLAND
NASA and Its Discontents. Popular Mechanics, February.
H. ALLEN ORR
Which Scientist Can You Trust? The New York Review of Books, March 26.
MICHAEL POLLAN
Sneaky Orchids. National Geographic, September.
HEATHER PRINGLE
Witness to Genocide. Archaeology, January/February.
HARRISON H. SCHMITT
From the Moon to Mars. Scientific American, July.
BILL SHERWONIT
Reflections on Thrush Songs, Newt Tracks, and Old-Growth Stands of Trees. Isle, Fall.
NEIL H. SHUBIN
This Old Body. Scientific American, January.
MARK SLOUKA
Dehumanized. Harper's Magazine, September.
CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON
Foot. Loose. Outside, October.
GARY TAUBES
RNA Revolution. Discover, October.
WILLIAM T. VOLLMANN
Expectations. San Francisco Panorama, December 8.
ALEC WILKINSON
What Would Jesus Bet? The New Yorker, March 30.
DAVID WOLMAN
Turning the Tides. Outside, January.
CARL ZIMMER
The Entangled Bank. Discover, November.