Book
Transient and strange : notes on the science of life
Published [2024] by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y.
ISBN 9780393882346
Bib Id 2636242
Copyright 2024
Edition First edition.
Description x, 214 pages ; 22 cm
More Details
Leader
03474cam a2200421 i 4500
ISBN
9780393882346 (hardcover) $28.00
0393882349
Call #
814 Greenfieldboyce
Title
Transient and strange : notes on the science of life
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
[2024] by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, N.Y. :
Copyright Date
©2024
Description
x, 214 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Contents
Introduction -- Part I -- The symbol of a tornado -- What else is there? -- A very charming young black hole -- Part II -- 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 -- Part III -- My eugenics project -- Acknowledgments -- Selected Sources.
Summary
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
Genre/Form
Essays
Availability
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