In this issue
Thinkers and Writers in The Current Issue
STEPHEN PALUMBI
In the international fish market, “Pacific red snapper” is a common—and misleading—alias, and Stephen Palumbi is out to uncover what’s hiding behind the name. A marine sciences professor at Stanford University, Palumbi recently contributed to research finding that 56 percent of fish labeled as snapper were in fact other species. Imposter Fish details how this renaming phenomenon threatens to upset far more than consumer taste buds—it could derail conservationists’ attempts to direct consumers toward sustainable seafood.
STEFANO PADULOSI
Stefano Padulosi’s efforts to track down endangered fruits and vegetables have led some to call him a “botanical Indiana Jones”—with good reason. A senior scientist at Biodiversity International, Padulosi has traveled to the ends of the earth to resurrect disappearing food crops; he recently trekked across Turkmenistan in search of the modern-day pomegranate’s wild relatives. Padulosi’s exploits are chronicled in The Sterile Banana, which explains why the omnipresent yellow fruit could be on the verge of extinction.
CARL ZIMMER
Parasites are some of the most successful creatures in the world—which makes you wonder why ecologists once decided to exclude the minuscule organisms from food webs. Carl Zimmer raises this question in The Most Popular Lifestyle on Earth, where he explains how a few forward-thinking researchers are finding that parasites play a key role in keeping food webs—and ecosystems—stable. Author of Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures, Zimmer contributes regularly to the New York Times and is a columnist and contributing editor at Discover magazine.
THOMAS EISNER
When Thomas Eisner set out to determine whether insects feel pain, his research evolved into a broader discussion of why sentient beings hurt at all. Eisner recounts his investigation in this issue’s essay (The Nature of Pain, print only), where he explains how he discovered that insects and people experience pain in similar ways. Eisner, a professor of biology at Cornell University, is author of the book For Love of Insects.
