Overview

"A scientist before he was a beekeeper, Mark L. Winston found in his new hobby a paradigm for understanding the role science should play in society. In essays originally appearing as columns in ""Bee Culture"", the professional journal, Winston uses beekeeping as a starting point to discuss broader issues, such as how agriculture functions under increasingly complex social and environmental restraints, how scientists grapple with issues of accountability, and how people struggle to maintain contact with the natural world. Winston's reflections on bees, beekeeping and science cover a period of tumultuous change in North America, a time when new parasites, reduced research funding and changing economic conditions have disrupted the livelihoods of bee farmers."

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9780801434778

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Reviews

Mark Winston uses bees to bridge the gap between scientists and the public, and to demonstrate how scientists work and the importance to everyone of scientific research. At the same time he strongly encourages scientists to become more accountable to the society that pays their salaries. These entertaining essays will inform and stimulate many readers besides beekeepers naturalists, gardeners, farmers, researchers in other subjects to think more deeply about bees, science, and nature. Eva Crane, from the Foreword

Mark Winston is a very experienced lecturer and writer who is able to put across academic ideas and results in a way that ordinary beekeepers can understand. . . . Each essay is short, readable, and thought-provoking. Mark Winston looks not only on the obvious, but sideways to connected subjects. . . . If you want a book that will both inform and stimulate you into thinking about your beekeeping in unexpected directions, I can recommend this one. Claire Waring, Bee Craft Mark Winston presents controversial but stimulating views on the peer review process for research proposals and scientific papers, the role of basic versus applied research, and accountability of university and government scientists to society. This well-written book will interest beekeepers and anyone interested in the role of honey bees in agriculture today. Choice I've liked every article Mark Winston has run in my magazine. I like them even better the second time around. Kim Flottum, Whole Earth Mark Winston uses bees to bridge the gap between scientists and the public, and to demonstrate how scientists work and the importance to everyone of scientific research. At the same time he strongly encourages scientists to become more accountable to the society that pays their salaries. These entertaining essays will inform and stimulate many readers besides beekeepers naturalists, gardeners, farmers, researchers in other subjects to think more deeply about bees, science, and nature. Eva Crane, from the Foreword A. . . readable book. . . that is equally interesting for scientists and beekeepers alike. . . Interesting! Northeastern Naturalist Mark Winston's writing is rich and visionary, drawing from his varied background in applied and basic bee research. Better than any other author, Winston builds linkages between the world of the bee scientist and the world of the practicing beekeeper and shows that accountability flows both ways scientists have certain obligations to the publics who fund them, and beekeepers should support the basic research that precedes and underpins applied discoveries. Keith S. Delaplane, University of Georgia

This wonderful, accessible book takes beekeeping as a starting point for talking about everything under the sun. An American, Winston is a professor of biological sciences at a Canadian university. A scientist first, he became a beekeeper and writer. We are richer for his attempt to bring these diverse worlds together and into sharp focus. Using his own experiences and drawing on a wide range of ideas and examples from popular culture, Winston tells us a great deal about bees, but also about life, how people try to keep contact with nature, the problems of modern agriculture, the accountability of scientists. The 31 essays can be read in order or are equally delightful to dip into. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Mark L. Winston is Professor of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of three books, most recently Nature Wars: People vs. Pests. Eva Crane is a former director of the International Bee Research Association. Her books include The Archaeology of Beekeeping and Bees and Beekeeping from Cornell.

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