by Roberta Kwok
Sourebooks
7/21/2006, hardcover
SKU: 9781728275970
The real story of science isn't a triumphant breakthrough. It's messy, mysterious, and deeply human.
In Lost in Curiosity, award-winning journalist Roberta Kwok pulls back the curtain on what scientific discovery actually looks like... Not a Eureka moment, but a fraught, often chaotic pursuit of truth.
Chronicling researchers' struggles and hopes in the field and lab, Kwok documents it all: fending off relentless snowfall on a remote Greenland glacier, desperately searching for an elusive frog in the rainforests of Borneo, and scrambling to capture fleeting signals of a faraway moon outside our solar system. These are the untold stories of devoted young scientists and restless minds who are chasing nature's riddles, without knowing what they'll uncover.
Through vivid reporting and moments of unexpected emotion, Kwok reveals the inner lives of researchers who care profoundly about understanding our world and saving what's left of it. From enigmatic fossils and mind-bending physics to the puzzling behavior of wild animals, Lost in Curiosity is a journey through the questions that keep scientists up at night--and the sometimes strange, always illuminating paths they take to answer them.
Reviews:
"Lost in Curiosity tackles my favorite part of the scientific process, when experiments go moldy and frogs refuse to be found, and malfunctioning equipment conjures moons out of thin air. Roberta Kwok is a trustworthy guide as she shares tantalizing peeks into the murk that precedes discovery and proves that our instinct to do science, and better understand our world, is what makes us human. One of the most honest books about science I've ever read, and an utter delight." -- Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches
"Lost in Curiosity takes readers into the laboratory and out into the field to explore science as a work in progress. Roberta Kwok has written a lively and revelatory book, and, as science in the U.S. increasingly comes under attack, it couldn't be more timely." -- Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction
"It's a rare book that finds thrills, not in the triumph of discovery, but the messiness of the journey. Roberta Kwok's warm, humane portraits of scientists in the midst of unfinished work jump from jungles to deserts and span the cosmic to the microscopic. Lost in Curiosity is an enthralling glimpse of hidden worlds, delightful, bright with insight, and deeply necessary." -- Melissa L. Sevigny, author of Brave the Wild River
About the Author:
Roberta Kwok is a science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, Nature, New Scientist, Audubon, and other publications. She has received a fellowship from the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. Before becoming a journalist, Kwok worked in a genetics lab at Stanford University. She lives in the Seattle area and is originally from Canada.