Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, "The Best Science Writing Online 2012" will change the way we think about science - from fluids to fungi, poisons to pirates. Featuring noted authors and journalists as well as the brightest up-and-comers writing today, this collection provides a comprehensive look at the fascinating, innovative, and trailblazing scientific achievements and breakthroughs of 2011, along with elegant and thought-provoking new takes on favourite topics. This is the sixth anthology of online essays edited by Bora Zivkovic, the blogs editor at Scientific American, and with each new edition, Zivkovic expands his fan base and creates a surge of excitement about upcoming compilations. Now everyone's favourite collection will reach new horizons and even more readers. Guest-edited and with an introduction by the renowned science author and blogger Jennifer Ouellette, "The Best Science Writing Online 2012" marries cutting-edge science with dynamic writing that will inspire us all.

Physics, once known as anatural philosophy, a is the most basic science, explaining the world we live in, from the largest scale down to the very, very, "very" smallest, and our understanding of it has changed over many centuries. In "Black Bodies and Quantum Cats," science writer Jennifer Ouellette traces key developments in the field, setting descriptions of the fundamentals of physics in their historical context as well as against a broad cultural backdrop. Newtonas laws are illustrated via the film "Addams Family Values," while "Back to the Future" demonstrates the finer points of special relativity. Poeas aThe Purloined Lettera serves to illuminate the mysterious nature of neutrinos, and Jeanette Wintersonas novel "Gut Symmetries" provides an elegant metaphorical framework for string theory.

An enchanting and edifying read, Black Bodies and Quantum Cats shows that physics is not an arcane field of study but a profoundly human endeavoraand a fundamental part of our everyday world.

Physics with a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" pop-culture chaser

In the tradition of the bestselling "The Physics of Star Trek," acclaimed science writer Jennifer Ouellette explains fundamental concepts in the physical sciences through examples culled from the hit TV shows "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off, "Angel." The weird and wonderful world of the Buffyverse--where the melding of magic and science is an everyday occurrence--provides a fantastical jumping-off point for looking at complex theories of biology, chemistry, and theoretical physics. From surreal vampires, demons, and interdimensional portals to energy conservation, black holes, and string theory, "The Physics of the Buffyverse" is serious (and palatable) science for the rest of us.

"Kiss My Math" meets "A Tour of the Calculus"
Jennifer Ouellette never took math in college, mostly because she-like most people-assumed that she wouldn't need it in real life. But then the English-major-turned-award-winning-science-writer had a change of heart and decided to revisit the equations and formulas that had haunted her for years. "The Calculus Diaries" is the fun and fascinating account of her year spent confronting her math phobia head on. With wit and verve, Ouellette shows how she learned to apply calculus to everything from gas mileage to dieting, from the rides at Disneyland to shooting craps in Vegas-proving that even the mathematically challenged can learn the fundamentals of the universal language.