The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2021

 "The stories I have chosen reflect where I feel the field of science and nature writing has landed, and where it could go," Ed Yong writes in his introduction. "They are often full of tragedy, sometimes laced with wonder, but always deeply aware that science does not exist in a social vacuum. They are beautiful, whether in their clarity of ideas, the elegance of their prose, or often both." The essays in this year's Best American Science and Nature Writing brought clarity to the complexity and bewilderment of 2020 and delivered us necessary information during a global pandemic. From an in-depth look at the moment of the virus's outbreak, to a harrowing personal account of lingering Covid symptoms, to a thoughtful analysis on how the pandemic will impact the environment, these essays, as Yong says, "synthesize, evaluate, dig, unveil, and challenge," imbuing a pivotal moment in history with lucidity and elegance.

 THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2021 INCLUDES • SUSAN ORLEAN • EMILY RABOTEAU • ZEYNEP TUFEKCI • HELEN OUYANG • HEATHER HOGAN BROOKE JARVIS • SARAH ZHANG and others

ED YONG, guest editor, is a science writer on the staff of the Atlantic and is the best-selling author of I Contain Multitudes. His coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting, the George Polk Award for science reporting, and other honors. He lives in Washington, D.C. 

JAIME GREEN, series editor, is a freelance writer and editor. She is the associate editor of Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University. Her first book, about how we imagine alien life in science and in fiction, will be published in 2023.