Reading this book is like taking a terrifying rollercoaster ride through the world of science and nature in 2020 -- which was, of course, dominated by COVID, COVID, and yep, more COVID.

Inside you'll find a compilation of 26 articles, mostly penned by journalists or staff writers at magazines. Yong has neatly divided them into three sections: Contagion, Connection, and Consequences. Most of the articles are gems - well-written, engaging, and most importantly, eye-opening.

Among my favourites were "I'm an ER Doctor in New York. None of Us Will Ever Be The Same" by Helen Ouyang? (Heart-wrenching.) "What Happened In Room 10?" by Katie Engelhart? (A real page-turner.) "The Friendship and Love Hospital" by Jiayang Fan and "The Last Children of Down Syndrome" by Sarah Zhang. (Both simply brilliant.) These pieces resonated with me on a personal level, and I found myself thinking about them long after I'd finished reading.

But, like any rollercoaster, there were a few dips. "What the Coronavirus Means for Climate Change" by Meehan Crist, "River of Time," by Namwali Serpell and "The Unsung Heroine of Lichenology" by Sabrina Imbler didn't quite hit the mark for me. They were well-written, sure, but they just didn't grab me in the same way.

What I love about this book is how it doesn't shy away from the tough stuff. These articles confront us with the harsh realities of our world, the result of our own carelessness. It's like a wake-up call, a reminder that we need to do better. ( )

The 2021 work in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series contains works published in 2020 in print and online publications, in the first year of the Covid-19 epidemic in the USA. In part, it demonstrates the depth of discussion of the Covid pandemic in some publications in 2020. The Covid section begins with Zeynep Tufecki's article in The Atlantic in September 2020 on the Overlooked variable about the stochastic variability of the dispersion rate of the virus, a factor that was and has not been widely discussed in the media. Other articles about the pandemic address lack of personal protective equipment, the management of care homes for the elderly, vaccines, epidemiology, and the outbreaks of false news about medical treatments and public health.
This offering the series also contains writing on invasive earth worm species in the eastern USA, the decline of the Monarch butterfy population, and genetic testing of embryos and the technology-driven and consumer-driven reemergence of eugenics.
This offering in the series is useful and interesting. ( )

not my type. ( )

As you can imagine, an anthology of science and nature writing, the majority of which was published in 2020, is to a large degree, about covid-19. I had a bit of trepidation after reading Jaime Green's Forward and Ed Yong's Introduction that this would not be something I would want to read right now.

I was wrong.

Much of what I took in about the virus in 2020, as we all went through it, was not very in-depth and, while I tried to pay attention to the science and the recommendations of public health officials, going beyond the headlines and reading articles and pieces such as are included here just never happened.

Here are some in this volume that are still being mulled over in my head:

Helen Ouyang's, I'm an ER Doctor in New York. None of Us Will Ever Be the Same.
- 3 articles in and this was the most impactful story to me, even now. The title says it all.
Katie Englehart's, What Happened in Room 10?
- why nursing homes were hit so hard by the virus and why they were so unprepared to deal with it
Brooke Jarvis', The Scramble to Pluck 24 Billion Cherries in Eight Weeks
- migrant workers, already under-served by their employers and the system and having to deal with covid
Latria Graham's, Out There, Nobody Can Hear You Scream
- being black and a naturalist and what it means to want to be outdoors in America right now
Jiayang Fan's, The Friendship and Love Hospital
- how do you make the idea of palliative or hospice care acceptable to a culture that deems conversations about death as taboo?
and finally,
Sarah Zhang's The Last Children of Down Syndrome
- the impact of prenatal Down Syndrome screening on pregnant women in Denmark

Also, significant portion of the pieces in this book are about climate change and the continuing and unceasing environmental impact of humanity on our planet. It was surprising how much covid and climate change impacted each other.

Every one of these stories was interesting and enlightening and this year's anthology is one of the best I have read. ( )