BOOK REVIEW
If You're Going to San Francisco...
Frank Diller
You can leave your heart in San Francisco, but please keep your trash out of its bay. Surrounded by cities, losing freshwater input and suffering from diking, filling and the introduction of exotic species, California's 1,600-square-mile bay-delta estuary has endured enough hardship. San Francisco Bay: Portrait of an Estuary (University of California Press, $34.95) demonstrates that even though the Bay is in dire straits, there's plenty left to celebrate. Photographer David Sanger captures the natural and man-made beauty of the area, and author John Hart's lively vignettes chronicle its history and describe environmental initiatives that could one day restore equilibrium to this delicate ecosystem.—Frank Diller
About once a month at Sigma Xi headquarters, we liven up the lunch hour with an American Scientist Pizza Lunch talk. In these informal lectures, scientists describe new research to nonscientists. The series is light on jargon but heavy on solid science. Each Pizza Lunch offers an in-depth look at its subject, whether it's bedbugs or the smart grid. Click below to read about and download these talks -- and to subscribe!
