by Sam Kean
Contents
* * *
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Foreword
Introduction
Transformative Science
ROSS ANDERSEN: Pleistocene Park
JACQUELINE DETWILER: It’ll Take an Army to Kill the Emperor
Rethinking Established Science
SOPHIE BRICKMAN: The Squeeze: Silicon Valley Reinvents the Breast Pump
JOHN LANCHESTER: The Case Against Civilization
SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE: Cancer’s Invasion Equation
KIM TODD: The Island Wolves
Environmental Science
DOUGLAS FOX: Firestorm
J. B. MACKINNON: Tragedy of the Common
BARACK OBAMA: The Irreversible Momentum of Clean Energy
DAVID ROBERTS: Wealthier People Produce More Carbon Pollution—Even the “Green” Ones
Profiles
CERIDWEN DOVEY: Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos
CAITLIN KUEHN: Of Mothers and Monkeys
PAUL KVINTA: David Haskell Speaks for the Trees
JOSHUA ROTHMAN: A Science of the Soul
CHRISTOPHER SOLOMON: The Detective of Northern Oddities
Political Science
KAYLA WEBLEY ADLER: Female Scientists Report a Horrifying Culture of Sexual Assault
RACHEL LEVEN: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Scott Pruitt’s Dysfunctional EPA
Space Science
REBECCA BOYLE: Two Stars Slammed into Each Other and Solved Half of Astronomy’s Problems. What Comes Next?
KENNETH BROWER: The Starship or the Canoe
SUSANNAH FELTS: Astonish Me: Anticipating an Eclipse in the Age of Information
STEVEN JOHNSON: Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)
ELENA PASSARELLO: Arabella (Araneus diadematus) 1973
ED YONG: Tiny Jumping Spiders Can See the Moon
Neuroscience and Psychology
BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY: When Your Child Is a Psychopath
EVA HOLLAND: Exposure Therapy and the Fine Art of Scaring the Shit out of Yourself On Purpose
KATHRYN SCHULZ: Fantastic Beasts and How to Rank Them
Contributors’ Notes
Other Notable Science and Nature Writing of 2017
Read More from the Best American Series
About the Editors
Connect with HMH
Footnotes
Copyright © 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Introduction copyright © 2018 by Sam Kean
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ISBN 978-1-328-98780-8 (print)
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“Female Scientists Report a Horrifying Culture of Sexual Assault” by Kayla Webley Adler. First published in Marie Claire, December 11, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Hearst Communications, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Kayla Webley Adler.
“Pleistocene Park” by Ross Andersen. First published in The Atlantic, April 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Ross Andersen. Reprinted by permission of Ross Andersen.
“Two Stars Slammed into Each Other and Solved Half of Astronomy’s Problems. What Comes Next?” by Rebecca Boyle. First published in FiveThirtyEight, November 14, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by ESPN. Reprinted courtesy of FiveThirtyEight.com.
“The Squeeze: Silicon Valley Reinvents the Breast Pump” by Sophie Brickman. First published in California Sunday Magazine, April 3, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Sophie Brickman. Reprinted by permission of Sophie Brickman.
“The Starship or the Canoe: Where Will Our Future Adaptations Be?” by Kenneth Brower. First published in California, Summer 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Kenneth Brower. Reprinted by permission of Kenneth Brower.
“It’ll Take an Army to Kill the Emperor” by Jacqueline Detwiler. First published in Popular Mechanics, June 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Popular Mechanics. Reprinted by permission of Popular Mechanics.
“Dr. Space Junk Unearths the Cultural Landscape of the Cosmos” by Ceridwen Dovey. First published on The New Yorker website, September 1, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Condé Nast. Reprinted by permission of Condé Nast.
“Astonish Me: Anticipating an Eclipse in the Age of Information” by Susannah Felts. First published in Catapult, August 21, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Susannah Felts. Reprinted by permission of Susannah Felts.
“Firestorm” by Douglas Fox. First published in High Country News, April 3, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Douglas Fox. Reprinted by permission of Douglas Fox.
“When Your Child is a Psychopath” by Barbara Bradley Hagerty. First published in The Atlantic, June 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Barbara Bradley Hagerty. Reprinted by permission of Barbara Bradley Hagerty.
“Exposure Therapy and the Fine Art of Scaring the Shit out of Yourself On Purpose” by Eva Holland. First published in Esquire, March 15, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Eva Holland. Reprinted by permission of Eva Holland.
“Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)” by Steven Johnson. First published in The New York Times Magazine, June 28, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Steven Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Steven Johnson.
“Of Mothers and Monkeys” by Caitlin Kuehn. First published in the Bellevue Literary Review, Spring 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Caitlin Kuehn. Reprinted by permission of Caitlin Kuehn.
“David Haskell Speaks for the Trees” by Paul Kvinta. First published in Outside, March 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Paul Kvinta. Reprinted by permission of Paul Kvinta.
“The Case Against Civilization” by John Lanchester. First published in The New Yorker, September 18, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Orlando Books Limited. Reprinted by permission of John Lanchester.
