This outstanding collection of 26 science articles from the past year, selected by the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, includes work by award-winning writers and by up-and-coming voices in the field. From Brooke Jarvis on deep-ocean mining to Elizabeth Kolbert on New Zealand's unconventional conservation strategies, this Best American edition celebrates the growing diversity in science and nature writing. Here too are pieces from Sheri Fink, Atul Gawande, Leslie Jamison, Sam Kean, Seth Mnookin, Matthew Power, and Michael Specter. 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 edition, as for the others in the series, the series editor first reviewed hundreds of periodicals from the previous publishing year, selecting between 50 and 100 outstanding works, before the guest editor made the final selection of the very best pieces.