Most people know a good sentence when they read one, but New York Times columnist Stanley Fish says most of us don’t really know how to write them ourselves. His new book, How To Write A Sentence: And How To Read One, is part ode, part how-to guide to the art of the well-constructed sentence.
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/25/133214521/stanley-fish-demystifies-how-to-write-a-sentence
It took him years of searching in the Canadian Arctic, but in 2004, Neil Shubin found the fossilized remains of what he thinks is one of our most important ancestors.
Turns out, it’s a fish.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127937070
Phil Levin, a biologist at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, talks to Michele Norris about the method used for one of his latest research projects. Levin wanted to examine the area’s seafood history to better understand the decline of rockfish, three species of which were put on the endangered species list last month. So he and a colleague looked at more than 100 cookbooks published in Oregon and Washington between 1885 and 2007. While he didn’t find many rockfish recipes, he did discover some patterns in Northwest cooking.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126985092
Richard Dawkins - known for his ”brilliance and wit” (New Yorker) - is one of the most influential scientists of our time and holds a chair at Oxford University. His highly acclaimed books include The Blind Watchmaker, The Selfish Gene and A Devil’s Chaplain; the New York Times has called him ”one of the most incisive science writers alive.” The Ancestor’s Tale, loosely based in form on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, offers a comprehensive look at 4 billion years of evolution.