Scientists in the Field

Sun-burnt deserts, dripping rainforests, windswept grasslands, frigid polar caps, fiery volcanic caldera, and the ocean - from the sun-sparkled shallows to the bitter blackness of the depths - are all examples of the vast variety of "fields" scientists explore. The myriad environments of insects, the composition of glacial ice, the complexities of migration, the noisy world of bioacoustics, the rich panoply of the plant kingdom are mere samplings of topics that engage the enthusiastically curious of mind whose research encompasses both fieldwork and the lab. Afloat, aloft, afoot, on shore, and underwater, the range is a mind-boggling profusion of choices. Some fields are so large - or so small - that they require different approaches. Astronomers, for example, investigate a universe where light-years are mere inches on a celestial ruler, while microbiologists seek windows into the worlds of the infinitely small.

The titles selected here reflect the magnificent opportunities awaiting young people whose bumps of curiosity itch like mental mosquito bites. They have been winnowed to avoid duplication of fields and to embrace a balance of men, women, teams and groups. Eye-catching and inviting, they are all good reads, aimed at upper elementary and middle school students. Primarily, they focus on living people vibrantly interested in their chosen areas and should appeal to casual readers and budding scientists alike.

Of course, I have probably left out many of your favorites. I have left out many of my own as well, particularly those dating prior to 1996. Still, I hope librarians, teachers, and all who care about connecting young readers with the fascinating world of science will find this sampling as rich, as interesting, and as inspiring as I do. –Patricia Manning

COLLARD, Sneed B. A Firefly Biologist at Work. (A Wildlife Conservation Society Bk.). Watts. 2001. PLB $24.50. ISBN 0-531-11798-7; pap. $6.95. ISBN 0-531-16568-X.

Gr 4-6 –A Ph.D. who never graduated from high school or college, Jim Case has spent years traveling the world and working in the lab studying fireflies. His specialty is the synchronus firefly of Southeast Asia, whose males line the riverbanks in the thousands, all flashing together in a silent, greeny-gold explosion of light. Written by his stepson, this book explores the world of these unassuming beetles.

CUMMINGS, Pat & Linda Cummings, eds. Talking with Adventurers. National Geographic. 1998. RTE $19.95. ISBN 0-7922-7068-1.

Gr 5-8 –Archaeologist, ethologist, bioacoustician, anthropologist–a veritable smorgasbord of professions is presented in this slim, eye-catching work. Vivid personal interviews open windows into these richly varied careers, enlivened by such questions as, “What was the scariest thing that ever happened in your work?” The enjoyable text and accompanying photos describe how scientists choose and develop their projects, and may leave readers dreaming of adventures of their own.

EARLE, Sylvia A. Dive!: My Adventures in the Deep Frontier (My Adventures Series). National Geographic. 1999. Tr $18.95. ISBN 0-7922-7144-0.

Gr 4-6 –Pioneer marine biologist Earle has explored the ocean, snorkeling in the sunny shallows of a coral community and living for weeks in the Tektite undersea lab. Her personal narrative invites readers to share these adventures, including walking the seafloor in an experimental diving suit and slipping into the Stygian blackness in a submersible, hanging 3000 feet below the silvery surface. Accompanied by dramatic photos, the text reflects her boundless, contagious enthusiasm for her watery world.

GOODALL, Jane. The Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours. Scholastic. 2001. RTE $18.95. ISBN 0-439-21310-X.

Gr 6-8 –Goodall, doyenne of field biologists, relates her passionate, personal involvement with the chimpanzee families she has observed and loved for over 40 years. Strung with excellent photos, her intense and personable narrative invites readers to share her adventurous, strenuous, and rewarding life at Gombe, closing with a message of hope for young people and the world.

HAWASS, Zahi. Curse of the Pharaohs: My Adventures with Mummies. National Geographic. 2004. Tr $19.95. ISBN 0-7922-6665-X; PLB $29.90. ISBN 0-7922-6963-2.

Gr 6-8 –Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, is the flamboyant star of several real-time televised documentaries. Here he writes of his adventures exploring tombs and temples, pyramids and ancient graves as he defies the superstitions of “the mummy’s curse.” His passionate text is lavishly splashed with photos recording his discoveries, as his enthusiastic efforts rewrite the history of his native land.

JACKSON, Donna M. The Bone Detectives: How Forensic Anthropologists Solve Crimes and Uncover Mysteries of the Dead. photos. by Charlie Fellenbaum. Little, Brown. 1996. RTE $17.95. ISBN 0-316-82935-8; pap. $7.99. ISBN 0-316-82961-7.

