Access Journal Content
Open access browsing of table of contents and abstract pages. Full text pdfs available for download for subscribers.
Current Issue: Vol. 30 (3)
Check out NENA's latest Monograph:
Monograph 22
346 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 17, No.2
346
Noteworthy Books
Received by the Northeastern Naturalist, Issue 17/2, 2010
Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey
Bee and the Coming Agricultural
Crisis. Rowan Jacobsen. 2008. Bloomsbury
USA, New York, NY. 288 pp. $25,
hardcover. ISBN 9781596915374. A
lively natural history that shows how
the foundations of our daily lives—the
food we eat, the air we breathe, the gardens
and forests we tend—are deeply
entwined with bees. One-third of American
food crops are pollinated by honey
bees: apples, almonds, cherries, peaches,
and plums, to name a few. We are very
dependent on our partnership with bees,
but most people know very little about
how they contribute to the larger world
of commercial agriculture. Late last year,
however, the honey bee made national
headlines: nearly one-third of the population,
30 billion bees, mysteriously died
from what they're calling “colony collapse
disorder”. In Fruitless Fall, Rowan
Jacobsen chronicles the developing crisis
that began in 2006 as beekeepers, scientists,
and government officials discovered
they had an emergency on their hands.
He explores the mystery of CCD and
follows researchers as they race to find
a solution before winter when the rest of
the northern hemisphere’s honeybees risk
dying. Fruitless Fall further examines
our dependence on honey bees and how
our exploitation of this work force may
lead not only to their ruin but may have
already irrevocably damaged our relationship
with the environment.
Tides of History: Ocean Science and
Her Majesty’s Navy. Michael S. Reidy.
2008. University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
IL. 392 pp. $40, hardcover. ISBN
9780226709321. In the first half of the
nineteenth century, the British sought
to master the physical properties of the
oceans; in the second half, they lorded
over large portions of the oceans’ outer
rim. The dominance of Her Majesty’s
navy was due in no small part to collaboration
between the British Admiralty, the
maritime community, and the scientific
elite. Together, they transformed the vast
emptiness of the ocean into an ordered
and bounded grid. In the process, the
modern scientist emerged. Science itself
expanded from a limited and local undertaking
receiving parsimonious state
support to worldwide and relatively wellfinanced research involving a hierarchy
of practitioners. Analyzing the economic,
political, social, and scientific changes
on which the British sailed to power,
Tides of History shows how the British
Admiralty collaborated closely not only
with scholars, such as William Whewell,
but also with the maritime community—
sailors, local tide-table makers, dockyard
officials, and harbormasters—in order
to systematize knowledge of the world’s
oceans, coasts, ports, and estuaries. As
Michael S. Reidy points out, Britain’s
security and prosperity as a maritime nation
depended on its ability to maneuver
through the oceans and dominate coasts
and channels. The practice of science and
the rise of the scientist became inextricably
linked to the process of European
expansion.
Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes,
Stalking Sharks, and Living
Undersea with Ocean Experts. Ellen
Pager. 2008. University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, IL. 178 pp. $22.50, hardcover.
ISBN 9780226678702. To the
average office-dweller, marine scientists
seem to have the good life: cruising at
sea for weeks at a time, swimming in
warm coastal waters, living in tropical
paradises. But ocean scientists who go
to sea will tell you that it is no vacation.
Creature comforts are few, and the
obstacles seemingly insurmountable, yet
an abundance of wonder and discovery
still awaits those who take to the ocean.
Chasing Science at Sea immerses readers
in the world of those who regularly
2010 Noteworthy Books 347
go to sea—aquanauts living underwater,
marine biologists seeking unseen life in
the deep ocean, and the tall-ship captains
at the helm, among others—and tells the
fascinating tale of what life and science
is like at the mercy of Mother Nature.
With passion and wit, well-known marine
scientist Ellen Prager shares her stories
as well as those of her colleagues, revealing
that in the field, ingenuity and a good
sense of humor are as essential as water,
sunblock, and GPS. Serendipity is invaluable,
and while collecting data is the
goal, sometimes just getting back to shore
means success. But despite the physical
hardship and emotional duress that come
with the work, optimism and adventure
prompt a particularly hardy species of
scientist to return again and again to the
sea. Filled with firsthand accounts of the
challenges and triumphs of dealing with
the extreme forces of nature and the unpredictable
world of the ocean, Chasing
Science at Sea is a unique glimpse below
the water line at what it is like and why it
is important to study, explore, and spend
time in one of our planet’s most fascinating
and foreign environments.
Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction
of Geohistory in the Age of Reform.
Martin J.S. Rudwick. 2008. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. 800 pp. $49,
hardcover. ISBN 9780226731285. In
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries, scientists reconstructed the immensely
long history of the earth—and
the relatively recent arrival of human
life. The geologists of the period, many
of whom were devout believers, agreed
about this vast timescale. But despite
this apparent harmony between geology
and Genesis, these scientists still debated
a great many questions: Had the earth
cooled from its origin as a fiery ball in
space, or had it always been the same kind
of place as it is now? Was prehuman life
marked by mass extinctions, or had fauna
and flora changed slowly over time? The
first detailed account of the reconstruction
of prehuman geohistory, Martin J.S.
Rudwick’s Worlds Before Adam picks up
where his celebrated Bursting the Limits
of Time leaves off. Here, Rudwick takes
readers from the post-Napoleonic Restoration
in Europe to the early years of
Britain’s Victorian age, chronicling the
staggering discoveries geologists made
during the period: the unearthing of the
first dinosaur fossils, the glacial theory
of the last ice age, and the meaning of
igneous rocks, among others. Ultimately,
Rudwick reveals geology to be the first
of the sciences to investigate the historical
dimension of nature, a model
that Charles Darwin used in developing
his evolutionary theory. Featuring an
international cast of colorful characters,
with Georges Cuvier and Charles Lyell
playing major roles and Darwin appearing
as a young geologist, Worlds Before
Adam is a worthy successor to Rudwick’s
magisterial first volume. Completing
the highly readable narrative of one of
the most momentous changes in human
understanding of our place in the natural
world, Worlds Before Adam is a capstone
to the career of one of the world’s leading
historians of science.
Natural Groundwater Quality. W.
Mike Edmunds and Paul Shand (Eds.).
2008. Blackwell Publishing, Malden,
MA. 488 pp. $157.99, hardcover. ISBN
9781405156752. This text presents a
series of thematic chapters together with
chapters on representative groundwater
systems in Europe which illustrate the
main processes and evolution of water
quality. It brings together the research
of a consortium of leading European
scientists who have conducted detailed
studies of water quality in Europe, and
includes a synthesis of findings, highlighting
the thematic and regional results,
with recommendations regarding aquifer
evaluation, indicators, monitoring, and
drinking water standards. This text creates
a key reference work on natural water
quality of aquifers, at a time when the
348 Northeastern Naturalist Vol. 17, No.2
Groundwater Directive (GD) will shortly
be brought in to supplement The European
Water Framework Directive (WFD)
to ensure good status of groundwater.
Humans, Nature, and Birds: Science
Art from Cave Walls to Computer
Screens. Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy.
2008. Yale University Press, New
Haven, CT. 240 pp. $37.50, hardcover.
ISBN 9780300123883. This book invites
readers to enter a two-floor virtual
“gallery” where 60-plus images of birds
reflecting the accomplishments of human
pictorial history are on display. These are
works in a genre the authors term Science
Art—that is, art that says something
about the natural world and how it works.
Darryl Wheye and Donald Kennedy show
how these works of art can advance our
understanding of the ways nature has
been perceived over time, its current
vulnerability, and our responsibility to
preserve its wealth. Each room in the
gallery is dedicated to a single topic. The
rooms on the first floor show birds as
icons, birds as resources, birds as teaching
tools, and more. On the second floor,
the images and their captions clarify what
Science Art is and how the intertwining
of art and science can change the way we
look at each. The authors also provide
a timeline linking scientific innovations
with the production of images of birds,
and they offer a checklist of steps to
promote the creation and accessibility
of Science Art. Readers who tour this
unique and fascinating gallery will never
look at art depicting nature in the same
way again. 75 color illustrations.
The Northeastern Naturalist welcomes submissions of review copies of books that publishers
or authors would like to recommend to the journal’s readership and are relevant
to the journal’s mission of publishing information about the natural history of the northeastern
US. Accompanying short, descriptive summaries of the text are also welcome.