Baywood Publishing Co.

Death education in the writing classroom.

As in Dying to Teach (2007), Berman (English, U. of Albany) features letters here from students in his popular writing course on "Love and Loss in Literature and Life." Following an overview of the evolution of this course influenced by a personal loss, he introduces James Pennebaker's research on the health effects of self-disclosing writing, and the benefits of death education despite academics' wariness about dealing with emotions. Chapters follow students' weekly class discussions and breakthroughs in thinking about loss, disenfranchised grief, depression, and related topics. The syllabus and writing assignments for the course are appended. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

From critical science to solutions; the best of scientific solutions.

Academics, activists, and professionals in biological, health, and environmental sciences explore links between work and health and environmental degradation and seek ways to improve the situation. Their topics include a case study of pseudo-science in occupational medicine, air pollution decision-making at the US Environmental Protection Agency threatens public health, describing community health risks, deciphering the propaganda of the National Cancer Institute's 33-year war, and good practices guidelines for occupational health research funded by the private sector. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Stalinist genetics; the constitutional rhetoric of T.D. Lysenko.

Combining his interest in the rhetoric of science with his interest in the Stalinist culture that so deeply shaped his native Moldavia, Stanchevici (English, U. of Memphis, US) analyzes the rhetoric that Lysenko (1898-1976) used to constitute his agrobiological doctrine against its rival Mendelism. He finds that the constitutional rhetoric depended on its context, but also on the arbitrary wishes of Lysenko and his followers, and that the constitution rhetorically invented its audience and got the people it addressed to identity with this invention. The rhetoric created a space in which scientific terms transformed into political and ideological ones, and vice versa, he says. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tortured science; health studies, ethics, and nuclear weapons in the United States.

Contributors from environmental science, epidemiology, public health, policy studies, and other fields explore ethical issues surrounding the scientific study of health effects of nuclear radiation. Among the perspectives are the human toll of the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study; a community's experience with environmental health research at the Fernald Feed production plant; a collaborative effort to address the distribution of plutonium-contaminated sludge in Livermore, California; ethics of uranium mining research and the Navajo people; improving community research protection for communities exposed to Cold War nuclear experiments; and ethical review of radiation effect narratives. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)