"Science is both essential and frivolous, jubilant and despairing, lovely and brutal, perfect and broken—all at the same time—just like the scientist who fashions it," writes Lab Girl author Hope Jahren in her introduction to this survey of the best science and nature writing from 2016. These 24 pieces—under the headings of Emergent Fields, Changing Land and Resources, and The "Real Life" of Scientists—celebrate astonishing wonders and investigate grave perils like the rapid progression of climate change and air pollution. Contributors like David Epstein ("The DIY Scientist, the Olympian, and the Mutated Gene"), Tom Kizzia ("The New Harpoon"), Elizabeth Kolbert ("A Song of Ice"), Maria Konnikova ("Altered Tastes"), Jon Mooallem ("The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort of) Rattled the Scientific Community"), and Nicola Twilley ("The Billion-Year Wave") show us the beauty and innovation of our planet, and how urgently we must fight to protect it from all those who take it for granted. Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For this 2017 edition of Science and Nature Writing, series editor Tim Folger first reviewed hundreds of publications, selecting scores of outstanding works, before guest editor Jahren made the final selection of the very best pieces.