The best American science and nature writing 2008 edited and with an introduction by Jerome Groopman.

Series statement from jacket cover.

Includes bibliographical references.

Zonkeys are pretty much my favorite animal / Jon Cohen -- The interpreter / John Colapinto -- The universe's invisible hand / Christopher J. Conselice -- Untangling the mystery of the Inca / Gareth Cook -- Restoring America's big, wild animals / C. Josh Donlan -- Our biotech future / Freeman Dyson -- The coming robot army / Steve Featherstone -- Malaria: stopping a global killer / Michael Finkel -- The first assassination of the twenty-first century / James Geary -- Our silver-coated future / Robin Marantz Henig -- Children are diamonds / Edward Hoagland -- The selfless gene / Olivia Judson -- The autumn of the multitaskers / Walter Kirn -- First churches of the Jesus cult / Andrew Lawler -- A curious attractions / Jon Mooallem -- Swingers / Ian Parker -- Science and Islam in conflict / Todd Pitock -- Deadly contact / David Quammen -- How to trick an online scammer into carving a computer out of wood / Ron Rosenbaum -- A bolt from the blue / Oliver Sacks -- Darwin's surprise / Michael Specter -- The CSI effect / Jeffrey Toobin -- Numbers can lie / Andreas von Bubnoff -- A mighty wind / Florence Williams.

Jerome Groopman selects twenty-four works of American science and nature writing as the best of the genre from the year 2007, including pieces by John Colapinto, Oliver Sacks, Jeffrey Toobin, and others.