The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays

These charming essays by an eminent biologist and columnist [for the American Scientist] celebrate aesthetic, literary, and intellectual aspects of science and convey what is involved in being a scientist today. Keith Thomson describes science as a great intellectual adventure-a search for why things are as they are-most rewarding when it is accompanied by an appreciation of the subtleties and aesthetic qualities of the objects studied. His book will enable nonscientists to experience the pleasures of science and scientists to become more articulate and passionate about what they do.