November 9, 2015 - 23:46
I greatly enjoyed reading Elizabeth Colbert's book "The Sixth Extinction." As an avid environmental science enthusiast, the book covered many topics that are near and dear to my heart, and the style in which she chose to present her material was both engaging and powerful. While I can read articles on extinction and the fossil record the way others read articles from Seventeen magazine, I fully acknowledge that most people find them dry, difficult to understand in their technicality, and above all, irrelevant to their lives. In order for there to be any kind of meaningful public discourse about scientific issues, people need ways in which to relate scientific principles to their lives, in simplified language. This book does so as successfully as Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.
While reading, I was reminded of one of my all time favorite books: "Zoobiquity" by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz. In that book, Horowitz compares the similarities between the fields of veterinary medicine and human medicine, and the ways both fields can benefit from colaboration and the free exchange of techniques, ideas, and medications. She writes with a voice that explains complex medical terminology and conditions in ways that are easily understood, and which many people can relate directly to their lives. Just as "Zoobiquity" does, I believe that "The Sixth Extinction" succeeds at providing people a window through which to view the world that would otherwise be unavailable to them by virtue of their lack of specialized education in that subject.