The Prize for Science Writing: Shortlist 2003

Judges report

The judges are delighted with the decision to create a biennial prize specifically for science writing. Of the 15 books shortlisted for the Premier's Award Nettie Palmer Prize for Non-fiction in the last five years, only one was science-related. A separate category for science is clearly warranted.

The judges observed a strong focus on natural history. Wide ranges of books were entered, including field guides, and books on Australian environmental science and its history, astronomy, histories of science and medicine.

Many books were beautifully illustrated, with text skilfully related to the images to promote and enhance understanding.

The judges want to highly commend one particular book that did not make the shortlist. John Gooderham and Edward Tsyrlin, The Waterbug Book is a popular guide to freshwater invertebrates, clearly written and accompanied by keys, illustrations and photographs for non-specialist readers. It is a book likely to encourage interest in Australian waterbugs, and to supply answers to first questions about a group of invertebrates significant as ecological predictors of the state of local environments.

The panel's final decisions were unanimous.

Shortlist

Meteorites: A journey through space and time by Alex Bevan and John de Laeter (UNSW Press)
The book takes a single topic, meteorites, and relates it to cosmology, cosmogony, geology, palaeontology, archaeology and recent history. Taking the reader on a broad intellectual tour, never compromising in scientific explanation, the authors make use of copious photographs and illustrations to make the topic come alive.

A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten (Text Publishing)
A Gap in Nature presents a combination of outstanding illustrations of extinct species, based on often fragmentary and poorly preserved museum material, together with overviews of the known ecology and behaviour of the species, and pointed explanations as to why the extinction occurred. The book represents a resounding wake-up call, particularly to Australians, given the incidence of Australian extinctions covered in the book.

The Flight of the Emu: A Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 by Libby Robin (Melbourne University Press)
A history of the discipline of Australian ornithology, traced through the history of the Australian Ornithological Union, this book links different interests and perspectives in the watching of birds, the collecting of birds and eggs, and the intersection between scientists, naturalists and the keepers of birds as pets. It is a detailed, scholarly and innovative approach to understanding Australian ornithology, through the politics and history of the interactions between amateur and professional devotees of birds.