Gr 5-7 –A la TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Jackson’s clear text follows forensic expert Michael Charney as he describes, step by step, the eerie reconstruction of a murder victim from some scattered bones and bits of tattered clothing. (The restored face will eventually stare stonily across the courtroom at the accused murderer’s trial.) A quote from forensic anthropologist Dr. Clyde Collins Snow says it all: “Bones make good witnesses–although they speak softly, they never lie and they never forget.”

JACKSON, Ellen. Looking for Life in the Universe: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. photos. by Nic Bishop. (Scientists in the Field Series). Houghton. 2003. Tr $16. ISBN 0-618-12894-8; pap. $6.95. ISBN 0-618-54886-6.
SKURZYNSKI, Gloria. Are We Alone?: Scientists Search for Life in Space. National Geographic. 2004. Tr $18.95. ISBN 0-7922-6567-X; PLB $28.90. ISBN 0-7922-6967-5.

Gr 6-8 –These titles demonstrate how different minds present different slants on the same question–Is there life elsewhere in the universe? Jackson profiles Jill Tartar and her staff of scientists, listening in to the sounds of space for intelligent patterns, using the SETI array of radio telescopes, while Skurzynski offers a broader overview, ranging from UFOs to black smokers (undersea volcanic vents) to the many moons of Jupiter.

KRAMER, Stephen. Eye of the Storm: Chasing Storms with Warren Faidley. photos. by Warren Faidley. Putnam. 1997. Tr $18.95. ISBN 0-399-23029-7; pap. $6.99. ISBN 0-698-11766-2.

Gr 4-7 –A professional storm chaser’s camera catches stunning images of lightning, tornadoes, and hurricanes, and quotes from his storm journals are both exciting and revealing. Kramer includes hints on storm photography, personal safety, and some meteorological tidbits as well. Hop into Faidley’s specially equipped SUV and hit the road for one unforgettable ride!

KRAMER, Stephen. Hidden Worlds: Looking Through a Scientist’s Microscope. photos. by Dennis Kunkel. (Scientists in the Field Series). Houghton. 2001. Tr $16. ISBN 0-618-05546-0; pap. $5.95. ISBN 0-618-35405-0.

Gr 5-8–Daniel Kunkel’s microscopes open-wide windows into the startling world of the very small. View his visions of a fuzzy bean weevil emerging from a seed, a dust mite surrounded by an odd assortment of particulates, and grains of pollen shaped like strange futuristic toys. A readable text offers an open welcome to this weird world, and invites readers to join him as he roams from beaches to lava fields seeking new specimens of the infinitesimal.

LARSON, Peter & Kristin Donnan. Bones Rock! Everything You Need to Know to Become a Paleontologist. Invisible Cities. 2004. pap. $19.95. ISBN 1-931229-35-X.
SAYRE, April Pulley. Put on Some Antlers and Walk Like a Moose: How Scientists Find, Follow, and Study Wild Animals. 21st Century Bks. 1997. PLB $24.90. ISBN 0-8050-5182-1.

Gr 6-8 –These two titles are for the kids demanding to know, “How can I do that?” and the ones wailing, “How can I do that?” The first is a guide crammed with good advice (be genuinely polite to adults in charge), hot tips (how to prepare your fossil when you get it home), and way cool expositions on theories and practicalities. The second covers the work of field scientists, from measuring bird beaks to designing backpacks for toads, including a marvelous range of possibilities for future investigations, along with helpful hints and sage advice toward career choices and educational needs.

LASKY, Kathryn. The Most Beautiful Roof in the World: Exploring the Rainforest Canopy. photos. by Christopher G. Knight. Harcourt. 1997. RTE $18. ISBN 0-15-200893-4; pap. $9. ISBN 0-15-200897-7.

Gr 4-6 –Biologist Meg Lowman climbs 100 feet or more into the hidden world of the rainforest canopy, strung together with vines, spangled with orchids, and home to the plants and animals she studies. Her pathways are catwalks looping through the treetops, or huge inflated “rafts” dropped onto the emergent layer. A lively text and superb photos reveal her ventures (sometimes accompanied by her young sons) into a new and largely unexplored world.

MALLORY, Kenneth. Swimming with Hammerhead Sharks. (Scientists in the Field Series). Houghton. 2001. Tr $16. ISBN 0-618-05543-6; pap. $4.95. ISBN 0-618-25079-4.

