Science writing news

“Once I started looking, I found jellyfish stories everywhere,” Juli Berwald writes in Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone. “I spent hours reading about their shape, how they swim, what they eat, whether they think, how they reproduce, how they sting, how they glow.” Berwald traveled the globe to observe and swim with jellyfish, and talk with scientists working with them. Her odyssey — an instructive guide to researching and writing a book — provides a first-hand look at the lives of the historically understudied jellyfish, and perspective on the likely future of our oceans.

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The physical skill required to walk a tightrope differs little from that required to walk across a room, Carol Svec writes in Balance: A Dizzying Journey Through the Science of Our Most Delicate Sense. The body’s balance systems, Svec reports, integrate signals from the inner ear, eyes, and sensory nerves to enable us to stand up without toppling over, maneuver snaky mountain passes, and relish roller coaster rides. To research her book, Svec talked with scientists, clinicians, and individuals with balance disorders. She also gamely explored a tumbling room, swaying hallway, and menacingly named “Vominator.”

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In the 1990s, many families were torn asunder by allegations by a family member of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, evoked by what came to be recognized as harmful forms of psychotherapy. The notion of repressed memory, though widely discredited, has resurfaced recently “like a bloated corpse,” Mark Pendergrast writes. In two new books, Memory Warp, for general audiences, and The Repressed Memory Epidemic, a textbook, Pendergrast provides a contemporary perspective, along with recommendations for individuals and families, therapists, legislators, child protective agencies, and lawyers.

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“Something is really, really wrong with me,” Julie Rehmeyer realized. Once an avid biker, she staggered when she walked. Everyday chores exhausted her. Some physicians she consulted dismissed or trivialized her complaints. The diagnosis, slow in coming, was chronic fatigue syndrome. The treatment options she was offered proved costly and useless. In Through the Shadowlands, Rehmeyer chronicles her decade-long struggle to cope with a poorly characterized illness, until an unconventional treatment brought the relief that had long eluded her.

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Ants outnumber humans by a ratio of one million to one. You may think of them as party-crashers at your picnic or invaders in your kitchen, but Eleanor Spicer Rice finds them beguiling, and wants you to learn more about the societies beneath our feet. Follow them home. Track their highways. Learn about a nifty science project, the School of Ants, and view close-up photos of ant life in Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants. Also check out her three companion books, Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants of California, Chicago, and New York City.

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