Author Description

The first anthology compiled especially for the reader of scientific and technical writing, Writing About Science is now brought up to date to include some of the most powerful new voices of the past decade. Twenty-seven essays by eminent scientists--written for both popular and professional audiences--provide working models of excellence and show that scientific writing can be both imaginative and concise, efficient as well as entertaining. The contributors range from great scientists of the past, such as Michael Faraday and Charles Darwin, to important names of today, including James Watson, Francis Crick, Lynn Margulis, and Stephen J. Gould. Displaying many styles and intended for a variety of audiences, the selections are especially broad in scope: some of the essays were originally written for scientific or technical journals; others are excerpts from best-selling books; still others were first given as lectures. Helpful introductions outline each author's life and contribution to science and place each selection in chronological and thematic context. Especially valuable is a supplementary table of contents that arranges the essays by rhetorical method, underlining the continuity between scientific exposition and writing from the traditional liberal arts. Covering a wide range of scientific writing and fully revised to include nine new essays, Writing About Science remains essential for anyone who needs to communicate scientific material in a compelling and lively fashion.