“A Behind-the-Scenes-Look at Scott Pruitt’s Dysfunctional EPA” by Rachel Leven. First published by Center for Public Integrity, November 9, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Center for Public Integrity. Reprinted by permission of Center for Public Integrity.
“Tragedy of the Common” by J. B. MacKinnon. First published in Pacific Standard, October 17, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by J. B. MacKinnon. Reprinted by permission of J. B. MacKinnon.
“Cancer’s Invasion Equation” by Siddhartha Mukherjee. First published in The New Yorker. Copyright © 2017 by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Reprinted by permission of Siddhartha Mukherjee.
“The Irreversible Momentum of Clean Energy” by Barack Obama. First published in Science, 13 Jan 2017: Vol. 355, Issue 6321, pp. 126-129 (DOI: 10.1126/science.aam6284). *Public Domain material
“Arabella (
Araneus diadematus) 1973” by Elena Passarello. First published in The Normal School, Spring 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Elena Passarello. Reprinted by permission of Elena Passarello.
“Wealthier People Produce More Carbon Pollution—Even the ‘Green’ Ones” by David Roberts. First published on Vox website, December 1, 2017. https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/1/16718844/green-consumers-climate-change. Copyright © 2017 by Vox Media, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
“Daniel Dennett’s Science of the Soul” by Joshua Rothman. First published in The New Yorker, March 27, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Condé Nast. Reprinted by permission of Condé Nast.
“Fantastic Beasts and How to Rank Them” by Kathryn Schulz. First published in The New Yorker, November 6, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Kathryn Schulz. Reprinted by permission of Kathryn Schulz.
“The Detective of Northern Oddities” by Christopher Solomon. First published in Outside, January 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Outside. Reprinted by permission of Christopher Solomon.
“The Island Wolves” by Kim Todd. First published in Orion, May/June 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Kim Todd. Reprinted by permission of Kim Todd.
“Tiny Jumping Spiders Can See the Moon” by Ed Yong. First published in The Atlantic, online edition, June 6, 2017. Copyright © 2017 by Ed Yong. Reprinted by permission of Ed Yong.
Foreword
Early in 2017, for some strange reason, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four suddenly jumped to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list. Orwell laced his dystopian novel with Newspeak, the language of Oceania, one of the story’s perpetually warring states. Here’s a short sampler of its Big Brother–approved vocabulary: minipax—the Ministry of Peace (Oceania’s war department, not to be confused with our Department of Defense); prolefeed—mindless mass entertainment; malquoted—what today’s authoritarians would call fake news. And then there’s blackwhite, a synecdoche for all the perversions of Newspeak: to believe that black is white.
Our own leaders have given us “enhanced interrogation,” “collateral damage,” “clean coal,” and so many more. Whatever else they might be, when it comes to contorted Orwellian syntax, they are true artists. To honor those who tirelessly seek to protect us from the dangers of clear, informed English, why don’t we create a new award, the Quack, inspired by the Newspeak word duckspeak: communication unsullied by reason. Or, as Orwell himself defined it, “to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain centres at all.”
First nominee: Kathleen Hartnett White, shrewdly chosen by the president to head the Council on Environmental Quality. Ms. White-is-Black rejects the overwhelming scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels is causing catastrophic climate change. Not true, she assures us. “Carbon dioxide,” she said in 2016, “is the gas of life on this planet.” In an unprecedented concession to reality, the president withdrew her nomination in February. Thankfully, she’s still eligible for a Quack.
And who’s that, doddering down the blackwhite carpet on his way to the Quack Awards ceremony? Could it be? It is! Lamar Smith—the anti-science representative from Texas who now chairs—what else?—the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. During congressional testimony on climate change, he once said that the journal Science—one of the world’s most prestigious scientific publications—“is not known as an objective magazine.” As the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli once said of a colleague, Smith’s arguments are so bad they’re not even wrong. To be fair, he’s not opposed to all science. He is a fervid proponent of space exploration and evidently heeds what scientists tell him about Mars and other worlds. Their warnings about threats to his home planet? Not so much. Smith would like to see a crewed mission to Mars by 2021. Maybe taxpayers could fund his fare?
It’s not easy picking a winner from such a competitive and crowded field. We haven’t even mentioned Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who during a presidential debate couldn’t name the department he now leads. He once offered this answer to a fourth grader who asked him about Earth’s age: “You know what? I don’t have any idea. I know it’s pretty old, so it goes back a long, long way. I’m not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how long, how old the Earth is.” For Perry, who describes himself as “a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect” (emphasis added), “pretty old” apparently means 6,000 years. He’s only off by a factor of 756,000 or so. As for “how long” the Earth is, well, maybe he thinks our planet is rectangular? We mustn’t judge him too harshly, though. In his defense, he has said, “I am not a scientist.” Good thing he made that clear.
