Nautilus

The Last Word with Diane Ackerman

For three decades Diane Ackerman has brought us as close to nature as we can get through words. Her books are not a field guide to the natural world, they are an embodiment of it. As she showed with, among others, A Natural History of the Senses and The Zookeeper’s, about Polish zookeepers who saved hundreds of people during World War II, she is less an observer from the outside than a voice from the inside. You don’t read her books as much as live them.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Nautilus

Nautilus6 min read
A Scientist Walks Into a Bar …
It sounds like the setup to a joke: When I was starting out as a stand-up comedian, I was also working as a research scientist at a sperm bank.  My lab was investigating the causes of infertility in young men, and part of my job was to run the clinic
Nautilus7 min read
The Part-Time Climate Scientist
On a Wednesday in February 1938, Guy Stewart Callendar—a rangy, soft-spoken steam engineer, who had turned 40 just the week before—stood before a group of leading scientists, members of the United Kingdom’s Royal Meteorological Society. He had a bold
Nautilus4 min read
Why Animals Run Faster than Robots
More than a decade ago a skinny-legged knee-less robot named Ranger completed an ultramarathon on foot. Donning a fetching red baseball cap with “Cornell” stitched on the front, and striding along at a leisurely pace, Ranger walked 40.5 miles, or 65

Related Books & Audiobooks