Gr 4-6 –Pull on some swim fins and join shark specialist Pete Klimley as he investigates how hammerheads navigate the vast open ocean, and why they revisit these locations. A clear text describes how he swims among these sharks, tracking huge numbers to seamounts in the Gulf of California and off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Excellent photos show swirling schools of these prehistoric-looking animals, and even record an individual shark visiting a “cleaning station” where small fish remove parasites and dead skin.

MARRIN, Albert. Secrets from the Rocks: Dinosaur Hunting with Roy Chapman Andrews. Dutton. 2002. Tr $18.99. ISBN 0-525-46743-2.

Gr 4-7 –While Andrews is long deceased, his historical impact on scientific expeditions is unsurpassed and rates him a spot in this grouping. The prototype (many believe) for Indiana Jones, Andrews’s persona, determination, and organizational skills changed forever the methodology of field research, while his team’s discoveries made global headlines and altered our concept of the Age of Dinosaurs. Join Chapman as he sets out with rifle and camel into the vastness of Mongolia’s Gobi desert on a remarkable search for fossils.

MILES, Victoria. Wild Science: Amazing Encounters with Animals and the People Who Study Them. Raincoast. 2004. pap. $18.95. ISBN 1-55192-618-0.

Gr 4-7 –The energetic efforts of 10 wildlife biologists at work are recorded in a lucid text and color photos. One re-floats a young blue whale stranded in a Norwegian fjord; another teaches an orphaned young sea otter to forage for crabs in Monterey Bay, and yet another tracks bats at night in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains. The variety and scope of their investigations will leave readers inspired (and a tad breathless!).

MONTGOMERY, Sy. Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in the Asian Tropics. Houghton. 2004. Tr $16. ISBN 0-618-35650-9.

Gr 6-8 –Chance conversations years apart spur an Asian expedition seeking a mysterious “golden” bear. To determine if the elusive ursine is a new species (or merely a color variation), the author and her companions plunge into open-air markets in Cambodia, visit a wildlife breeding station in Thailand, and spend time in tribal villages in Laos. This real-time quest, captured in a conversational text and crisp color photos, proves that the apparent end of one investigation may be the beginning of another.

MONTGOMERY, Sy. The Tarantula Scientist. photos. by Nic Bishop. (Scientists in the Field Series). Houghton. 2004. Tr $18. ISBN 0-618-14799-3.

Gr 5-8 –Sam Hiram, tarantula expert extraordinaire, rotates between his “Spider Lab” in Ohio and the rainforest of French Guiana, hunting for and studying the furry arachnids he loves. Bristling with quotes (“Tarantulas are the tigers of the leaf litter”) and full of spider lore, this excellent study reveals a scientist happily at work in the field and the lab, asking intelligent questions and finding factual answers.

NORELL, Mark A. & Lowell Dingus. A Nest of Dinosaurs: The Story of Oviraptor. illus. by Mick Ellison. Doubleday. 1999. Tr $17.95. ISBN 0-385-32558-4.

Gr 5-8 –Braving brutal weather, smothering sandstorms, and primitive roads in the Gobi Desert, Norell and Dingus discover a fossil oviraptorid still perched on its nest of eggs, 70 million years after a fatal sandstorm. Their personal narrative is rich, immediate, and involving, and their experiences in the footsteps of the legendary Roy Chapman Andrews make for engrossing reading.

O’MEARA, Donna. Into the Volcano: A Volcano Researcher at Work. photos. by author & Stephen O’Meara. Kids Can. 2005. Tr $16.95. ISBN 1-55337-692-7.

Gr 5-8 –Readers will need asbestos booties to keep their shoes from melting, a gas mask to filter noxious fumes, and a giant dose of courage to accompany Donna O’Meara and her husband, Steve, as they explore active volcanoes around the world. From Iceland to Indonesia, they dodge lava bombs and skitter across the thin crusts of recent lava flows taking the superb color photos used here and collecting data that may aid in predicting when these giant magma vents will flaunt their titanic fireworks.

POWZYK, Joyce. In Search of Lemurs: My Days and Nights in a Madagascar Rain Forest. illus. by author. National Geographic. 1998. Tr $17.95. ISBN 0-7922-7072-X.

Gr 4-6 –Scoop up a paint box, slather on the insect repellent, and join Powzyk and her guide as they endure chilly nights, steamy days, incessant rain, and encounters with leeches while camping in Ranomafana National Park in Madagascar. Seeking lemurs, they find and record eight species of these endangered prosimians as well as a variety of other creatures. Powzyk’s artistic hand and naturalist’s eye create a fascinating watercolor world for readers to share.

PRINGLE, Laurence. Elephant Woman: Cynthia Moss Explores the World of Elephants. photos. by Cynthia Moss. S & S. 1997. RTE $16. ISBN 0-689-80142-4.

Gr 4-6 –Moss began her world-famous Amboseli Elephant Research Project over 30 years ago. Pringle’s lucid text records her observations, allowing readers to enjoy the noisy greeting when one family meets another, the rambunctious play of the babies, and the strange, moving behavior of elephants encountering the bones of their dead. Full-color photographs offer an attractive look at a pioneer in her field.

QUINLAN, Susan E. The Case of the Monkeys That Fell from the Trees: And Other Mysteries in Tropical Nature. illus. by author. Boyds Mills. 2003. RTE $15.95. ISBN 1-56397-902-0.

Gr 5-8 –Poison dart frogs, army ants, and Heliconius butterflies are among the “unusual suspects” in a dozen ecological mysteries set in the tropical forests of Central and South America. Each puzzle originates with a scientist speculating in the field; the scientist then goes on to observe and experiment on site and in the lab. Soft, gray-washed drawings illustrate an intriguing text that shows how scientific curiosity and methodology can arrive at surprising, accurate answers.

RELF, Pat. A Dinosaur Named Sue: The Story of the Colossal Fossil: The World’s Most Complete T. rex. Scholastic. 2000. Tr $15.95. ISBN 0-439-09985-4.

Gr 4-6–At the close of a hot summer working for the Black Hills Institute, a chance walk led Susan Hendrickson to a fantastic fossil find–the largest and most complete T. rex found to that date. The readable text follows the extraordinary efforts to free the massive fossilized bones from the matrix, the striking “bidding wars” for final ownership, and the long, painstaking work of the Chicago Field Museum’s “Sue Crew” to prepare “Sue” for exhibition.

SAYRE, April Pulley. Secrets of Sound: Studying the Calls and Songs of Whales, Elephants, and Birds. (Scientists in the Field Series). Houghton. 2002. Tr $16. ISBN 0-618-01514-0.

Gr 5-8 –Three bioacousticians break out headsets, microphones, and hydrophones to eavesdrop on “conversations” among whales, elephants, and migrating birds (with some small talk from hippos and white-lipped frogs!). The text follows these researchers as each tries to decipher the codes of animal communication by listening to the open ocean songs of humpback whales, the infrasound messages of African elephants, and the soft calls of migratory songbirds in the eastern U.S.

TURNER, Pamela S. Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes. (Scientists in the Field Series). Houghton. 2005. RTE $17.95. ISBN 0-618-44555-2.

Gr 5-9 –Lavish with striking photos and graced with a readable text, this book introduces the work of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP), a group of scientists and veterinarians hoping to save these endangered great apes. It documents their extraordinary efforts as they scramble up and down slippery mountainsides trying to treat their “patients” in the wild. The group also reaches into local schools and villages to promote good will and explain the threats caused by poachers, environment loss, and cross-species human diseases.

WALKER, Sally. Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth. (Photo Bks.). Carolrhoda. 2002. PLB $17.95. ISBN 1-57505-536-8.

Gr 5-7 –A startling catch in 1938 jolted the world–a coelacanth, supposedly extinct for 70 million years! Follow the efforts of scientists over the years as they try to find the “living fossil” in its native habitat, seeking to record its lifestyle and behavior on film, and to study its physiology in the lab. From expeditions under the sea to dissections on land, this carefully researched history is an engrossing, clear exposition of a scientific mystery.

WEBB, Sophie. Looking for Seabirds: Journal from an Alaskan Voyage. illus. by author. Houghton. 2004. Tr $16. ISBN 0-618-21235-3.

Gr 4-7 –Crowded into the cramped quarters of the research ship Alpha Helix, Webb records her efforts conducting a census of seabirds in the frigid North Pacific. Her personal narrative recounts avian facts and scientific information as well as the stresses and pleasures of life on a ship full of scientists and their gear, and her vivid memories are made even more intense by graceful watercolors of petrels, puffins, phalaropes, and shipboard life off the rugged coasts of the remote Aleutians.