The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Sy Montgomery, New York Times best-selling author and recipient of numerous awards, edits this year’s volume of the finest science and nature writing.

“Science is important because this is how we seek to discover the truth about the world. And this is what makes excellent science and nature writing essential,” observes New York Times best-selling author Sy Montgomery. “Science and nature writing are how we share the truth about the universe with the people of the world.” And collected here are truths about nearly every corner of the universe. From meditations on extinction, to the search for alien life, to the prejudice that infects our medical system, the pieces in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing seek to bring to the people stories of some of the most pressing issues facing our planet, as well as moments of wonder reflecting the immense beauty our natural world offers.

What happens when the planet’s most acclaimed journalists investigate the hidden forces shaping our world?

• A Public Health Crisis: An unflinching investigation into why Black mothers and babies in the United States are dying at more than double the rate of white mothers, revealing the hidden toll of systemic racism.
• The Insect Apocalypse: A chilling report on the rapid disappearance of the world’s insects, and what the loss of "the little things that run the natural world" means for our shared future.
• Geology and Mass Extinction: A journey 385 million years into the past to find a devastating mass extinction recorded in the rock walls behind gas stations and under the highways of upstate New York.
• Neuroscience and the Mind: A radical rethinking of the human brain, from the surprising mechanics of the placebo effect to the physical shockwave that powers our nerves.
• Conservation in the Anthropocene: An intimate look at the last days of the vaquita—the world’s most endangered marine mammal—and the "acoustic hell" that defines the life of the modern right whale.

Researching her films, articles, and more than forty books, Sy Montgomery has trekked into the cloud forest of Papua, New Guinea, cage-dived off Mexico with great white sharks, and scuba-dived off two continents to commune with wild octopuses. A National Book Award finalist, her work has been honored with a Sibert Medal, a Cook Prize Gold Medal, two Science Book and Film prizes from the National Association for the Advancement of Science, four honorary degrees, and many other awards. She lives in Hancock, New Hampshire. Visit her online at symontgomery.com.

Jaime Green, series editor, is a science writer and essayist. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Aeon, Slate, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, Astrobites, and elsewhere. She is the author of The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos.