Science and Society

Developed for use in college and university courses, Science and Society provides a broad selection of science writing intended to help students think critically about science and related ethical issues, and to write effectively about science in a variety of styles. The anthology combines pieces aimed at a general audience—including essays by Stephen Jay Gould, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Malcolm Gladwell—with a substantial selection of academic writing, including research articles from journals such as The Lancet, Science, and PLOS ONE. The volume is arranged thematically according to discussion topics ranging from climate change and factory farming to gender discrimination in the sciences and corporate involvement in medical research. Special attention is given to controversial works, including Stanley Milgram’s “Behavioral Study of Obedience,” and to examples of science gone wrong, such as Andrew Wakefield’s infamous paper falsely linking the MMR vaccine to autism.

The volume’s introduction outlines major issues in contemporary science, such as publication bias and the commercialization of research, as well as introducing writing concepts such as objectivity of tone and active/passive voice. Each article is accompanied by discussion questions and by helpful explanatory footnotes for non-specialist readers.