Plague of Frogs: The Horrifying True Story

In 1995, Minnesota schoolchildren at play in a field discovered a strange thing: a pond full of frogs with five legs, nine legs, sometimes no legs, frogs with misplaced eyes and misshapen bodies. Their discovery might well have been overlooked had not Environmental Protection Agency researchers Gary Ankley and Joe Tietge taken an interest in the matter, linking the Minnesota frogs to other amphibian and fish populations that had been exhibiting monstrous patterns of mutation. William Souder, a science journalist, takes us into the workings of EPA labs and government hearing rooms as he traces the story, which quickly became politicized: some scientists sought the origins of the "frog plague" in viruses, others in fungi, others in chemicals; still others maintained that frogs and other amphibians are subject to large-scale mutations for seemingly no cause at all, and a large literature supports their view. Looking at the bigger picture of global warming and environmental change, Souder suggests that multiple causes may be responsible for the Minnesota frogs' misfortune--and for the decline of frog populations around the world. His vigorous, anecdotal narrative is a fine report on scientific detective work and on the politics of environmental science in an increasingly fractious time. --Gregory McNamee