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Science and literature are too often
viewed as separate and even opposing spheres. That’s a discredit to all
of the great science writers with a talent for translating the world of
the lab and field, illuminating complex ideas and personalities and
moral implications — in short, all the stuff of literature, and life.
Five
of our recommended titles this week take science as a starting point,
whether it’s the hard science of genetics and heredity (“She Has Her
Mother’s Laugh,” by the Times reporter Carl Zimmer) or the quest for
mechanical precision (“The Perfectionists,” Simon Winchester’s book
about engineering) or the medical and psychological aspects of gender
identity (Arlene Stein’s “Unbound”). There are also a couple of deeply
researched narratives with a scientific hook: Eliza Griswold’s “Amity
and Prosperity,” about the consequences of natural gas fracking on one
Pennsylvania town, and John Carreyrou’s “Bad Blood,” which starts out as
a story of scientific and medical promise and turns into a true-life
business thriller about arrogance and fraud.
Source: New York Times
