title: Scientific Conversations: Interviews on Science from The New York Times
author:  Claudia Dreifus 
description: Feeling "inchoate stress" from interviewing politicians, Dreifus convinced her bosses at the<i> New York Times</i> to let her interview scientists. Gathered here are nearly 40 interviews with not only widely recognized author-scientists such as Martin Rees and Stephen Jay Gould but also researchers rarely sought out by reporters. Disdainful of the interview candidates pushed on her by university flacks, Dreifus (among other approaches) would instead attend scientific conferences; one yielded a talk with an enthusiastic expert in birdsongs. Dreifus also seeks out lesser-known women scientists. If not always well represented in science, they are increasingly populating its disciplines, examples of whom, such as the director of the National Science Foundation (microbiologist Rita Colwell), recall, at Dreifus' prompting, the rampant sexism they have encountered and overcome. Although Dreifus does not have a science background, she is meticulous about doing preparatory work for each interview and often picks people who have not arrived in science along conventional routes, such as former cocktail waitress and NIH immunologist Polly Matzinger. A lively reprise from the paper's science section. <i>Gilbert Taylor</i><br /><i>Copyright  American Library Association. All rights reserved</i>
zlib_text: ALSO BY ANDREW HACKER
  
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  ALSO BY CLAUDIA DREIFUS
  
   _Scientific Conversations:_  
   _Interviews on Science from_ The New York Times
  
   _Interview_
  
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   **ANDREW HACKER** **AND** **CLAUDIA DREIFUS**
  
    
  
  TIMES BOOKS HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY NEW YORK
  
    
    
  
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  Copyright © 2010 by Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus  
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