Transient and strange : notes on the science of life / Nell Greenfieldboyce.

First Title value, for Searching:

by:

Greenfieldboyce, Nell, author.

ISBN:

9780393882346

Edition:

First edition.

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

x, 214 pages ; 22 cm

Contents:

The symbol of a tornado -- What else is there? -- A very charming young black hole -- Pum pum pum -- Spider at the window -- A life so precarious as a flea's -- Everybody does it! -- Automatic beyond belief -- A moment of silence -- My eugenics project.

Abstract:

An astonishing debut from the beloved NPR science correspondent: intimate essays about the intersection of science and everyday life. In her career as a science reporter, Nell Greenfieldboyce has reported from inside a space shuttle, the bottom of a coal mine, and the control room of a particle collider; she's presented news on the color of dinosaur eggs, ice worms that live on mountaintop glaciers, and signs of life on Venus. In this, her debut book, she delivers a wholly original collection of powerful, emotionally raw, and unforgettable personal essays that probe the places where science touches our lives most intimately. Expertly weaving her own experiences of motherhood and marriage with an almost devotional attention to the natural world, Greenfieldboyce grapples with the weighty dualities of life: birth and death, constancy and impermanence, memory and doubt, love and aging. She looks for a connection to the universe by embarking on a search for the otherworldly glint of a micrometeorite in the dust, consults meteorologists and storm chasers on the eerie power of tornadoes to soothe her children's anxieties, and processes her adolescent oblivion through the startling discovery of black holes. Inspired throughout by Walt Whitman's invocation to the "transient and strange," she remains attuned to the wildest workings of our world, reflecting on the incredible leap of the humble flea or the echoing truth of a fetal heartbeat. A beautiful blend of explanatory science, original reporting, and personal experience, Transient and Strange captures the ache of ordinary life, offering resonant insights into both the world around us and the worlds within us.

Subject Term:

Science -- Philosophy.

Science -- Moral and ethical aspects.

Science -- Social aspects.

SCIENCE / General.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status
Searching... Manitowoc Public Library	Book	303.483 GREENFIE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In her career as a science reporter, Nell Greenfieldboyce has reported from inside a space shuttle, the bottom of a coal mine, and the control room of a particle collider; she's presented news on the color of dinosaur eggs, ice worms that live on mountaintop glaciers, and signs of life on Venus. In this, her debut book, she delivers a wholly original collection of powerful, emotionally raw, and unforgettable personal essays that probe the places where science touches our lives most intimately.

Expertly weaving her own experiences of motherhood and marriage with an almost devotional attention to the natural world, Greenfieldboyce grapples with the weighty dualities of life: birth and death, constancy and impermanence, memory and doubt, love and aging. She looks for a connection to the universe by embarking on a search for the otherworldly glint of a micrometeorite in the dust, consults meteorologists and storm chasers on the eerie power of tornadoes to soothe her children's anxieties, and processes her adolescent oblivion through the startling discovery of black holes. Inspired throughout by Walt Whitman's invocation to the "transient and strange," she remains attuned to the wildest workings of our world, reflecting on the incredible leap of the humble flea or the echoing truth of a fetal heartbeat.

A beautiful blend of explanatory science, original reporting, and personal experience, Transient and Strange captures the ache of ordinary life, offering resonant insights into both the world around us and the worlds within us.

Author Notes

Nell Greenfieldboyce is a science correspondent for National Public Radio. Before joining NPR, she was a science reporter at magazines including U.S. News & World Report and New Scientist, where she received the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award for Young Science Journalists. She lives in Washington, DC.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This artful debut essay collection from NPR science correspondent Greenfieldboyce mixes scientific anecdotes with intimate personal reflections. In "What Else Is There," Greenfieldboyce describes the achievements of Harvey Nininger, a 20th-century amateur meteorite researcher known for discovering large amounts of space debris on Earth, while framing her own quest to find tiny meteorites on her property as a quixotic attempt to come into contact with "something ethereal that I'm not equipped to recognize and probably won't ever truly understand." "A Very Charming Young Black Hole" recounts Greenfieldboyce's struggle to determine if she should trust a note from her younger self suggesting her first kiss was a 22-year-old who hit on her in a hotel lobby when she was 12, though she can't remember kissing him. She traces how the scientific understanding of black holes has developed since her birth in 1974 and uses the cosmic entity as a metaphor to interrogate whether her memory of what happened that night is, like anything that enters a black hole, irretrievable. Elsewhere, Greenfieldboyce touches on her son's fear of tornadoes, her ambivalent efforts to ensure her children didn't inherit her husband's genetic kidney disease, and the "symbolic power" of fleas ("Is there not something to be said for the universe and all generations re-created in the small and unremarkable?"). The inventive juxtaposition of science with autobiography yields unexpected insights buoyed by evocative prose. Greenfieldboyce dazzles with her auspicious first outing. (Jan.)