The best American science and nature writing 2002 / edited and with an introduction by Natalie Angier ; Tim Folger, series editor.

Boston, MA : Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002.

xxiv, 309 pages ; 21 cm.

Violent pride / Roy F. Baumeister -- Braised shank of free-range possum? / Burkhard Bilger -- Mind over matter / K.C. Cole -- In the realm of virtual reality / Richard Conniff and Harry Marshall -- Saving us from Darwin / Frederick C. Crews -- Welcome to cancerland / Barbara Ehrenreich -- The most important fish in the sea / H. Bruce Franklin -- Examined life / Malcolm Gladwell -- As good as dead / Gary Greenberg -- Is that a mountain lion in your backyard? / Gordon Grice -- The dirt in the new machine / Blaine Harden -- Life's rocky start / Robert M. Hazen -- Mothers and others / Sarah Blaffer Hrdy -- Sound and fury / Garret Keizer -- The pursuit of innocence in the golden state / Verlyn Klinkenborg -- Ripe for controversy / Robert Kunzig -- Wall Street losses, Wall Street gains / Anne Matthews -- Dumb, dumb duh dumb / Steve Mirsky -- "I have seen cancers disappear" / Judith Newman -- How Islam won, and lost, the lead in science / Dennis Overbye -- A little reminder of reality's scale / Chet Raymo -- Why McDonald's fries taste so good / Eric Schlosser -- Shock and disbelief / Daniel Smith -- The sting of the assassin / Peter Stark -- The know-it-all machine / Clive Thompson -- One acre / Joy Williams -- Very dark energy / Karen Wright.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [306]-309).