| Cross-Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry Contributor(s): Nabhan, Gary Paul (Author) |
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ISBN: 1571312706 ISBN-13: 9781571312709 Publisher: Milkweed Editions OUR PRICE: $13.30 Product Type: Paperback Published: January 2004 Annotation: A pioneering ethnobotanist, Gary Paul Nabhan credits the arts with sparking unlikely scientific breakthroughs and believes that such "cross-pollination" engenders new forms of expression that are essential to discovery. In this highly readable book, he tells four stories to illustrate this idea.In the first, coping with color blindness in art class leads to his career as a scientist; in the second, ancient American Indian songs, when translated, reveal an understanding of plants and animals that rivals modern research; in the third, a poem inspires an approach to diabetes using desert plants; and in the fourth, a coalition of scientists and artists creates the Ironwood Forest National Monument in the Sonoran Desert. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Science | Essays - Literary Criticism - Science | Philosophy & Social Aspects |
| Dewey: 809.1 |
| LCCN: 2003011419 |
| Series: Credo (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.4" H x 4.9" W x 7.6" (0.30 lbs) 107 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this book, Nabhan describes the circumstances of several of important--even breakthrough--discoveries that came about through the cross-pollination of science and the arts. His stories mix the personal and scientific in an engaging way. When he found out in high school that he is color blind, an amazing teacher chided him to use his so-called problem to explore varieties of perception. Years later, Nabhan organized teams of color-blind and color-normal scientists to survey a plant thought to be endangered. The color-blind scientists' results changed the views of that ecosystem. Nabhan tells about ancient songs of the O'odham people that contain an understanding of plant ecology that science has only recently caught up to. In perhaps the most stirring chapter, he describes how one of the native women he knows pleaded with him to put his knowledge to use to help find the reason for persistent diabetes among native peoples. Nabhan describes how the structure of an Amy Clampitt poem gave him the inspiration for a research model that led to an understanding of native plants and the metabolism of sugar. The last chapter is a rousing account of the creation of the Ironwood Forest National Monument in the Sonoran Desert. |