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Carl Zimmer: A Planet of Viruses

Readers eager to learn more about Ebola and its West Africa outbreak will find that information in the timely publication of the second edition of Carl Zimmer’s A Planet of Viruses. Zimmer also reports on the emergence of MERS, and provides updates on the influenzas, smallpox, and HIV.

From ScienceWriters: What is "Jeopardy!"?

On March 10, at a massive sound stage here in the heart of Los Angeles, Alex Trebek stared down three contestants on the game show "Jeopardy!" The legendary host has presided over the TV show for 31 years, and that day he read off the following clue, which also appeared on a blue screen behind him: This condition has doubled in the last 30 years in U.S. kids & is linked to increased risk for diabetes.

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Arlene Weintraub: Heal

In Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures, Arlene Weintraub describes promising collaborative research on cancers that are similar in dogs and humans, including gastric cancer, lymphoma, osteosarcoma, breast cancer, and melanoma. Benefits from this research, Weintraub reports, include new medications benefiting both people and pets. Spurred by the death of her sister, Beth, from gastric cancer at age 47, Weintraub visited eight universities and interviewed veterinarians, oncologists and other scientists, as well as drug company executives, pet owners, and others.

From ScienceWriters: Letter of final instructions

When you decide it’s time to write your will or update it, it’s also time to prepare a “letter of instructions.” Ignore the legalese. The letter is an informal document that spells out where you keep important personal papers and what your assets are, among other things.

Alison Bass: Getting Screwed: Sex Workers and the Law

For Getting Screwed, Sex Workers and the Law, Alison Bass interviewed sex workers, lawyers, sociologists, community activists, and others. Decriminalizing adult sex work, she asserts, would help sex workers protect themselves better from exploitation, and encourage them to practice safe sex and seek access to health care that could stem the spread of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. Funds diverted from pursuing prosecution, she contends, could benefit teenage runaways and the homeless, as well as individuals addicted to drugs.

Catherine Schmitt: The President’s Salmon

In The President’s Salmon, Catherine Schmitt uses a one-time tradition — the presentation of the first salmon caught on the fly in Maine’s Penobscot River to the President of the United States — to chart the fate of both the salmon and the river in each President’s tenure.

From ScienceWriters: The chocolate diet hoax

This spring brought a bounty of dubious headlines. There was the mildly outrageous claim that NASA secretly invented warp drive and the more believable one that using gay canvassers changed minds on gay marriage. And we heard a claim by journalist John Bohannon that he “fooled millions” with a hoax alleging that chocolate aided weight loss.

Anil Ananthaswamy: The Man Who Wasn’t There

People who experienced a limb amputation may perceive pain or other sensations that seemingly arise in the missing limb, a disorder known as phantom limb syndrome. Other people deny that healthy limbs or other bodily parts belong to them, and sometimes beseech surgeons to amputate these parts, or even attempt that act themselves. Anil Ananthaswamy explores these and other disorders that alter our sense of living in our own body in The Man Who Wasn’t There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self.

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