With so many highly qualified contenders, it’s tempting to award a collective Quack. But hey, this isn’t a socialist country; there has to be one winner—and a slew of losers. And the clear victor is . . . Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, the very agency he sued multiple times while serving as Oklahoma’s attorney general! He is proving to be a fierce guardian of the environment, if by “environment” you mean the lands owned, leased, or otherwise coveted by the country’s largest oil, gas, and mining companies.
Pruitt’s leadership has been visionary—or hallucinatory, depending. He has barred any scientist who has managed to win highly competitive government funding from advising the EPA. Letting our best researchers have input on environmental issues would be an egregious conflict of interest in Pruitt’s blackwhite “reasoning.” Far better to seek wise, impartial counsel from the industries the EPA is chartered to monitor.
So it’s only fitting that we honor Mr. Pruitt with the first Quack Award, as well as an entire article in this collection devoted to his disastrous tenure at the EPA. If anyone doubts that Pruitt has earned this honor, consider the opening words of Rachel Leven’s “A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Scott Pruitt’s Dysfunctional EPA”: “Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt doesn’t hide his contempt for how the agency has been run.” From there her story becomes ever more disturbing and heartbreaking.
Maybe Pruitt is doing us all a favor, getting the government out of our lives and forcing each of us to take responsibility for the state of the world? If, one by one, we all make the right choices—if we recycle more, drive less, eat organic—can we avoid the threats of climate change without the need for organized governmental intervention? Such lifestyle changes might soothe our first-world consciences, but as David Roberts shows in “Wealthier People Produce More Carbon Pollution—Even the ‘Green’ Ones,” well-meaning individual actions are no substitute for far-reaching national and international policy initiatives.
Fortunately, policy trends that could possibly save us are already discernible, despite the criminal efforts of Pruitt and his fellow Quacks to halt or reverse them. In this anthology, a promising new science journalist argues convincingly that reducing our civilization’s carbon emissions will not necessarily hinder global economic growth. From 2008 through 2015, the author states, the U.S. economy grew by 10 percent while the amount of energy consumed per dollar “fell by almost 11 percent.” For more insights from this perspicacious writer, dig into “The Irreversible Momentum of Clean Energy.” No doubt we’ll see more fine articles from Barack Obama in the years ahead. President Obama’s article was published in Science, which, despite Lamar Smith’s objections, happens to be one of the most credible and prescient sources of information in the world.
With climate change threatening to unmoor our global civilization, we’ll certainly need to look ahead, to imagine how our decisions today might prevent or accelerate our slide to ruin. But we can also learn by looking backward, to the origins of the world’s very first civilizations. How did they start? Where did they start? What drove our ancestors to give up their old hunter-gatherer ways? In “The Case Against Civilization,” John Lanchester proposes that somewhere back in prehistory we took a collective wrong turn when we began to value the accumulation of wealth above all other h
uman endeavors. Is it too late for us, Lanchester asks, to change our direction? Quoting John Maynard Keynes, he wonders if one day we’ll come to see the pursuit of riches above all else as a “disgusting morbidity.”
Think of this collection as a perfect antidote to quackery, and to the prolefeed that Orwell warned us about. Sam Kean, this year’s guest editor, has selected stories for you that Big Brother would have condemned as fostering ownlife: an appreciation of the individual and the value of solitude and reflection. Stories like Elena Passarello’s shimmering “Arabella,” a meditation on space exploration, almost elude classification and might never garner the “likes” or tweets they deserve. That is equally true of Caitlin Kuehn’s “Of Mothers and Monkeys,” an unforgettable essay on illness, death, and cross-species empathy. Sam, who has devised a provocative presentation for these wonderful articles, will take it from here.
Next year, The Best American Science and Nature Writing will have a new series editor, Jaime Green. Writers, editors, and readers can nominate articles for the anthology by following the submission guidelines on her website: https://www.jaimegreen.net/basn. After 17 years of helping to edit this anthology, I’ll have the distinct pleasure of joining the ranks of its more casual readers. (I’m looking forward to enjoying the book without having done a bit of the legwork!) As always, I’m grateful to Naomi Gibbs at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and many others there without whom this series wouldn’t exist. And I’d like to put a bit of Newspeak to good use to thank my beauteous wife, Anne Nolan. Like this anthology, she is doubleplusgood (“the best”).
Tim Folger
Introduction
Right around the time I moved back home after college (which was humiliating enough), my parents started feeding stray cats in our backyard. They’d buy these huge tins of Walmart cat food, and when you opened them up and turned them over, nothing happened at first. Only after several seconds would the hockey puck of horsemeat inside start quivering. It would then make this sucking noise as it plopped out, followed by glistening strands of gravy-mucus. It smelled awful—probably was offal. But because this was wintertime in South Dakota, the strays got pretty desperate for even this food. While lying in bed at night sometimes, I’d hear shrieks and howls from the backyard. I’d peek through my bedroom curtains and see this Tasmanian-devil tornado of fur whirling around out there. Not uncommonly, there’d be streaks of blood on the concrete the next morning.