Natalie Angier

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Natalie Angier has spent her entire career translating complex scientific research information into engaging, stimulating prose that the average person can understand. In fact, says Marcela Valdes of Publisher's Weekly: "She is the kind of woman you wish you'd had beside you in high school chemistry--tiny, ferociously intelligent, she'd eye you over a boiling beaker and explain exactly what the experiment was all about." Simplicity, clarity, passion, vivid imagery, combined with an uncompromising respect for scientific accuracy are the hallmarks of…
photo: U.S. Forest Service Notables of the day: John Hawks ponders the (bad) art of citing papers you've never read. Clive Thompson ponders the new literacy spawned of engagement with many keyboards. A poll on public education shows how much opinion depends on framing, context -- and who else thinks an idea is good. In this case, people liked the idea of merit pay more if told Obama likes it. Mind Hacks works the placebo circuit. And Effect Measure weighs in on the weird contrasts and (limited) parallels between swine flu and avian flu. And for fun, fire lookout towers, from BLDGBLOG. You…
Because you read this blog, you are no doubt aware that more than half of all Americans do not believe that evolution is a valid scientific explanation for how the world works, but did you know that one-third of all advanced science degrees awarded in America are earned by foreign students? These are just a few of the facts that you'll learn in the new book, The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (Houghton Mifflin: NYC; 2007), by science writer, Natalie Angier. The Canon explains the basics of science, starting with the scientific method, probability and measurements,…